Hazards and scenarios examined for the Yucca Mountain disposal system for spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste

This paper summarizes various hazards identified between 1978 when Yucca Mountain, located in arid southern Nevada, was first proposed as a potential site and 2008 when the license application to construct a repository for spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste was submitted. Although advantages of an arid site are many, hazard identification and scenario development have generally recognized fractures in the tuff as important features; climate change, water infiltration and percolation, and an oxidizing environment as important processes; and igneous activity, seismicity, human intrusion, and criticality as important disruptive events to consider at Yucca Mountain. Some of the scientific and technical challenges encountered included a change in the repository design from in-floor emplacement with small packages to in-drift emplacement with large packages without backfill. This change, in turn, increased the importance of igneous and seismic hazards. •Historical milestones associated with identifying events such as igneous activity, seismicity, and criticality for the Yucca Mountain repository are described.•Increased importance of volcanism and seismicity when placing the package in an unbackfilled drift in the unsaturated zone is described.•The Poisson probability model for human intrusion, igneous activity, and seismicity is described.