10 C.F.R. Subpart E—Technical Criteria
Title 10 - Energy
Source: 48 FR 28222, June 21, 1983, unless otherwise noted.
(a)(1) Subpart B of this part prescribes the standards for issuance of a license to receive and possess source, special nuclear, or byproduct material at a geologic repository operations area. In particular, §60.41(c) requires a finding that the issuance of a license will not constitute an unreasonable risk to the health and safety of the public. The purpose of this subpart is to set out performance objectives and site and design criteria which, if satisfied, will support such a finding of no unreasonable risk. (2) While these performance objectives and criteria are generally stated in unqualified terms, it is not expected that complete assurance that they will be met can be presented. A reasonable assurance, on the basis of the record before the Commission, that the objectives and criteria will be met is the general standard that is required. For §60.112, and other portions of this subpart that impose objectives and criteria for repository performance over long times into the future, there will inevitably be greater uncertainties. Proof of the future performance of engineered barrier systems and the geologic setting over time periods of many hundreds or many thousands of years is not to be had in the ordinary sense of the word. For such long-term objectives and criteria, what is required is reasonable assurance, making allowance for the time period, hazards, and uncertainties involved, that the outcome will be in conformance with those objectives and criteria. Demonstration of compliance with such objectives and criteria will involve the use of data from accelerated tests and predictive models that are supported by such measures as field and laboratory tests, monitoring data and natural analog studies. (b) Subpart B of this part also lists findings that must be made in support of an authorization to construct a geologic repository operations area. In particular, §60.31(a) requires a finding that there is reasonable assurance that the types and amounts of radioactive materials described in the application can be received, possessed, and disposed of in a geologic repository operations area of the design proposed without unreasonable risk to the health and safety of the public. As stated in that paragraph, in arriving at this determination, the Commission will consider whether the site and design comply with the criteria contained in this subpart. Once again, while the criteria may be written in unqualified terms, the demonstration of compliance may take uncertainties and gaps in knowledge into account, provided that the Commission can make the specified finding of reasonable assurance as specified in paragraph (a) of this section. This section provides a functional overview of subpart E. In the event of any inconsistency with definitions found in §60.2, those definitions shall prevail. (a) The HLW facility. NRC exercises licensing and related regulatory authority over those facilities described in section 202 (3) and (4) of the Energy Reorganization Act of 1974. Any of these facilities is designated a HLW facility. (b) The geologic repository operations area. (1) This part deals with the exercise of authority with respect to a particular class of HLW facility—namely a geologic repository operations area. (2) A geologic repository operations area consists of those surface and subsurface areas that are part of a geologic repository where radioactive waste handling activities are conducted. The underground structure, including openings and backfill materials, but excluding shafts, boreholes, and their seals, is designated the underground facility. (3) The exercise of Commission authority requires that the geologic repository operations area be used for storage (which includes disposal) of high-level radioactive wastes (HLW). (4) HLW includes irradiated reactor fuel as well as reprocessing wastes. However, if DOE proposes to use the geologic repository operations area for storage of radioactive waste other than HLW, the storage of this radioactive waste is subject to the requirements of this part. (c) Areas related to isolation. Although the activities subject to regulation under this part are those to be carried out at the geologic repository operations area, the licensing process also considers characteristics of adjacent areas that are defined in other ways. There is to be an area surrounding the underground facility referred to above, which is designated the postclosure controlled area, within which DOE is to exercise specified controls to prevent adverse human actions following permanent closure. The location of the controlled area is the site. The accessible environment is the atmosphere, land surface, surface water, oceans, and the portion of the lithosphere that is outside the controlled area. There is an area, designated the geologic setting, which includes the geologic, hydrologic, and geochemical systems of the region in which a geologic repository operations area is or may be located. The geologic repository operations area plus the portion of the geologic setting that provides isolation