Award Date

1-1-1993

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Civil and Environmental Engineering

First Committee Member

Robert Skaggs

Number of Pages

104

Abstract

Disposal of high level nuclear waste has evoked much interest among scientists, engineers and society at large. Numerous schemes have been proposed in this regard and a few have been analyzed thoroughly. However, these schemes have been found to be valid only under very specific environmental conditions, thus imposing constraints on the scheme of disposal. The option of retrievability imposed another constraint. In addition to accommodating the constraints, the disposal scheme must also comply with federal regulations (NRC 10 CFR PART 60, EPA 10 CFR PART 191, DOE 10 CFR PART 960). Due to the longevity of radionuclide toxicity, the waste containment design has to sustain its integrity for a long time. The possibility of a change in the environment must also be considered in the design; A system (DECISION TREE) was devised, which presented a comprehensive analysis of the proposed schemes. This effort focuses on a few promising schemes, which were analyzed more thoroughly. These schemes were (1) nuclear waste disposal at site, (2) nuclear waste disposal in mined geological repositories contained in a single barrier canister and (3) nuclear waste contained in a multi barrier canister. All schemes were analysed only through the period of retrievability.

Keywords

Analysis; Disposal; Evaluation; Nuclear; Options; Promising; Three; Waste

Controlled Subject

Civil engineering; Environmental sciences; Nuclear chemistry

File Format

pdf

File Size

3921.92 KB

Degree Grantor

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Language

English

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