Year: 1990
Type: article
Abstract: Yucca Mountain, Nevada, has been selected as a potential repository of nuclear wastes. The Yucca Mountain Project of the Civilian Radioactive Waste Management Program has been assigned the task of determining the suitability of the Yucca Mountain site. Among the concerns being investigated, the characterization of the mechanical properties of the host rock has direct relevance to repository design activities, as well as to pre- and post-closure performance assessment. The objective of the general rock mechanics program is to predict the response of the rock mass around a repository throughout construction, operation, and closure. The program is concerned with rock mechanics aspects of very-near-field, near-field, and far-field effects on the geologic containment and isolation of low- and high-level nuclear waste. The mechanical property data collected by this program are input into repository models designed to predict the general rock mass behavior. The studies discussed here represent the development of the appropriate approach to investigating the problem of anisotropy and the early stages of quantifying the magnitude of the elastic and strength anisotropy in intact rock portion of the Yucca Mountain tuffs and, more specifically, of the repository horizon, which is within the Topopah Spring Member of the Paintbrush Tuff.
Authors: R.H. Price, P.J. Boyd, R.J. Martin, R. Haupt, Jean-Yves Noël
Language: English
Topic: Rock Mechanics and Modeling
Subfield: Mechanics of Materials
Field: Engineering
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
Funder: U.S. Department of Energy
Award: G1316987985
OpenAlex ID: W91305458