摘要
The US Congress in 1979 passed a public law 96-164 which separated the disposal of the defense transuranic (TRU) waste from the power production waste (e.g.civilian spent nuclear fuels and defense nuclear fuels).There are two geologic repository programs in the US: the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) Project and the Yucca Mountain Project (YMP).The WIPP project is a deep geologic repository for the transuranic waste from the US defense programs and the YMP is the proposed geologic repository site for the high-level radioactive waste (HLW) and spent nuclear fuels (SNF) from civilian nuclear power plants and defense nuclear reactors.The geography, geologic settings, site characteristics, repository design, regulatory standards and requirements, and post-closure performance of the WIPP and YMP are discussed.The status of these two geologic repository programs will be highlighted and the recent developments of Yucca Mountain project after the DOE withdrew its license application will be discussed.