Research Projects

Yucca Mountain Climate and Paleoclimate Synthesis

PI: Saxon Sharpe

Project Period: 1999 - Present

Various Projects Funded by: U.S. Department of Energy

Below: Localities Important to Past and Future Climate Estimates in the Yucca Mountain Area. Source: Figure 6-1 from Sharpe (2004).

Keywords: climate change, Yucca Mountain, nuclear waste repository, Quaternary

Project Description

This project uses climate proxy records representing the last 800,000 years from the Yucca Mountain region to estimate past climate in southern Nevada. Records of past climate change include those obtained from Devils Hole in the Ash Meadows discharge area, Owens Lake on the east side of the Sierra Nevada, Death Valley in California, and various studies of packrat middens, paleowetland deposits, carbonate fracture fillings deposited from percolating groundwater, and tree rings in and near southern Nevada. By investigating the variability of past climate, the timing and magnitude of future climate conditions may be predicted. Wetter and cooler climates that persist for centuries or millennia are of greatest interest for this project because such climates produce more infiltration, percolation, higher water tables, and more groundwater discharge when compared to the present climate. Thus, these cooler, wetter periods need to be considered in the engineering design of the long-term nuclear waste repository.

Associated Publications

Sharpe, S.E. (2007)

Using modern through mid-Pleistocene climate proxy data to bound future variations in infiltration at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, in Levich, R.A., and Stuckless, J.S., eds., The Geology and Climatology of Yucca Mountain and Vicinity, Southern Nevada and California: Geological Society of America Memoir 199, p. 155-205, doi: 10.1130/2007.1199(05).

Sharpe, S. E. (2007)

Using the Precession Methodology to Time Past Glacial and Interglacial Climates in "GSA Abstracts with Programs, Vol. 39", 28-31 October, 2007. Denver, CO. ISSN 0016-7592. (Poster). http://gsa.confex.com/gsa/responses/2007AM/251.pdf.

Sharpe, S., McCurdy, G., Chambers, M., Kemp, H. (2004)

Climate Summaries: Yucca Mountain DOE Meteorological Monitoring Sites. In "Program and Abstracts GSA Annual Meeting", 7-10 November, 2004. Denver, CO. (Invited speaker).

Sharpe, S.E. (2004)

Chapter 6, Climate: Past Present and Future, Yucca Mountain Site Description Revision 02. Civilian Radioactive Waste Management System Management and Operating Contractor. Yucca Mountain Project.

Sharpe, S.E. (2004)

Yucca Mountain Climate: Past, Present, and Future. U.S. D.O.E. Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management. March 9-10 Las Vegas, NV. (Invited Presentation to the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board Panel).

Sharpe, S.E. (2003)

Yucca Mountain Climate: Past Present and Future. In "Program and Abstracts GSA Annual Meeting", 2-5 November, 2003. Seattle, WA. (Invited speaker).

Sharpe, S.E. (2003)

Yucca Mountain Climate: Past Present and Future. Harry Reid Center Report. TR 03-001 Rev.00 (http://hrcweb.nevada.edu/qa/Report/TR-03-001.pdf).

Sharpe, S.E. (2003)

Future Climate Analysis - 10,000 to 1,000,000 Years After Present. Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management. MOD-01-001 Rev. 01. Yucca Mountain Project (http://hrcweb.nevada.edu/qa/Report/MOD-01-001.pdf).

Sharpe, S.E. (2003)

Glacial And Interglacial Patterns The Devils Hole, Nevada, Record: Are We Currently In Marine Isotope Stage 3? In "Proceedings Climate Variability of the Eastern North Pacific and Western North America Conference," April 6-9, 2003, Pacific Grove, CA. (Poster).

Young, M., Cooper, C., Sharpe, S. Miller, J., Shafer, D. (2002)

Upward Advection: Dynamic Simulation of Vadose Zone Moisture Flux. National Nuclear Security Administration Nevada Operations Office. May 2002.

Sharpe, S.E. (2002)

Future Climate Analysis - 10,000 to 1,000,000 Years After Present. Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management. MOD-01-001 Rev 00. Yucca Mountain Project.

Sharpe, S.E. and Forester, R.M. (2001)

Reconstructing Past And Forecasting Future Climate At Yucca Mountain, Nevada In "Back to the Future - Managing the Back End of the Nuclear Fuel Cycle to Create a More Secure Energy Future," Proceedings of the 9th International High-Level Radioactive Waste Management Conference (IHLRWM), April 29 - May 3, 2001, Las Vegas, Nevada. La Grange Park, Illinois: American Nuclear Society.

Sharpe, S.E. (2000)

Section 6, Climatology and Meteorology, Yucca Mountain Site Description, Civilian Radioactive Waste Management System Management and Operating Contractor. TDR-CRW-GS-000001 Rev 01 ICN 01. Yucca Mountain Project.

Forester, R.M.; Bradbury, J.P.; Carter, C.; Elvidge-Tuma, A.B.; Hemphill, M.L.; Lundstrom,

S.C.; Mahan, S.A.; Marshall, B.D.; Neymark, L.A.; Paces, J.B.; Sharpe, S.E.; Whelan, J.F.; and Wigand, P.E. (1999) "The Climatic and Hydrologic History of Southern Nevada During the Late Quaternary". Open-File Report 98-635. Denver, Colorado: U.S.G.S.

Sharpe, S.E., Whelan, J.F., Forester, R.M., and McConnaughey, T. (1994)

Molluscs as Climate Indicators: Preliminary Stable Isotope and Community Analysis. In "The 5th Annual International High-Level Radioactive Waste Management Conference and Exposition", May 22-26 1994, Las Vegas, NV.

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