Report to the U.S. Congress and the Secretary of Energy (November 1998)
In its report, the U.S. Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board (Board) offers its views on the direction of future scientific and technical research under way and planned by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) as part of its program for characterizing a site at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, as a potential repository for spent fuel and high-level radioactive waste. The Board discusses some of the remaining key scientific and technical uncertainties related to performance of a potential repository. The Board’s report addresses some of these uncertainties by examining information about the proposed repository system presented to it in meetings and other technical exchanges. The Board considers and comments on some of the important connections between the site’s natural properties and the current designs for the waste package and other engineered features of the repository.