A proposed public health and safety standard for Yucca Mountain: Presentation and supporting analysis. Final report

The National Academy of Science Subcommittee on the Technical Bases for Yucca Mountain Standards (TYMS Committee) requested public input on the technical bases for a performance standard for a potential geologic repository to dispose irradiated fuel and high-level radioactive waste at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. This report proposes a standard for Yucca Mountain and provides the technical bases for the proposed Standard. EPRI`s analysis of the earlier EPA standard found it inappropriate from both a practical and public health protection standpoint. The public health and safety standard that EPRI proposes for Yucca Mountain has two parts. The first part proposes essentially complete containment for 1000 years; the second part is regulatory guidance based on limiting health risk in the long term. This second part requires probabilistic analysis of dose estimates to future populations living in the Yucca Mountain vicinity. This two-part Standard recognizes the difficulties of model prediction in the long term while maintaining a focus on what is most important in any regulatory standard-minimization of long-term human health risk.