Paleoclimate Studies for the Yucca Mountain Project Site Characterization211 Conducted by the Desert Research Institute for the Department of Energy. Annual 211 Report

摘要

The prospect that Yucca Mountain may become a repository for high-level211u001eradionuclides with especially long half-lives means that the intended waste 211u001econtainment area must be well beyond the reach of the hydrologic system for at 211u001eleast ten millennia. Through the integration of several avenues of paleoclimatic 211u001eproxy data, we intend to arrive at definite conclusions regarding rates of 211u001echange, and extremes and stabilities of past climate regimes. These will in turn 211u001elead to rough estimates of the amounts of rainfall available for recharge during 211u001epast periods of effectively wetter climate and the durations and frequencies of 211u001erecharge periods. These may in turn be used to estimate the possibility that such 211u001eevents may occur in the future. This information can then be used by the 211u001egeohydrologist to provide estimates of ground water movement through the 211u001eunsaturated zone; and how much and how rapidly the upper surface of the saturated 211u001ezone may fluctuate through time.