Waste siting gridlock in the United States and Canada has led to experimentation with voluntary and hybrid or "mixed mode" siting. We review nuclear and hazardous waste voluntary siting (VS) results for selected cases in the U.S. and Canada. Findings indicate that VS is not a panacea. but that current siting efforts are inadequate tests of its potential. We suggest trials of improved VS protocols and more effort on hybrid approaches in which the developer chooses the site but is required to reach agreement on conditions with local stakeholders.

There are no nuclear power plants in Utah. Despite that, Utah is targeted to be the site of the largest facility ever licensed for storage of spent nuclear fuel rods (high-level nuclear waste) from nuclear power plants. This proposed site would store up to 40,000 metric tons of spent nuclear fuel. The storage of this amount of waste in one location is equivalent to all the commercial spent nuclear fuel rods in the United States. The Federal government has responsibility for permanently storing this high-level nuclear waste, but after 18 years, it has missed the deadline.

This study presents a synthesis of information and interpretations relevant to surficial processes at the Yucca Mountain Site. The report is part of the technical basis which will be used to evaluate the suitability of Yucca Mountain, Nevada, as a site for a mined geologic repository for the permanent disposal of high-level radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel. It provides a description of the surface characteristics, preclosure hydrology, and erosion at the Yucca Mountain Site. This report will provide the technical basis to evaluate three technical guidelines from the U.S.

This report focuses on public meetings as a vehicle for public participation in nuclear waste management. The nature of public meetings is reviewed and the functions served by meetings highlighted. The range of participants and their concerns are addressed, including a review of the participants from past nuclear waste management meetings. A sound understanding of the expected participants allows DOE to tailor elements of the meeting, such as notification, format, and agenda to accommodate the attendees.

The director of the Task Force on Civilian Radioactive Waste Management of the Secretary of Energy Advisory Board, United States Department of Energy, asked the National Academy of Public Administration, to convene a group of approximately one dozen individuals to attend a twoday "state-of-the-art" workshop on the issue of how institutions establish, maintain, or recover trust and confidence among significant members of their task environments.

Salt deposits are considered to be most attractive for this purpose because of their wide distribution and great abundance; they are easily mined, have good thermal properties, and are free of circulating groundwater.

This report is published as a product of the National Waste Terminal Storage (NWTS) program. The objective of this program is the development of terminal waste storage facilities in deep, stable geologic formations for high-level nuclear wastes, including spent fuel elements from commercial power reactors and transuranic nuclear waste for which the federal government is responsible. Pertinent environmental and geological information for the Gulf Interior Region (GIR) is summarized, including physical, biological, and cultural characteristics of the. region.

The generation of knowledge regarding public risk perception general, and perception of risks associated with nuclear power and radioactive waste management in particular, requires the development and use of appropriate survey methodologies. One of the fundamental limitations of many studies of public risk perception is the assumption on the part of the investigators of similarity between themselves and their respondents. In such studies respondents are required to deal with problems of interest to and structured by the investigators.

Pacific Northwest Laboratory (PNL) has completed a performance evaluation of the proposed monitored retrievable storage (MRS) facility. This study was undertaken as part of the Department of Energy MRS Program at PNL.

DOE requested $100 million over the next 3 years to develop an MRS facility by 1998. DOE can begin accepting delivery of utilities’ waste by 1998 only by having an MRS facility then. To accomplish this, however, the Nuclear Waste Negotiator must complete a siting agreement and obtain congressional approval of the agreement, including the removal of statutory links to repository development, by the end of 1992. The negotiator does not believe this is possible.<br/><br/>Whether DOE is legally obligated to store or dispose of waste in 1998 is unclear.

The thick and regionally extensive sequence of shales and associated clastic sedimentary rocks of Late Devonian and Early Mississippian age has been considered among the “nonsalt geologies” for deep subsurface containment of high-level radioactive wastes.

Reaching negotiated agreement with a state or Indian tribe and preparing of 1he environmental assessment (EA) required by Section 404 of the Nuclear Waste Policy Act, as amended (NWPAA), are the first steps in a process intended to result in the acceptance of radioactive waste at a monitored retrievable storage (MRS) facility starting in 1998. This paper examines requirements for the EA, the first environmental document to be prepared for siting an MRS facility, and discusses the process used to develop that document.

The Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 (the Act) established a process for the selection of sites for the disposal of spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste in geologic repositories. The first steps in this process were the identification of potentially acceptable sites and the development of general guidelines for siting repositories. In February 1983, the DOE identified nine sites in six States as potentially acceptable for the first repository. The Richton Dome site in Perry County, Mississippi, was identified as one of those sites.

Presented to the Blue Ribbon Commission on America&#39;s Nuclear Future Subcommittee on Disposal

The United States Department of Energy (DOE) touts the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP) as an environmentally friendly approach to provide virtually limitless energy to emerging economies around the world while reducing the risk of nuclear proliferation. DOE plans to reduce the amount of high-level radioactive waste for disposal in a national repository and reduce nuclear proliferation risks by recycling and converting fissionable materials into safer isotopes.

Worldwide activities related to the storage of spent (irradiated) nuclear power reactor fuel and highly-radioactive, long-lived wastes are summarized, with a review of the storage programs and plans of 26 nations. The focus of the report is on the application of dry storage techniques to spent fuel, although dry storage of long-lived wastes is also reviewed.

This summary volume outlines results that are covered in more detail in the final report of the Spent-Fuel Test-Climax project. The project was conducted between 1978 and 1983 in the granite Climax stock at the Nevada Test Site. Results indicate that spent fuel can be safely stored for periods of years in this host medium and that nuclear waste so emplaced can be safely retrieved. We also evaluated the effects of heat and radiation (alone and in combination) on emplacement canisters and the surrounding rock mass.

This report provides an overview of the scope and status of the U.S. Department of Energy&#39;s (DOE&#39;s) Salt Repository Project (SRP) at the time when the project was terminated by the Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act of 1987. The report can be used as a &quot;roadmap&quot; into the 10-year program of siting a geologic repository for high-level nuclear waste in rock salt formations. Its purpose is to aid persons interested in the information developed during the course of this effort.