of the radioactive waste make up the geologic repository. (d) Stages in the licensing process. There are several stages in the licensing process. The site characterization stage, though begun before submission of a license application, may result in consequences requiring evaluation in the license review. The construction stage would follow, after issuance of a construction authorization. A period of operations follows the issuance of a license by the Commission. The period of operations includes the time during which emplacement of wastes occurs; any subsequent period before permanent closure during which the emplaced wastes are retrievable; and permanent closure, which includes sealing of shafts. Permanent closure represents the end of active human intervention with respect to the engineered barrier system. (e) Isolation of waste. (1) During the first several hundred years following permanent closure of a geologic repository, when radiation and thermal levels are high and the uncertainties in assessing repository performance are large, special emphasis is placed upon the ability to contain the wastes by waste packages within an engineered barrier system. This is known as the containment period. The engineered barrier system includes the waste packages and the underground facility. A waste package is composed of the waste form and any containers, shielding, packing, and absorbent materials immediately surrounding an individual waste container. The underground facility means the underground structure, including openings and backfill materials, but excluding, shafts, boreholes, and their seals. (2) Following the containment period special emphasis is placed upon the ability to achieve isolation of the wastes by virtue of the characteristics of the geologic repository. The engineered barrier system works to control the release of radioactive material to the geologic setting and the geologic setting works to control the release of radioactive material to the accessible environment. Isolation means inhibiting the transport of radioactive material so that amounts and concentrations of the materials entering the accessible environment will be kept within prescribed limits. [48 FR 28222, June 21, 1983, as amended at 61 FR 64268, Dec. 4, 1996] (a) Protection against radiation exposures and releases of radioactive material. The geologic repository operations area shall be designed so that until permanent closure has been completed, radiation exposures and radiation levels, and releases of radioactive materials to unrestricted areas, will be maintained within the limits specified in part 20 of this chapter and such generally applicable environmental standards for radioactivity as may have been established by the Environmental Protection Agency. (b) Retrievability of waste. (1) The geologic repository operations area shall be designed to preserve the option of waste retrieval throughout the period during which wastes are being emplaced and, thereafter, until the completion of a preformance confirmation program and Commission review of the information obtained from such a program. To satisfy this objective, the geologic repository operations area shall be designed so that any or all of the emplaced waste could be retrieved on a reasonable schedule starting at any time up to 50 years after waste emplacement operations are initiated, unless a different time period is approved or specified by the Commission. This different time period may be established on a case-by-case basis consistent with the emplacement schedule and the planned performance confirmation program. (2) This requirement shall not preclude decisions by the Commission to allow backfilling part or all of, or permanent closure of, the geologic repository operations area prior to the end of the period of design for retrievability. (3) For purposes of this paragraph, a reasonable schedule for retrieval is one that would permit retrieval in about the same time as that devoted to construction of the geologic repository operations area and the emplacement of wastes. [48 FR 28222, June 21, 1983, as amended at 61 FR 64268, Dec. 4, 1996; 62 FR 59276, Nov. 3, 1997] The geologic setting shall be selected and the engineered barrier system and the shafts, boreholes and their seals shall be designed to assure that releases of radioactive materials to the accessible environment following permanent closure conform to such generally applicable environmental standards for radioactivity as may have been established by the Environmental Protection Agency with respect to both anticipated processes and events and unanticipated processes and events. (a) General provisions—(1) Engineered barrier system. (i) The engineered barrier system shall be designed so that assuming anticipated processes and events: (A) Containment of HLW will be substantially complete during the period when radiation and thermal conditions in the engineered barrier system are dominated by fission product decay; and (B) any release of radionuclides from the engineered barrier system shall be a gradual process which results in small fractional releases to the geologic setting over long times. For disposal in the