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An Early Review of the Performance Assessment in the Draft Compliance Certification Application for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 February 2011

William W.-L. Lee*
Affiliation:
Environmental Evaluation Group, 7007 Wyoming Blvd NE, Suite F-2, Albuquerque, NM 87109, leew@unm.edu
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Abstract

On March 31, 1995, tlhe IT. S. Department of Energy filed a draft application for certification of compliance with I the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) to show the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant's compliance with the USEPA's environmental standards, making the application the first of its kind. Demonstration of compliance is by performance assessment. This paper is an early review of the performance assessment in the draft application, by the Environmental Evaluation Group, an oversight group. The performance assessment in the draft application is incomplete. Not all relevant scenarios have been analyzed. The calculation of potential consequences often does not use experimental data but rather estimates by workers developing additional data. The final compliance application, scheduled for October 1996. needs to consider additional scenarios, and be fully based on experimental data.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 1996

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