Actinide Source Term Program, position paper. Revision 1

The Actinide Source Term represents the quantity of actinides that could be mobilized within WIPP brines and could migrate with the brines away from the disposal room vicinity. This document presents the various proposed methods for estimating this source term, with a particular focus on defining these methods and evaluating the defensibility of the models for mobile actinide concentrations. The conclusions reached in this document are: the 92 PA {open_quotes}expert panel{close_quotes} model for mobile actinide concentrations is not defensible; and, although it is extremely conservative, the {open_quotes}inventory limits{close_quotes} model is the only existing defensible model for the actinide source term. The model effort in progress, {open_quotes}chemical modeling of mobile actinide concentrations{close_quotes}, supported by a laboratory effort that is also in progress, is designed to provide a reasonable description of the system and be scientifically realistic and supplant the {open_quotes}Inventory limits{close_quotes} model.