saturated zone, both the partial and complete filling with groundwater of available void spaces in the underground facility shall be appropriately considered and analysed among the anticipated processes and events in designing the engineered barrier system. (ii) In satisfying the preceding requirement, the engineered barrier system shall be designed, assuming anticipated processes and events, so that: (A) Containment of HLW within the waste packages will be substantially complete for a period to be determined by the Commission taking into account the factors specified in §60.113(b) provided, that such period shall be not less than 300 years nor more than 1,000 years after permanent closure of the geologic repository; and (B) The release rate of any radionuclide from the engineered barrier system following the containment period shall not exceed one part in 100,000 per year of the inventory of that radionuclide calculated to be present at 1,000 years following permanent closure, or such other fraction of the inventory as may be approved or specified by the Commission; provided, that this requirement does not apply to any radionuclide which is released at a rate less than 0.1% of the calculated total release rate limit. The calculated total release rate limit shall be taken to be one part in 100,000 per year of the inventory of radioactive waste, originally emplaced in the underground facility, that remains after 1,000 years of radioactive decay. (2) Geologic setting. The geologic repository shall be located so that pre-waste-emplacement groundwater travel time along the fastest path of likely radionuclide travel from the disturbed zone to the accessible environment shall be at least 1,000 years or such other travel time as may be approved or specified by the Commission. (b) On a case-by-case basis, the Commission may approve or specify some other radionuclide release rate, designed containment period or pre-waste-emplacement groundwater travel time, provided that the overall system performance objective, as it relates to anticipated processes and events, is satisfied. Among the factors that the Commission may take into account are: (1) Any generally applicable environmental standard for radioactivity established by the Environmental Protection Agency; (2) The age and nature of the waste, and the design of the underground facility, particularly as these factors bear upon the time during which the thermal pulse is dominated by the decay heat from the fission products; (3) The geochemical characteristics of the host rock, surrounding strata and groundwater; and (4) Particular sources of uncertainty in predicting the performance of the geologic repository. (c) Additional requirements may be found to be necessary to satisfy the overall system performance objective as it relates to unanticipated processes and events.
Title 10: Energy
PART 60—DISPOSAL OF HIGH-LEVEL RADIOACTIVE WASTES IN GEOLOGIC REPOSITORIES
Subpart E—Technical Criteria
§ 60.101 Purpose and nature of findings.
§ 60.102 Concepts.
Performance Objectives
§ 60.111 Performance of the geologic repository operations area through permanent closure.
§ 60.112 Overall system performance objective for the geologic repository after permanent closure.
§ 60.113 Performance of particular barriers after permanent closure.
Land Ownership and Control
§ 60.121 Requirements for ownership and control of interests in land.
(a) Ownership of land. (1) Both the geologic repository operations area and the postclosure controlled area shall be located in and on lands that are either acquired lands under the jurisdiction and control of DOE, or lands permanently withdrawn and reserved for its use.
(2) These lands shall be held free and clear of all encumbrances, if significant, such as: (i) Rights arising under the general mining laws; (ii) easements for right-of-way; and (iii) all other rights arising under lease, rights of entry, deed, patent, mortgage, appropriation, prescription, or otherwise.
(b) Additional controls. Appropriate controls shall be established outside of the postclosure controlled area. DOE shall exercise any jurisdiction and control over surface and subsurface estates necessary to prevent adverse human actions that could significantly reduce the geologic repository's ability to achieve isolation. The rights of DOE may take the form of appropriate possessory interests, servitudes, or withdrawals from location or patent under the general mining laws.
(c) Water rights. (1) DOE shall also have obtained such water rights as may be needed to accomplish the purpose of the geologic repository operations area.
(2) Water rights are included in the additional controls to be established under paragraph (b) of this section.
[48 FR 28222, June 21, 1983, as amended at 61 FR 64268, Dec. 4, 1996]
Siting Criteria
§ 60.122 Siting criteria.
(a)(1) A geologic setting shall exhibit an appropriate combination of the conditions specified in paragraph (b) of this section so that, together with the engineered barriers system, the favorable conditions present are sufficient to provide reasonable assurance that the performance objectives relating to isolation of the waste will be met.
