The Drift Scale Heater Test at Yucca Mountain, Nevada

The Drift Scale Heater Test (DST) is an integral part of the program of testing and studies being conducted by the U.S. Department of Energy to evaluate the suitability of Yucca Mountain, Nevada as a site of a deep geologic repository for the permanent disposal of spent nuclear fuel and high-level nuclear waste. The DST is a large-scale, in situ thermal test to be conducted over nearly a decade in the Exploratory Studies Facility at Yucca Mountain (Figure 1). The overall objective of the DST is to acquire a more indepth understanding of the physical processes that will occur in the rock surrounding the emplaced waste. There are four principal processes of concern: thermal, mechanical, hydrological, and chemical. These processes will be intensified because of the decay heat from the emplaced waste and their interaction or coupling. An understanding of these coupled processes is essential for the assessment of the long-term (over thousands of years) performance of the repository