Analysis and evaluation of three promising nuclear waste disposal options

Disposal of high level nuclear waste has evoked much interest among scientists, engineers and society at large. Numerous schemes have been proposed in this regard and a few have been analyzed thoroughly. However, these schemes have been found to be valid only under very specific environmental conditions, thus imposing constraints on the scheme of disposal. The option of retrievability imposed another constraint. In addition to accommodating the constraints, the disposal scheme must also comply with federal regulations (NRC 10 CFR PART 60, EPA 10 CFR PART 191, DOE 10 CFR PART 960). Due to the longevity of radionuclide toxicity, the waste containment design has to sustain its integrity for a long time. The possibility of a change in the environment must also be considered in the design; A system (DECISION TREE) was devised, which presented a comprehensive analysis of the proposed schemes. This effort focuses on a few promising schemes, which were analyzed more thoroughly. These schemes were (1) nuclear waste disposal at site, (2) nuclear waste disposal in mined geological repositories contained in a single barrier canister and (3) nuclear waste contained in a multi barrier canister. All schemes were analysed only through the period of retrievability.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Science (MS)

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Civil and Environmental Engineering

Grantor dc:publisher

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Year

1993

Author dc:creator

• Veeramachaneni, Venugopal

Contributors dc:contributor

• Robert Skaggs

Statement dc:rights

• IN COPYRIGHT. For more information about this rights statement, please visit http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Language dc:language

English

Identifier

https://oasis.library.unlv.edu/rtds/274

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:oasis.library.unlv.edu:rtds-1273