(2) If any of the potentially adverse conditions specified in paragraph (c) of this section is present, it may compromise the ability of the geologic repository to meet the performance objectives relating to isolation of the waste. In order to show that a potentially adverse condition does not so compromise the performance of the geologic repository the following must be demonstrated:
(i) The potentially adverse human activity or natural condition has been adequately investigated, including the extent to which the condition may be present and still be undetected taking into account the degree of resolution achieved by the investigations; and
(ii) The effect of the potentially adverse human activity or natural condition on the site has been adequately evaluated using analyses which are sensitive to the potentially adverse human activity or natural condition and assumptions which are not likely to underestimate its effect; and
(iii)(A) The potentially adverse human activity or natural condition is shown by analysis pursuant to paragraph (a)(2)(ii) of this section not to affect significantly the ability of the geologic repository to meet the performance objectives relating to isolation of the waste, or
(B) The effect of the potentially adverse human activity or natural condition is compensated by the presence of a combination of the favorable characteristics so that the performance objectives relating to isolation of the waste are met, or
(C) The potentially adverse human activity or natural condition can be remedied.
(b) Favorable conditions. (1) The nature and rates of tectonic, hydrogeologic, geochemical, and geomorphic processes (or any of such processes) operating within the geologic setting during the Quaternary Period, when projected, would not affect or would favorably affect the ability of the geologic repository to isolate the waste.
(2) For disposal in the saturated zone, hydrogeologic conditions that provide:
(i) A host rock with low horizontal and vertical permeability;
(ii) Downward or dominantly horizontal hydraulic gradient in the host rock and immediately surrounding hydrogeologic units; and
(iii) Low vertical permeability and low hydraulic gradient between the host rock and the surrounding hydrogeologic units.
(3) Geochemical conditions that:
(i) Promote precipitation or sorption of radionuclides;
(ii) Inhibit the formation of particulates, colloids, and inorganic and organic complexes that increase the mobility of radionuclides; or
(iii) Inhibit the transport of radionuclides by particulates, colloids, and complexes.
(4) Mineral assemblages that, when subjected to anticipated thermal loading, will remain unaltered or alter to mineral assemblages having equal or increased capacity to inhibit radionuclide migration.
(5) Conditions that permit the emplacement of waste at a minimum depth of 300 meters from the ground surface. (The ground surface shall be deemed to be the elevation of the lowest point on the surface above the disturbed zone.)
(6) A low population density within the geologic setting and a postclosure controlled area that is remote from population centers.
(7) Pre-waste-emplacement groundwater travel time along the fastest path of likely radionuclide travel from the disturbed zone to the accessible environment that substantially exceeds 1,000 years.
(8) For disposal in the unsaturated zone, hydrogeologic conditions that provide—
(i) Low moisture flux in the host rock and in the overlying and underlying hydrogeologic units;
(ii) A water table sufficiently below the underground facility such that fully saturated voids contiguous with the water table do not encounter the underground facility;
(iii) A laterally extensive low-permeability hydrogeologic unit above the host rock that would inhibit the downward movement of water or divert downward moving water to a location beyond the limits of the underground facility;
(iv) A host rock that provides for free drainage; or
(v) A climatic regime in which the average annual historic precipitation is a small percentage of the average annual potential evapotranspiration.
(c) Potentially adverse conditions. The following conditions are potentially adverse conditions if they are characteristic of the postclosure controlled area or may affect isolation within the controlled area.
(1) Potential for flooding of the underground facility, whether resulting from the occupancy and modification of floodplains or from the failure of existing or planned man-made surface water impoundments.
(2) Potential for foreseeable human activity to adversely affect the groundwater flow system, such as groundwater withdrawal, extensive irrigation, subsurface injection of fluids, underground pumped storage, military activity or construction of large scale surface water impoundments.
(3) Potential for natural phenomena such as landslides, subsidence, or volcanic activity of such a magnitude that large-scale surface water impoundments could be created that could change the regional groundwater flow system and thereby adversely affect the performance of the geologic repository.
(4) Structural deformation, such as uplift, subsidence, folding, or faulting that may adversely affect the regional groundwater flow system.
