Attributes and Associated Favorability Graphs for the NNWSI Area-to-Location Screening Activity

摘要

Thirty-one attributes of the southwest Nevada Test Site and environs and its contained rock types were identified to guide a screening of the Nevada Research and Development Area for relatively favorable locations for the disposal of nuclear waste in a mined geologic repository. The attributes address the geologic, hydrologic, tectonic, seismic, surface, environmental, and institutional conditions of the screening area and the geochemical, and hydraulic conditions of contained rock types as they pertain to exploration for a repository location. The data for the attributes were compiled by scientists and engineers from federal agencies, national laboratories, state universities, and private corporations. The relative merits of alternative locations were compared by assessing how well the physical, environmental, and institutional conditions, represented by the attributes, satisfied a suite of objectives for repository development. The relative favorabilities of the attributes at alternative locations were weighted in relation to the importance of pertinent objectives and summed to produce maps showing where the more and less favorable locations occur. Descriptions of the attributes were organized to make explicit the assumptions and limitations of the data for each attribute and to explain the rationale for assigning relative favorabilities to attribute conditions. 13 references, 53 figures, 13 tables. (ERA citation 09:022030)