[en] The oil sands development industry has assembled a task force to lobby for fairer taxes and royalties on oil sands products. Up to now, taxing and royalties had been negotiated on a project-by-project basis. Fairer policies were believed to be a key element for increasing foreign investment. Taxing policies were only established for up to the year 2003, creating uncertainties for longer term projects

[en] Mechanical and hydrological properties of salt provide excellent bases for geological isolation of hazardous materials. Regulatory certification of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) testifies to the nearly ideal characteristics of bedded salt deposits in southeast New Mexico. The WIPP history includes decades of testing and scientific investigations, which have resulted in a comprehensive understanding of salt's mechanical deformational and hydrological properties over an applicable range of stresses and temperatures. Comprehensive evaluation of salt's favorable characteristics helped demonstrate regulatory compliance and ensure isolation of radioactive waste placed in a salt geological setting

[en] The Disturbed Rock Zone constitutes an important geomechanical element of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant. The science and engineering underpinning the disturbed rock zone provide the basis for evaluating ongoing operational issues and their impact on performance assessment. Contemporary treatment of the disturbed rock zone applied to the evaluation of the panel closure system and to a new mining horizon improves the level of detail and quantitative elements associated with a damaged zone surrounding the repository openings. Technical advancement has been realized by virtue of ongoing experimental investigations and international collaboration. The initial portion of this document discusses the disturbed rock zone relative to operational issues pertaining to re-certification of the repository. The remaining sections summarize and document theoretical and experimental advances that quantify characteristics of the disturbed rock zone as applied to nuclear waste repositories in salt

[en] Mechanical and hydrological properties of rock salt provide excellent bases for geological isolation of hazardous materials. Regulatory compliance determinations for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) stand as testament to the widely held conclusion that salt provides excellent isolation properties. The WIPP saga began in the 1950s when the U.S. National Academy of Sciences (NAS) recommended a salt vault as a promising solution to the national problem of nuclear waste disposal. For over 20 years, the Scientific basis for the NAS recommendation has been fortified by Sandia National Laboratories through a series of large scale field tests and laboratory investigations of salt properties. These scientific investigations helped develop a comprehensive understanding of salt's 4 reformational behavior over an applicable range of stresses and temperatures. Sophisticated constitutive modeling, validated through underground testing, provides the computational ability to model long-term behavior of repository configurations. In concert with advancement of the mechanical models, fluid flow measurements showed not only that the evaporite lithology was essentially impermeable but that the WIPP setting was hydrologically inactive. Favorable mechanical properties ensure isolation of materials placed in a salt geological setting. Key areas of the geomechanics investigations leading to the certification of WIPP are in situ experiments, laboratory tests, and shaft seal design

[en] Repository performance confirmation links the technical bases of repository science and societal acceptance. This paper explores the myriad aspects of what has been labeled performance confirmation in U.S. programs, which involves monitoring as a collection of distinct activities combining technical and social significance in radioactive waste management. This paper is divided into four parts: (1) A distinction is drawn between performance confirmation monitoring and other testing and monitoring objectives; (2) A case study illustrates confirmation activities integrated within a long-term testing and monitoring strategy for Yucca Mountain; (3) A case study reviews compliance monitoring developed and implemented for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant; and (4) An approach for developing, evaluating and implementing the next generation of performance confirmation monitoring is presented. International interest in repository monitoring is exhibited by the European Commission Seventh Framework Programme 'Monitoring Developments for Safe Repository Operation and Staged Closure' (MoDeRn) Project. The MoDeRn partners are considering the role of monitoring in a phased approach to the geological disposal of radioactive waste. As repository plans advance in different countries, the need to consider monitoring strategies within a controlled framework has become more apparent. The MoDeRn project pulls together technical and societal experts to assimilate a common understanding of a process that could be followed to develop a monitoring program. A fundamental consideration is the differentiation of confirmation monitoring from the many other testing and monitoring activities. Recently, the license application for Yucca Mountain provided a case study including a technical process for meeting regulatory requirements to confirm repository performance as well as considerations related to the preservation of retrievability. The performance confirmation plan developed as part of the Yucca Mountain license application identified a broad suite of monitoring activities. A revision of the plan was expected to winnow the number of activities down to a manageable size. As a result, an objective process for the next stage of performance confirmation planning was developed as an integral part of an overarching long-term testing and monitoring strategy. The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant compliance monitoring program at once reflects its importance to stakeholders while demonstrating adequate understanding of relevant monitoring parameters. The compliance criteria were stated by regulation and are currently monitored as part of the regulatory rule for disposal. At the outset, the screening practice and parameter selection were not predicated on a direct or indirect correlation to system performance metrics, as was the case for Yucca Mountain. Later on, correlation to performance was established, and the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant continues to monitor ten parameters originally identified in the compliance certification documentation. The monitoring program has proven to be effective for the technical intentions and societal or public assurance. The experience with performance confirmation in the license application process for Yucca Mountain helped identify an objective, quantitative methodology for this purpose. Revision of the existing plan would be based on findings of the total system performance assessment. Identification and prioritization of confirmation activities would then derive from performance metrics associated with performance assessment. Given the understanding of repository performance confirmation, as reviewed in this paper, it is evident that the performance confirmation program for the Yucca Mountain project could be readily re-engaged if licensing activities resumed.

