---
kind: "section"
citation: "10 C.F.R. § 960.4-2-4"
title: "10"
number: "960.4-2-4"
heading: "Climatic changes."
url: "https://uscodex.org/cfr/10/960.4-2-4"
---

# §960.4-2-4. Climatic changes.

- (a) **Qualifying condition.** The site shall be located where future climatic conditions will not be likely to lead to radionuclide releases greater than those allowable under the requirements specified in [§ 960.4-1](/cfr/10/960.4-1.md). In predicting the likely future climatic conditions at a site, the DOE will consider the global, regional, and site climatic patterns during the Quaternary Period, considering the geomorphic evidence of the climatic conditions in the geologic setting.
- (b) **Favorable conditions.**
  - (1) A surface-water system such that expected climatic cycles over the next 100,000 years would not adversely affect waste isolation.
  - (2) A geologic setting in which climatic changes have had little effect on the hydrologic system throughout the Quaternary Period.
- (c) **Potentially adverse conditions.**
  - (1) Evidence that the water table could rise sufficiently over the next 10,000 years to saturate the underground facility in a previously unsaturated host rock.
  - (2) Evidence that climatic changes over the next 10,000 years could cause perturbations in the hydraulic gradient, the hydraulic conductivity, the effective porosity, or the ground-water flux through the host rock and the surrounding geohydrologic units, sufficient to significantly increase the transport of radionuclides to the accessible environment.

## Notes

### Authority

Authority: 42 U.S.C. 2011 et seq., 42 U.S.C. 7101 et seq., 42 U.S.C. 10101 et seq.

### Source

Source: 49 FR 47752, Dec. 6, 1984, unless otherwise noted.