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

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Draft p. 1.12<br />

Issue<br />

Response<br />

207<br />

GEOLOGIC CONSIDERATIONS<br />

Geologic disposal should not be restricted to salt, basalt, granite and shale. (6)<br />

DOE agrees that numerous possible geologic media exist which could be considered for<br />

disposal. However, in this Statement, only salt, basalt, granite and shale were examined<br />

in any detail. These four media are considered representative geologic media for this<br />

study.<br />

Draft p. 1.12<br />

Issue<br />

Two more general geologic considerations should be added to the "Six general considera-<br />

tions for geologic disposal":<br />

7) Density and reliability <strong>of</strong> investigation required by this media.<br />

8) Ease <strong>of</strong> demonstrating adequate knowledge <strong>of</strong> the host rock and its surrounding<br />

environment.<br />

Also a sentence should be added to the last paragraph: "They (rock discontinuities)<br />

also complicate investigations <strong>of</strong> the host rock, increasing time and cost <strong>of</strong> exploration and<br />

analysis, and detracting from confidence in knowledge <strong>of</strong> rock conditions." (154)<br />

Response<br />

Density and reliability <strong>of</strong> investigation required by the media--a rough, general esti-<br />

mate could be made to characterize these factors, and some numerical or quantitative rating<br />

system developed to rank them for the four media.<br />

Ease <strong>of</strong> demonstrating adequate knowledge <strong>of</strong> the host rock and its surrounding<br />

environment--again some rating system could be devised. For both 7) and 8), the terms<br />

"required" and "adequate" imply some sort <strong>of</strong> criteria by which the ratings would be judged.<br />

The two suggested considerations are specific to the various media and particularly to<br />

the geologic setting in which any medium was being investigated, i.e., the setting may<br />

impose conditions on a medium that are not typical <strong>of</strong> that medium in general.<br />

The last paragraph was amended to read "...may complicate design, and increase explora-<br />

tion and construction costs."<br />

V

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