Skip to content
LexBuild

10 CFR § 960.4-2-4 - Climatic changes. 

---
identifier: "/us/cfr/t10/s960.4-2-4"
source: "ecfr"
legal_status: "authoritative_unofficial"
title: "10 CFR § 960.4-2-4 - Climatic changes."
title_number: 10
title_name: "Energy"
section_number: "960.4-2-4"
section_name: "Climatic changes."
chapter_name: "DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY"
part_number: "960"
part_name: "GENERAL GUIDELINES FOR THE PRELIMINARY SCREENING OF POTENTIAL SITES FOR A NUCLEAR WASTE REPOSITORY"
positive_law: false
currency: "2026-03-24"
last_updated: "2026-03-24"
format_version: "1.1.0"
generator: "[email protected]"
authority: "42 U.S.C. 2011  42 U.S.C. 7101  42 U.S.C. 10101"
regulatory_source: "49 FR 47752, Dec. 6, 1984, unless otherwise noted."
cfr_part: "960"
---

# 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. 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.