Diagram showing three types of proposed waste packages
for the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste depository
mix produced is poured
into stainless steel containers and allowed
to solidify. Once this
is complete, the glass
encased HLW in placed
into a stainless steel
container that is encapsulated with a welded
cap (small empty volume is left to compensate linear glass matrix
expansion). The container is then stored on
rags in Titanium steel
the glass/ HLW matrix
in a stable state until
the decay heating level
dropped below biohazard levels. Assumed in
the existing modeling,
minor volume expansion during decay transition ignores major
The process is based mineral geo-chemical
on the assumption that transitions.
bedding the radioactive
This paper raises conmaterials in multiple
metal corrosion-resis- cerns over important
tant containers will keep missing elements in
canisters and moved
to a temporary storage
warehouse. The final
product may be stored
in a deep geological
repository
(Carlsbad
- New Mexico or Yuka
mountain- Nevada).
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