Publications

Summary of the total system performance assessment for the Yucca Mountain license application

Hansen, Clifford W.; Knowles, M.K.; MacKinnon, R.J.; McNeish, Jerry A.; Sevougian, S.D.; Swift, Peter N.

The Department of Energy's 2008 Yucca Mountain Performance Assessment represents the culmination of more than two decades of analyses of post-closure repository performance in support of programmatic decision making for the proposed Yucca Mountain repository. The 2008 performance assessment summarizes the estimated long-term risks to the health and safety of the public resulting from disposal of spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste in the proposed Yucca Mountain repository. The standards at 10 CFR Part 63 request several numerical estimates quantifying performance of the repository over time. This paper summarizes the key quantitative results from the performance assessment and presents uncertainty and sensitivity analyses for these results.