(5) Potential for changes in hydrologic conditions that would affect the migration of radionuclides to the accessible environment, such as changes in hydraulic gradient, average interstitial velocity, storage coefficient, hydraulic conductivity, natural recharge, potentiometric levels, and discharge points.
(6) Potential for changes in hydrologic conditions resulting from reasonably foreseeable climatic changes.
(7) Groundwater conditions in the host rock, including chemical composition, high ionic strength or ranges of Eh-pH, that could increase the solubility or chemical reactivity of the engineered barrier system.
(8) Geochemical processes that would reduce sorption of radionuclides, result in degradation of the rock strength, or adversely affect the performance of the engineered barrier system.
(9) Groundwater conditions in the host rock that are not reducing.
(10) Evidence of dissolutioning such as breccia pipes, dissolution cavities, or brine pockets.
(11) Structural deformation such as uplift, subsidence, folding, and faulting during the Quaternary Period.
(12) Earthquakes which have occurred historically that if they were to be repeated could affect the site significantly.
(13) Indications, based on correlations of earthquakes with tectonic processes and features, that either the frequency of occurrence or magnitude of earthquakes may increase.
(14) More frequent occurrence of earthquakes or earthquakes of higher magnitude than is typical of the area in which the geologic setting is located.
(15) Evidence of igneous activity since the start of the Quaternary Period.
(16) Evidence of extreme erosion during the Quaternary Period.
(17) The presence of naturally occurring materials, whether identified or undiscovered, within the site, in such form that:
(i) Economic extraction is currently feasible or potentially feasible during the foreseeable future; or
(ii) Such materials have greater gross value or net value than the average for other areas of similar size that are representative of and located within the geologic setting.
(18) Evidence of subsurface mining for resources within the site.
(19) Evidence of drilling for any purpose within the site.
(20) Rock or groundwater conditions that would require complex engineering measures in the design and construction of the underground facility or in the sealing of boreholes and shafts.
(21) Geomechanical properties that do not permit design of underground opening that will remain stable through permanent closure.
(22) Potential for the water table to rise sufficiently so as to cause saturation of an underground facility located in the unsaturated zone.
(23) Potential for existing or future perched water bodies that may saturate portions of the underground facility or provide a faster flow path from an underground facility located in the unsaturated zone to the accessible environment.
(24) Potential for the movement of radionuclides in a gaseous state through air-filled pore spaces of an unsaturated geologic medium to the accessible environment.
[48 FR 28222, June 21, 1983, as amended at 50 FR 29647, July 22, 1985; 61 FR 64269, Dec. 4, 1996]
Design Criteria for the Geologic Repository Operations Area
§ 60.130 General considerations.
(a) Pursuant to the provisions of §60.21(c)(2)(i), an application for construction authorization for a high-level radioactive waste repository at a geologic repository operations area, and an application for a license to receive, possess, store, and dispose of high-level radioactive waste in the geologic repository operations area, must include the principal design criteria for a proposed facility. The principal design criteria establish the necessary design, fabrication, construction, testing, maintenance, and performance requirements for structures, systems, and components important to safety and/or important to waste isolation. Sections 60.131 through 60.134 specify minimum requirements for the principal design criteria for the geologic repository operations area.
(b) These design criteria are not intended to be exhaustive. However, omissions in §§60.131 through 60.134 do not relieve DOE from any obligation to provide such features in a specific facility needed to achieve the performance objectives.
[69 FR 2280, Jan. 14, 2004]
§ 60.131 General design criteria for the geologic repository operations area.
(a) Radiological protection. The geologic repository operations area shall be designed to maintain radiation doses, levels, and concentrations of radioactive material in air in restricted areas within the limits specified in part 20 of this chapter. Design shall include:
(1) Means to limit concentrations of radioactive material in air;
(2) Means to limit the time required to perform work in the vicinity of radioactive materials, including, as appropriate, designing equipment for ease of repair and replacement and providing adequate space for ease of operation;
(3) Suitable shielding;
(4) Means to monitor and control the dispersal of radioactive contamination;
(5) Means to control access to high radiation areas or airborne radioactivity areas; and
(6) A radiation alarm system to warn of significant increases in radiation levels, concentrations of radioactive material in air, and of increased radioactivity released in effluents. The alarm system shall be designed with provisions for calibration and for testing its operability.
