Identification and evaluation of radionuclide generation/depletion codes for potential use by the Department of Energy's Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management

Design, licensing, and operating activities involved with the transportation, storage, and geologic disposal of high-level radioactive wastes involve calculation of waste nuclide content and characteristics at various time out-of-reactor. Gamma and neutron fields must be known to meet transportation and radiation protection regulations of the Department of Transportation (DOT) and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). Radioactive decay heat must also be known to demonstrate compliance with other DOT and NRC regulations involving transportation, storage, and geologic disposal operations. NRC licensing of a mined geologic repository---to be constructed and operated by the Department of Energy (DOE)---will require nuclide inventory data over a 10,000-year time period in order to show expected compliance with NRC repository engineered facility radionuclide release rules and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) repository 10,000-year cumulative radionuclide environmental standards. 58 refs., 3 figs., 7 tabs.