Editing Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository (section)

=== Original standard ===
The EPA established its Yucca Mountain standards in June 2001.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.epa.gov/radiation/docs/yucca/402-f-05-026.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080625143023/http://www.epa.gov/radiation/docs/yucca/402-f-05-026.pdf
|archive-date=June 25, 2008 |title=EPA's Proposed Public Health and Environmental Radiation Protection Standards for Yucca Mountain |date=October 2005 |publisher=[[United States Environmental Protection Agency]] |access-date=May 16, 2008}}</ref> The storage standard set a dose limit of 15 [[millirem]] per year for the public outside the Yucca Mountain site. The disposal standards consisted of three components: an individual dose standard, a standard evaluating the impacts of human intrusion into the repository, and a [[groundwater]] protection standard. The individual-protection and human intrusion standards set a limit of 15 millirem per year to a reasonably maximally exposed individual, who would be among the most highly exposed members of the public.<ref name="Wehrum">{{cite web |url=http://epw.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Hearings.Testimony&Hearing_ID=da19acbe-802a-23ad-4357-2f58816a73f0&Witness_ID=58979654-be03-4f7f-9bde-04967db10644|title=Full Committee Oversight Hearing on the Status of the Yucca Mountain Project |first=William |last=Wehrum |date=March 1, 2006 |publisher=U.S. Senate committee on Environmental and Public Works |access-date=2010-07-14}}</ref>

The groundwater protection standard is consistent with the EPA [[Safe Drinking Water Act]] standards, which the Agency applies in many situations as a [[Water Pollution|pollution prevention]] measure. The disposal standards were to apply for 10,000 years after the facility is closed. Dose assessments were to continue beyond 10,000 years and be placed in DOE's [[Environmental Impact Statement]], but were not subject to a compliance standard.<ref name="Wehrum"/>

The 10,000-year period for compliance assessment is consistent with EPA's generally applicable standards developed under the [[Nuclear Waste Policy Act]]. It also reflects international guidance regarding the level of confidence that can be placed in numerical projections over very long periods of time.<ref name="Wehrum"/>