(b) Protection against design basis events. The structures, systems, and components important to safety shall be designed so that they will perform their necessary safety functions, assuming occurrence of design basis events.
(c) Protection against dynamic effects of equipment failure and similar events. The structures, systems, and components important to safety shall be designed to withstand dynamic effects such as missile impacts, that could result from equipment failure, and similar events and conditions that could lead to loss of their safety functions.
(d) Protection against fires and explosions. (1) The structures, systems, and components important to safety shall be designed to perform their safety functions during and after credible fires or explosions in the geologic repository operations area.
(2) To the extent practicable, the geologic repository operations area shall be designed to incorporate the use of noncombustible and heat resistant materials.
(3) The geologic repository operations area shall be designed to include explosion and fire detection alarm systems and appropriate suppression systems with sufficient capacity and capability to reduce the adverse effects of fires and explosions on structures, systems, and components important to safety.
(4) The geologic repository operations area shall be designed to include means to protect systems, structures, and components important to safety against the adverse effects of either the operation or failure of the fire suppression systems.
(e) Emergency capability. (1) The structures, systems, and components important to safety shall be designed to maintain control of radioactive waste and radioactive effluents, and permit prompt termination of operations and evacuation of personnel during an emergency.
(2) The geologic repository operations area shall be designed to include onsite facilities and services that ensure a safe and timely response to emergency conditions and that facilitate the use of available offsite services (such as fire, police, medical, and ambulance service) that may aid in recovery from emergencies.
(f) Utility services. (1) Each utility service system that is important to safety shall be designed so that essential safety functions can be performed, assuming occurrence of the design basis events.
(2) The utility services important to safety shall include redundant systems to the extent necessary to maintain, with adequate capacity, the ability to perform their safety functions.
(3) Provisions shall be made so that, if there is a loss of the primary electric power source or circuit, reliable and timely emergency power can be provided to instruments, utility service systems, and operating systems, including alarm systems, important to safety.
(g) Inspection, testing, and maintenance. The structures, systems, and components important to safety shall be designed to permit periodic inspection, testing, and maintenance, as necessary, to ensure their continued functioning and readiness.
(h) Criticality control. All systems for processing, transporting, handling, storage, retrieval, emplacement, and isolation of radioactive waste shall be designed to ensure that nuclear criticality is not possible unless at least two unlikely, independent, and concurrent or sequential changes have occurred in the conditions essential to nuclear criticality safety. Each system must be designed for criticality safety assuming occurrence of design basis events. The calculated effective multiplication factor (keff) must be sufficiently below unity to show at least a 5 percent margin, after allowance for the bias in the method of calculation and the uncertainty in the experiments used to validate the method of calculation.
(i) Instrumentation and control systems. The design shall include provisions for instrumentation and control systems to monitor and control the behavior of systems important to safety, assuming occurrence of design basis events.
(j) Compliance with mining regulations. To the extent that DOE is not subject to the Federal Mine Safety and Health Act of 1977, as to the construction and operation of the geologic repository operations area, the design of the geologic repository operations area shall nevertheless include provisions for worker protection necessary to provide reasonable assurance that all structures, systems, and components important to safety can perform their intended functions. Any deviation from relevant design requirements in 30 CFR, chapter I, subchapters D, E, and N will give rise to a rebuttable presumption that this requirement has not been met.
(k) Shaft conveyances used in radioactive waste handling. (1) Hoists important to safety shall be designed to preclude cage free fall.
(2) Hoists important to safety shall be designed with a reliable cage location system.
(3) Loading and unloading systems for hoists important to safety shall be designed with a reliable system of interlocks that will fail safely upon malfunction.
(4) Hoists important to safety shall be designed to include two independent indicators to indicate when waste packages are in place and ready for transfer.
