Congress designated Yucca Mountain, NV, as the nation’s sole candidate site for a permanent high-level nuclear waste repository in 1987, following years of controversy over the site-selection process. Over the strenuous objections of the State of Nevada, the Department of Energy (DOE) submitted a license application for the proposed Yucca Mountain repository in June 2008 to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC).

We, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), are proposing to revise certain of our public health and safety standards for radioactive material stored or disposed of in the potential repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. Section 801(a) of the Energy Policy Act of 1992 (EnPA, Pub. L. 102Ð 486) directed us to develop these standards. These standards (the 2001 standards) were originally promulgated on June 13, 2001 (66 FR 32074).

In sum, we vacate 40 C.F.R. part 197 to the extent that it incorporates a 10,000-year compliance period because, contrary to EnPA section 801(a), that compliance period is not<br> &quot;based upon and consistent with &quot; the recommendations of the National Academy of Sciences. The remaining challenges to the EPA rule are without merit. We vacate the NRC rule insofar as it incorporates EPAÕs 10,000-year compliance period. In all other respects, we deny NevadaÕs petition for review challenging the NRC rule.

This paper is about the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) &quot;Environmental Standards for the Disposal of Spent Nuclear Fuel, High-Level and Transuranic Wastes, &quot; 40 CFR 191. These standards regulate the disposal of radioactive wastes in geologic repositories.

Comments contained in this document were received by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) on the Report of Early Site Suitability Evaluation (ESSE) of the Potential Repository Site at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, (Younker et al., 1992, SAIC 91/8000). Comments were received from the U.S. Department of Interior, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the State of Nevada, and several local affected governments in Nevada. No comments were received from members of the public.

Enclosed is the State of Nevada s report on impacts of the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository program. This report is being provided pursuant to Section 114(a)(1)(H) and Section 116 of the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982, as amended.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is publishing licensing criteria for disposal of spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive wastes in the proposed geologic repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. As mandated by law, this final rule changes the CommissionÕs technical requirements and criteria, as necessary, to be consistent with final environmental standards for Yucca Mountain issued by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

After more than 20 years of carefully planned and reviewed scientific field work by the<br/>U.S. Department of Energy, the U.S. Geological Survey, and numerous other<br/>organizations, Secretary of Energy Abraham concluded in January that the Yucca<br/>Mountain site is suitable, within the meaning of the Nuclear Waste Policy Act, for<br/>development as a permanent nuclear waste and spent fuel repository.

On September 30, 2008, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued the long-awaited revision to its 2001 Public Health and Safety Standard for the proposed Yucca Mountain deep geologic repository for high-level radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel. While the issuance of the standard allows the Nuclear<br/>Regulatory Commission (NRC) to issue its final conforming standards and move forward toward a final license decision for the facility, EPA’s standard raises several unprecedented regulatory issues and is likely to be further challenged in court.

DOE hereby amends the policies under the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 for evaluating the suitability of Yucca Mountain, Nevada, as a site for development of a nuclear waste repository. TodayÕs final rule focuses on the criteria and methodology to be used for evaluating relevant geological and other related aspects of the Yucca Mountain site.

Docket Number RW-RM-96-100, General Guidelines for the Recommendation of Sites for Nuclear Waste Repositories-Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NOPR)

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has promulgated amendments to its public health and safety standards for radioactive material stored or disposed of in the potential repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada (40 CFR Part 197). Section 801 of the Energy Policy Act of 1992 [(EnPA, Public Law 102-486, 42 U.S.C. § 10141 n. (1994)] directed EPA to develop these standards.

Consideration of the technical feasibility of Yucca Mountain in Nevada as the site for a high-level nuclear<br/>waste repository has led to an intense debate regarding the economic, social, and political impacts of the<br/>repository.

After an exhaustive review process that encompassed EPAÕs proposed rule, as presented in the Federal Register Notice, as well as the reference materials cited in that Notice, Nevada concludes that EPAÕs proposed standard is inconsistent with the recommendations of the National Academy of Sciences (as required by the Energy Policy Act of 1992) and the July 9, 2004 ruling of the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory<br/>Commission (NRC) is proposing<br/>licensing criteria for disposal of spent<br/>nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive<br/>wastes in the proposed geologic<br/>repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada.<br/>These criteria will address the<br/>performance of the repository system at<br/>Yucca Mountain, a system that must<br/>comprise both natural and engineered<br/>barriers.

Management of civilian radioactive waste has posed difficult issues for Congress since the beginning of the nuclear power industry in the 1950s. Federal policy is based on the premise that nuclear waste can be disposed of safely, but proposed storage and disposal facilities have frequently been challenged on safety, health, and environmental grounds.

The potentially adverse condition identified at 10 CFR 60.122(c)(16), evidence of extreme<br/>erosion during the Quaternary Period, has been determined to not be present at Yucca<br/>Mountain. A literature search for typical hillslope erosion rates in the U.S. and the world was<br/>performed to establish a range of typical values for erosion rates. Low to moderate erosion<br/>rates in the U.S. were identified to range from 2 to 50 centimeters per thousand years (cm/ka)<br/>in semiarid environments.

On February 14, 2002, U.S.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Yucca Mountain Site Characterization Project Office (YMPO) assigned Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), the Technical and Management Support Services (T&MSS) contractor to the YMPO, the task of conducting an Early Site Suitability Evaluation (ESSE) of the Yucca Mountain site as a potential site for a high-level radioactive waste repository.

Nuclear waste disposal in the USA is a difficult policy issue infused with science, technology, and politics. This issue provides an example of the co-production of scientific knowledge and politics through public policy. The proponents of a repository site at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, argue that their decision to go ahead with the site is based on ‘sound science’, but the science they use to uphold their decision is influenced by politics. In turn, the politics of site selection has been altered by the scientific knowledge produced.