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Management of Commercially Generated Radioactive Waste - U.S. ...

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Response<br />

109<br />

CONSEQUENCE ANALYSIS<br />

Fracture flow surely has an acceptability level lower than porous media flow. Fracture<br />

flow velocities will have to be slower in ratio to retardation coefficients <strong>of</strong> the most dose-<br />

significant nuclide. If that nuclide was a nuclide with no retardation, then the fracture<br />

flow velocity would have to be slow enough to allow significant decay. Clearly a repository<br />

siting and design parameter would be the amount <strong>of</strong> migration retardation available. The<br />

Statement assumes that the repository is placed in a hydrologically unacceptable location.<br />

Thermo-mechanical effects are relatively near field.<br />

Issue<br />

Measures <strong>of</strong> performance used in the GEIS and its supporting documents made it difficult<br />

to judge statements that claim "no deleterious effects." For example:<br />

1. Dose received by maximum individual. This seems to be someone using a water supply<br />

separated by 10 miles <strong>of</strong> porous flow from the repository. Note that fracture flow with<br />

its lower retardation factor is not considered.<br />

2. Concentration at three miles from boundary. This was used in TM-36, Volume 21. In<br />

Response<br />

Issue<br />

this case, 9 Tc occurs near the surface at 400-600 years and exceeds maximum per-<br />

missible concentrations by one thousand (TM-36/21 pgs. xiv, 8.5-8.6). (208-NRC)<br />

The repository will be sited to reduce the possibility <strong>of</strong> fracture flow impacts.<br />

The Statement does not address potential accidents at the spent fuel facility such as<br />

zirconium catching fire upon heating up or an airplane crash. (55)<br />

Response<br />

Analysis <strong>of</strong> events (accidents) at a spent fuel storage facility may be found in<br />

DOE/EIS-0015 (DOE 1980b). Accidents are described as either "operating" or "severe." The<br />

two scenarios above do not appear under either the operating or severe category.<br />

Issue<br />

The ground-water transport analysis in the main body <strong>of</strong> the statement uses a path<br />

length <strong>of</strong> only 10 km. The analysis should use a longer flow path for the base cases and<br />

discuss consequences <strong>of</strong> shortening <strong>of</strong> the path due to tectonic and/or climatic change.<br />

(218-DOI)

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