THE SITING RECORD: AN ACCOUNT OF THE PROGRAMS OF FEDERAL AGENCIES AND EVENTS THAT HAVE LED TO THE SELECTION OF A POTENTIAL SITE FOR A GEOLOGIC REPOSITORY FOR HIGH-LEVEL RADIOACTIVE WASTE

This record of siting a geologic repository for high-level radioactive wastes (HL W) and spent fuel describes the many investigations that culminated on Demnber 22, 1987 in the designation of Yucca Mountain (YM), as the site to tmdergo detailed geologic characterization. It recounts the important issues and events that have been instrmnenta1 in shaping the course of siting over the last three and one half decades. In this long task, which was initiated in 1954, more than 60 regions, areas, or sites involving nine different rock types have been investigated. This effort became sharply focused in 1983 with the identification of nine potentially suitable sites for the first repository. From these nine sites, five were subsequently nominated by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) as suitable for characterization and then, in 1986, as required by the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 (NWP A), three of these five were recommended to the President as candidates for site characterization. President Reagan approved the recommendation on May 28, 1986. DOE was preparing site characterization plans for the three candidate sites, namely Deaf Smith County, Texas; Hanford Site, Washington; and YM. As a consequence of the 1987 Amendment to the NWPA, only the latter was authorized to undergo detailed characterization. A final Site Characterization Plan for Yucca Mountain was published in 1988.