This report is concerned with how America's public sector is handling the challenge of implementing a technical, environmental policy, that of managing the nation's high-level nuclear waste, as reflected in the attempt of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to site a Monitored Retrievable Storage Facility (MRS) for high-level radioactive waste in Tennessee.

The U.S. Congress authorized the development of a monitored retrievable storage facility (MRS) as part of the high-level radioactive waste management system. The MRS will be used to receive, store, and stage shipments of intact spent fuel to the permanent repository. Early development of the MRS is crucial to honoring the long-standing Federal commitment to timely and adequate waste acceptance. The Department of Energy's (DO E) objective is initial waste acceptance at the MRS beginning in 1998.

The year 2011 was the year that marked the global nuclear industry and influenced the attitudes and activities of many professional, scientific and commercial organizations and spurred public interest in this branch of industry. Probably the whole world reacted to the natural disaster that struck Japan and damaged the nuclear power plant at Fukushima, Slovakia not excluded.

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.

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.