Non-Conservative Assumptions in the 1992 Performance Assessment for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant

Abstract

Performance/safety assessments have been conducted for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, a repository for transuranic waste in salt. We challenge two key assumptions in the 1992 Performance Assessment that led to non-conservative results. The predicted release rate of radionuclides appears underestimated due to the use of expert elicited solubilities. The overall release has been underestimated due to the use of improperly elicited human intrusion probabilities.