Materials Behavior During the Performance Confirmation Period of the Yucca Mountain Repository

摘要

In 1987, the US Congress designated Yucca Mountain (YM) as the sole permanent repository for the nation's nuclear waste (spent or used nuclear fuel). The US Department of Energy YM Project identified several stages in the characterization, recommendation, licensing and construction of the site. One of these stages is called Performance Confirmation (PC), which will start at the date in which the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) grants the license to the DOE to build and operate the repository. In the PC period (which may last more than 100 years), the engineered barriers (which include the containers for the waste) will be monitored for environmental degradation (corrosion) performance. This monitoring may involve the use of witness coupons and the use of sensors which will measure temperature, relative humidity, irradiation, microbial activity, etc. Sensors need to be specially developed for nuclear waste monitoring since the measured changes may be small, but the performance time will be unusually long.