[48 FR 28222, June 21, 1983, as amended at 61 FR 64269, Dec. 4, 1996]
§ 60.132 Additional design criteria for surface facilities in the geologic repository operations area.
(a) Facilities for receipt and retrieval of waste. Surface facilities in the geologic repository operations area shall be designed to allow safe handling and storage of wastes at the geologic repository operations area, whether these wastes are on the surface before emplacement or as a result of retrieval from the underground facility.
(b) Surface facility ventilation. Surface facility ventilation systems supporting waste transfer, inspection, decontamination, processing, or packaging shall be designed to provide protection against radiation exposures and offsite releases as provided in §60.111(a).
(c) Radiation control and monitoring—(1) Effluent control. The surface facilities shall be designed to control the release of radioactive materials in effluents during Category 1 design basis events so as to meet the performance objectives of §60.111(a).
(2) Effluent monitoring. The effluent monitoring systems shall be designed to measure the amount and concentration of radionuclides in any effluent with sufficient precision to determine whether releases conform to the design requirement for effluent control. The monitoring systems shall be designed to include alarms that can be periodically tested.
(d) Waste treatment. Radioactive waste treatment facilities shall be designed to process any radioactive wastes generated at the geologic repository operations area into a form suitable to permit safe disposal at the geologic repository operations area or to permit safe transportation and conversion to a form suitable for disposal at an alternative site in accordance with any regulations that are applicable.
(e) Consideration of decommissioning. The surface facility shall be designed to facilitate decontamination or dismantlement to the same extent as would be required, under other parts of this chapter, with respect to equivalent activities licensed thereunder.
[48 FR 28222, June 21, 1983, as amended at 61 FR 64270, Dec. 4, 1996]
§ 60.133 Additional design criteria for the underground facility.
(a) General criteria for the underground facility. (1) The orientation, geometry, layout, and depth of the underground facility, and the design of any engineered barriers that are part of the underground facility shall contribute to the containment and isolation of radionuclides.
(2) The underground facility shall be designed so that the effects of credible disruptive events during the period of operations, such as flooding, fires and explosions, will not spread through the facility.
(b) Flexibility of design. The underground facility shall be designed with sufficient flexibility to allow adjustments where necessary to accommodate specific site conditions identified through in situ monitoring, testing, or excavation.
(c) Retrieval of waste. The underground facility shall be designed to permit retrieval of waste in accordance with the performance objectives of §60.111.
(d) Control of water and gas. The design of the underground facility shall provide for control of water or gas intrusion.
(e) Underground openings. (1) Openings in the underground facility shall be designed so that operations can be carried out safely and the retrievability option maintained.
(2) Openings in the underground facility shall be designed to reduce the potential for deleterious rock movement or fracturing of overlying or surrounding rock.
(f) Rock excavation. The design of the underground facility shall incorporate excavation methods that will limit the potential for creating a preferential pathway for groundwater to contact the waste packages or radionuclide migration to the accessible environment.
(g) Underground facility ventilation. The ventilation system shall be designed to:
(1) Control the transport of radioactive particulates and gases within and releases from the underground facility in accordance with the performance objectives of §60.111(a),
(2) Assure the ability to perform essential safety functions assuming occurrence of design basis events.
(3) Separate the ventilation of excavation and waste emplacement areas.
(h) Engineered barriers. Engineered barriers shall be designed to assist the geologic setting in meeting the performance objectives for the period following permanent closure.
(i) Thermal loads. The underground facility shall be designed so that the performance objectives will be met taking into account the predicted thermal and thermomechanical response of the host rock, and surrounding strata, groundwater system.
[48 FR 28222, June 21, 1983, as amended at 50 FR 29648, July 22, 1985; 61 FR 64270, Dec. 4, 1996]
§ 60.134 Design of seals for shafts and boreholes.
(a) General design criterion. Seals for shafts and boreholes shall be designed so that following permanent closure they do not become pathways that compromise the geologic repository's ability to meet the performance objectives or the period following permanent closure.
