The Earth Sciences Division (ESD) is actively involved in the development of strategies for resolving the nuclear waste disposal issues confronting the national and international community. Geological isolation of spent nuclear fuels and high-level radioactive waste is currently the preferred means of disposal for many countries worldwide. The role of ESD's Nuclear Waste Program (NWP) is to assist the United States and other countries in achieving the safe disposal of high-level radioactive waste—by means of high-quality scientific analyses that include modeling, modeling, laboratory and field experiments, and technology development.

The majority of research within NWP relates to flow and transport, as well as thermally driven hydrological, chemical, and mechanical coupled processes in the unsaturated zone at Yucca Mountain, the proposed site for the permanent storage of high-level nuclear waste in the USA. This research pertains to Yucca Mountain acting as a natural barrier to the transport of radionuclides to the biosphere, and the natural barrier's contribution to the safety case of the license application for repository construction (scheduled for June 2008). NWP scientists have also conducted studies as part of the Science and Technology Program (S&T) within the DOE Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management (OCRWM). Distinct from, but in parallel to, the licensing effort at the Yucca Mountain, the role of S&T is to advance technologies not previously considered, to identify new or substantially revised scientific methods or tools that would provide a better understanding of the repository environment.

In addition to studies on geological disposal of nuclear waste in the United States, NWP also collaborates internationally on nuclear-waste disposal issues with countries such as Japan, Finland, Switzerland, Spain, Sweden, and China.

For more information, please contact:
Yvonne Tsang
Head, Nuclear Waste Program
Earth Sciences Division
Phone: 510-486-7047
Fax: 510-486-6115
Email: yttsang@lbl.gov

Projects | Quality Assurance | Publications | Staff | Research Summaries
©2007 Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Privacy & Security Notice