Presentation made at International Conference on The Management of Spent Nuclear Fuel from Nuclear Power Reactors, An Integrated approach to the Back-End of the Fuel Cycle (IAEA-CN-226). The purpose of the conference was to highlight the importance of an integrated long-term approach to the management of spent fuel from nuclear power reactors.

Consistent with the mandate issued by the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners v. United States Department of Energy, (Nos. 11-1066 and 11-1068; D.C. Cir. 2013), and notwithstanding the absence of the determination required to be made pursuant to the Nuclear Waste Policy
Act of 1982 (NWPA), as amended, 42 U.S.C. 10222(a)(4), I hereby propose, subject to any

Dear Mr. President:
At your direction, the Secretary of Energy established the Blue Ribbon Commission on
America’s Nuclear Future to review policies for managing the back end of the nuclear
fuel cycle and recommend a new strategy. We are pleased to be serving as Co‐
Chairmen of the Commission, and we are writing to you to highlight an important action
we strongly believe should be reflected in your Fiscal Year 2013 baseline budget
projections.
In our draft report to the Secretary, issued in July of this year, the Commission

This guidance manual provides the NRC staff methodology for calculating parameters for limiting conditions of operation required in the radiological effluent Technical Specifications for light-water-cooled nuclear power plants. it provides guidance in using the model specifications reported in NUREG-0472 (Revision 1)*, and NUREG-0473 (Revision 1)*, applicable to operating PWR and BWR licensees, and users of the Standard Technical Specifications packages available for various vendor designs.

The Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 (the Act), established a
step-by-step process for the siting of the nation's first repository for
high-level radioactive waste and spent fuel. The Act gave the Department of
Energy (DOE) the primary responsibility for conducting this siting process.
The first step in the process laid out in the Act was the development by
the DOE, with the concurrence of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), of
general guidelines to be used by the Secretary of the DOE (the Secretary) in

The purpose of this document is to provide the requirements rationale for the current version of the Preliminary Transportation, Aging and Disposal Canister System Performance Specification; WMO-TADCS-000001.

This paper presents an assessment of the benefits for extended burnup credit in transporting
pressurized-water-reactor (PWR) spent nuclear fuel (SNF) in the United States. A prototypic 32-
assembly cask and the current regulatory guidance were used as bases for this assessment. By
comparing recently released PWR discharge data with actinide-only-based loading curves, this
evaluation shows that additional negative reactivity (through either increased credit for fuel burnup or

America’s nuclear waste management program is at an impasse. The Obama Administration’s decision
to halt work on a repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada is but the latest indicator of a policy that has
been troubled for decades and has now all but completely broken down. The approach laid out under
the 1987 Amendments to the Nuclear Waste Policy Act (NWPA)—which tied the entire U.S. high-level
waste management program to the fate of the Yucca Mountain site—has not worked to produce a

Following the proposals for nuclear fuel assurance of International Atomic Energy
Agency (IAEA) Director General Mohamed ElBaradei, former Russian President Vladimir V.
Putin, and U.S. President George W. Bush, joint committees of the Russian Academy of
Sciences (RAS) and the U.S. National Academies (NAS) were formed to address these and other
fuel assurance concepts and their links to nonproliferation goals. The joint committees also
addressed many technology issues relating to the fuel assurance concepts. This report provides

In July 1999, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) Spent Fuel Project Office
(SFPO) issued Interim Staff Guidance 8 Revision 1 (ISG8R1) to provide recommendations for the use
of burnup credit in storage and transport of pressurized-water reactor (PWR) spent fuel. Subsequent to
the issuance of ISG8R1, the NRC Office of Regulatory Research (RES) has directed an effort to
investigate the technical basis for extending the criteria and recommendations of ISG8R1 to allow

Dear Co-Chairs Hamilton and Scowcroft:
The Obama Administration believes that nuclear energy has an important role to playas America moves to a clean energy future. One of my goals as Secretary of Energy is to help restart America's nuclear industry, creating thousands of new jobs and new export opportunities for the United States while producing the carbon free energy we need to power America's economy.

The benefits of burnup credit and the technical issues associated with utilizing burnup credit in spent
nuclear fuel (SNF) casks have been studied in the United States for almost two decades. The issuance of the
U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) staff guidance for actinide-only burnup credit in 2002 was a
significant step toward providing a regulatory framework for using burnup credit in transport casks. However,
adherence to the current regulatory guidance (e.g., limit credit to actinides) enables only about 30% of the existing

Dear Secretary Chu:
Thank you for your remarks to the Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future at our inaugural meeting on March 25, 2010. Your guidance was both enlightening and invaluable as we establish a plan to fulfill the Commission’s charter.

This report highlights the findings and conclusions of the Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future (BRC) and presents recommendations for consideration by the Administration and Congress, as well as interested state, tribal and local governments, other stakeholders, and the public.

Presentation made at International Conference on The Management of Spent Nuclear Fuel from Nuclear Power Reactors, An Integrated approach to the Back-End of the Fuel Cycle (IAEA-CN-226). The purpose of the conference was to highlight the importance of an integrated long-term approach to the management of spent fuel from nuclear power reactors.

Presentation made at International Conference on The Management of Spent Nuclear Fuel from Nuclear Power Reactors, An Integrated approach to the Back-End of the Fuel Cycle (IAEA-CN-226). The purpose of the conference was to highlight the importance of an integrated long-term approach to the management of spent fuel from nuclear power reactors.

Presentation made at International Conference on The Management of Spent Nuclear Fuel from Nuclear Power Reactors, An Integrated approach to the Back-End of the Fuel Cycle (IAEA-CN-226). The purpose of the conference was to highlight the importance of an integrated long-term approach to the management of spent fuel from nuclear power reactors.