(b) Selection of materials and placement methods. Materials and placement methods for seals shall be selected to reduce, to the extent practicable:
(1) The potential for creating a preferential pathway for groundwater to contact the waste packages or
(2) For radionuclide migration through existing pathways.
[48 FR 28222, June 21, 1983, as amended at 50 FR 29648, July 22, 1985]
Design Criteria for the Waste Package
§ 60.135 Criteria for the waste package and its components.
(a) High-level-waste package design in general. (1) Packages for HLW shall be designed so that the in situ chemical, physical, and nuclear properties of the waste package and its interactions with the emplacement environment do not compromise the function of the waste packages or the performance of the underground facility or the geologic setting.
(2) The design shall include but not be limited to consideration of the following factors: solubility, oxidation/reduction reactions, corrosion, hydriding, gas generation, thermal effects, mechanical strength, mechanical stress, radiolysis, radiation damage, radionuclide retardation, leaching, fire and explosion hazards, thermal loads, and synergistic interactions.
(b) Specific criteria for HLW package design—(1) Explosive, pyrophoric, and chemically reactive materials. The waste package shall not contain explosive or pyrophoric materials or chemically reactive materials in an amount that could compromise the ability of the underground facility to contribute to waste isolation or the ability of the geologic repository to satisfy the performance objectives.
(2) Free liquids. The waste package shall not contain free liquids in an amount that could compromise the ability of the waste packages to achieve the performance objectives relating to containment of HLW (because of chemical interactions or formation of pressurized vapor) or result in spillage and spread of contamination in the event of waste package perforation during the period through permanent closure.
(3) Handling. Waste packages shall be designed to maintain waste containment during transportation, emplacement, and retrieval.
(4) Unique identification. A label or other means of identification shall be provided for each waste package. The identification shall not impair the integrity of the waste package and shall be applied in such a way that the information shall be legible at least to the end of the period of retrievability. Each waste package identification shall be consistent with the waste package's permanent written records.
(c) Waste form criteria for HLW. High-level radioactive waste that is emplaced in the underground facility shall be designed to meet the following criteria:
(1) Solidification. All such radioactive wastes shall be in solid form and placed in sealed containers.
(2) Consolidation. Particulate waste forms shall be consolidated (for example, by incorporation into an encapsulating matrix) to limit the availability and generation of particulates.
(3) Combustibles. All combustible radioactive wastes shall be reduced to a noncombustible form unless it can be demonstrated that a fire involving the waste packages containing combustibles will not compromise the integrity of other waste packages, adversely affect any structures, systems, or components important to safety, or compromise the ability of the underground facility to contribute to waste isolation.
(d) Design criteria for other radioactive wastes. Design criteria for waste types other than HLW will be addressed on an individual basis if and when they are proposed for disposal in a geologic repository.
Preclosure Controlled Area
§ 60.136 Preclosure controlled area.
(a) A preclosure controlled area must be established for the geologic repository operations area.
(b) The geologic repository operations area shall be designed so that, for Category 2 design basis events, no individual located on or beyond any point on the boundary of the preclosure controlled area will receive the more limiting of a total effective dose equivalent of 0.05 Sv (5 rem), or the sum of the deep-dose equivalent and the committed dose equivalent to any individual organ or tissue (other than the lens of the eye) of 0.5 Sv (50 rem). The eye dose equivalent shall not exceed 0.15 Sv (15 rem), and the shallow dose equivalent to skin shall not exceed 0.5 Sv (50 rem). The minimum distance from the surface facilities in the geologic repository operations area to the boundary of the preclosure controlled area must be at least 100 meters.
(c) The preclosure controlled area may be traversed by a highway, railroad, or waterway, so long as appropriate and effective arrangements are made to control traffic and to protect public health and safety.
[61 FR 64270, Dec. 4, 1996]
Performance Confirmation Requirements
§ 60.137 General requirements for performance confirmation.
The geologic repository operations area shall be designed so as to permit implementation of a performance confirmation program that meets the requirements of subpart F of this part.
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