Integrated Issue Resolution Status Report

This Integrated Issue Resolution Status Report provides background information about the status of prelicensing interactions between the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) concerning a potential high-level waste geologic repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. The NRC staff has, for many years, engaged in prelicensing interactions with DOE and various stakeholders. In recent years, DOE and NRC have reached a number of agreements related to key technical issues important to repository performance after permanent closure and items important to safety during the period before permanent closure. During the prelicensing period, the NRC staff also have undertaken a risk insights initiative to enhance the use of available risk information and develop, as a common basis for understanding, the significance of features, events, and processes that may affect the performance of potential engineered and natural barriers at Yucca Mountain.

This report provides an overview of available information and status (as of March 2004, with exceptions as noted) of the Key Technical Issue agreements reached between DOE and NRC. The report also documents the risk insights (Appendix D) and information considered by the NRC staff in formulating their views, including the results of in-depth reviews of available DOE and contractor documents; the independent confirmatory work of NRC and its contractor, the Center for Nuclear Waste Regulatory Analyses; published literature; and other publicly available information.

This report may be of value to stakeholders in understanding the technical rationale used by the NRC staff to identify certain information as being necessary for a quality license application. The staff has not made any determination about compliance with regulations applicable to a potential repository at Yucca Mountain. If DOE submits a license application for a potential repository at Yucca Mountain, the staff will review the information provided by DOE and make determinations based on information provided at that time.