Case Histories of EA Documents for Nuclear Waste

Nuclear power programs and policies in the United States have been subject to environmental assessment under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) since 1971. NEPA documentation prepared for programmatic policy decision-making within the nuclear fuel cycle and concurrent federal policy are examined as they relate to radioactive waste management in this paper. Key programmatic environmental impact statements that address radioactive waste management include: the Atomic Energy Commission document on management of commercial high level and transuranium-contaminated radioactive waste, which focused on development of engineered retrievable surface storage facilities (RSSF); the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) document on use of recycled plutonium in mixed oxide fuel in light water cooled reactors, which focused on plutonium recycle and RSSF; the NRC statement on handling of spent light water power reactor fuel, which focused on spent fuel storage; and the Department of Energy (DOE) statement on management of commercially generated<br>radioactive wastes, which focused on development of deep geologic repositories. DOE is currently pursuing the deep geologic repository option, with monitored retrievable storage as a secondary option.