[en] The regulatory compliance determination for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant includes the consideration of room closure. Elements of the geomechanical processes include salt creep, gas generation and mechanical deformation of the waste residing in the rooms. The WIPP was certified as complying with regulatory requirements based in part on the implementation of room closure and material models for the waste. Since the WIPP began receiving waste in 1999, waste packages have been identified that are appreciably more robust than the 55-gallon drums characterized for the initial calculations. The pipe overpack comprises one such waste package. This report develops material model parameters for the pipe overpack containers by using axisymmetrical finite element models. Known material properties and structural dimensions allow well constrained models to be completed for uniaxial, triaxial, and hydrostatic compression of the pipe overpack waste package. These analyses show that the pipe overpack waste package is far more rigid than the originally certified drum. The model parameters developed in this report are used subsequently to evaluate the implications to performance assessment calculations

[en] Nuclear power is an emotive subject. Few other issues in Europe today raise greater political and public concern or have the power to provoke such heated debate or the capacity to polarise public thinking. On one side the pro-nuclear lobby is passionately in favour while, on the other side, the anti-nuclear campaigners are vehemently opposed. It is important to realise that nuclear power is already an important source of energy and that it provides almost 35% of the electricity generated in Europe. It is also certain that, for as long as electricity remains a major source of power, nuclear energy will be able to provide it. For these reasons, it is likely that nuclear power will remain a permanent part of our energy requirement. Strong environmental arguments have been made both for and against the nuclear industry. One issue that cannot be ignored, however, is that of the disposal or treatment of the used fuels and other highly radioactive wastes that are an inevitable result of using nuclear energy to produce electricity. There is already a need to store waste that has been produced from existing nuclear reactors but, because this waste has to be kept in safe storage for decades prior to disposal or recycle, there is time to optimise the waste management systems. An important aspect of waste management will be long term compliance with safety criteria set by regulatory bodies and the methods used to ensure compliance. The fate of the waste is clearly of concern to all of us, because it will remain dangerously radioactive for a very long time. Much of the public fear of the nuclear industry stems from a natural concern over the management of these highly radioactive wastes. When public decisions are made on environmental issues, it is important that the public are made aware of the facts on which these decisions are made. These facts must be presented in an understandable fashion without the intrusion of propaganda from extreme pro- or anti-nuclear lobbies. The purpose of this report is to provide an explanation of the options available for the management of used nuclear fuels and highly radioactive waste. It is hoped that these explanations are presented in an unbiased way that is understandable to readers without a scientific background. A bibliography is, however, provided for those who wish to check the contents of the report, where possible, in peer reviewed literature sources. It has not been part of our remit to draw environmental conclusions on the content of the report, or to criticise the policies of governments or argue for or against any particular way of dealing with nuclear waste. The full report is divided into five chapters and three appendices. Following the introduction, Chapter 2 contains a description of the origins, characteristics and regulation of used nuclear fuel; the options for used fuel management are examined in Chapter 3; Chapter 4 contains a description of the environmental consequences of used fuel waste management; and Chapter 5 provides a comparison of the problems associates with radioactive waste compared with those of chemically toxic waste. The appendices contain detail on the properties of radioactive materials, radiation protection, and the ways in which European countries have dealt with spent fuel and high-level radioactive waste

[en] 28-day-old plants of Silence coeli-rosa were exposed, at 1700 hours, to long day (LD) conditions comprising light of low fluence rate provided by tungsten bulbs, or maintained in darkness as short day (SD) controls. All plants were exposed at 1700 hours to tritiated-(methyl-³H)-thymidine for 30, 45, 60, 90, or 120 minutes. Apical domes were isolated and prepared as fiber autoradiographs from which replicon size and rates of DNA replication, per single replication fork were recorded. In SD, replicon size was between 15-20 μm and exposure to LD conditions altered neither replicon size nor the pattern of deployment of replicons during S-phase relative to the SD controls. However, the mean rate of replication in LD was 8.7 μm h^-1 compared with 5.2 μm h^-1 in SD. Thus, exposure to LD resulted in a 1.7-fold increase in the rate of DNA replication relative to the SD controls. This rapid increase in replication rate, detectable within 30 minutes of the start of the LD is discussed in relation to changes known to occur to the cell cycle in Silene during the first day of floral induction. (Author)

[en] A new conceptual model has been developed for drilling intrusion into the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant. The model is implemented in a new code, DRSPALL, which captures the physics of the spallings release phenomena. The new conceptual model and code required parallel development of a family of parameters that adequately describe the properties of the system. This report introduces the various parameters implemented in the new spallings model, and provides justification for values and ranges of new parameters not currently in the performance assessment database

[en] In this paper, I will discuss first the process followed to incorporate ICRP 60 recommendations in the Canadian nuclear regulatory scheme. I will then delve into a more detailed analysis of the content of the latest version of the draft regulations that have been developed to apply ICRP 60. As you will see, the draft Radiation Protection Regulations have been in preparation for quite a long time and are still, to this day, not yet enforced. It is expected, however, that after further public consultation throughout 1997, they will become applicable by June 1998. (author)