Publisher's Synopsis
The US Environmental Agency has set a probabilistic standard for performance of geologic repositories for the disposal of radioactive wastes. In the past, there had been no consensus on the best ways to determine the probabilities of the many events and processes involved; for this reason the Waste Management Division at Sandia National Laboratories, funded by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Department of Energy, is evaluating and selecting appropriate methods for determining these probabilities. This study is a review of the literature and an evaluation of the state-of-the-art, with papers from experts in mining engineering, hydrology, seismology and tectonics, volcanology, geochemistry, and resource exploration. It treats not only geologic events resources, and some that arise from human action, such as drilling for resources, but also those that arise from non-geologic processes that may affect geologic change, such as climate change.
