Project Operations
Repository Operations

Repository Operations sets the operating requirements and limits that become the basis for the designs of every part of the repository. Repository Operations ensures that the final design allows every part of the repository -- from receipt of the highly radioactive materials, through disposal and shutdown -- to run safely and within all federal and state rules. The experts doing this work are trained in such engineering fields as nuclear physics, systems design, and materials handling. They work as a team to find and understand all the details for safely storing highly radioactive materials underground for thousands of years. This group interacts with Engineered Barrier System and Radiological Safety.

To help the designers, the staff must know why each piece of equipment and process is used in the repository. This knowledge helps in identifying the rules that apply to every step in handling the radioactive materials. Because the Project is a first-of-a-kind effort, this group interprets how the rules -- all previous legal decisions and current regulations -- affect the repository s operation. This task also requires studying how highly radioactive materials are moved, disposed of, and monitored in other countries. The staff then uses all this information to set the operating requirements and limits that become the basis for all designs.

Repository Operations looks at every process throughout the repository's entire lifetime. For example, this group plans for receiving shipments of radioactive materials. They decide how the shipping containers must be handled above ground and the materials prepared for storage. Such handling steps may generate low-level radioactive waste that also requires special attention and separate disposal. The group looks at how the tunnels must be dug and the way the radioactive materials must be moved and placed underground. The staff also plans for measuring how the radioactive materials act over time.

The staff has to understand what each step involves and the rules that apply. For example, how high may a container be lifted? What type of training does the crane operator need? How often must the operating equipment be inspected? The staff needs to know answers to such questions so they may guide the repository's design.

Evaluating the radioactive materials behavior after they have been set in place is an important function of Repository Operations. This process, called performance confirmation, has two parts: developing models to predict what should happen, and measuring or monitoring what does happen. Watching what happens over time involves planning for remotely operated equipment. Instruments must record radiation levels, humidity, temperatures, and air quality. Video cameras show the condition of the waste packages and their surroundings.

The staff also plans for eventually closing the facility. Taking apart equipment and buildings, sealing openings, restoring the area to its natural conditions -- all are considered.

From signing receipts to accepting waste shipments and setting markers on hazardous areas -- Repository Operations is involved. Their task is finding and interpreting the rules and limits for developing a repository that operates efficiently, safely, and legally.

 

Additional Information:
Why Yucca Mountain?	History of nuclear waste program
Who's watching us?	Project Fact Sheets
Project Operations	Transportation
Project Databases	Employment Opportunities

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