Proposed Alternative Strategy for the Department of Energy's Civilian Radioactive Waste Management Program: A Task Force Report
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
| doe_task_force_report_s.pdf (2.61 MB) | 2.61 MB |
Over the decade since NWPA, the disposal
program's strategy, based on its interpretation of the
legislative mandate and regulatory requirements, has
sought:
• in a single large step and under a tight
schedule, to achieve the first-of-a-kind licensing
of a first-of-a-kind repository for isolating
wastes from the human environment for many
thousands of years.
• in a single large step and as rapidly as possible,
to build a full-scale repository and begin
disposing of the bulk of the nation's inventory
of spent fuel and high-level radioactive waste.
The goal of that strategy is rapid, full-scale
disposal. The strategy assumed that we owed the
future no less than the rapid, full and final disposal
of waste. A broad range of stakeholders did, in fact,
share that assumption when NWPA was passed.
The overriding purpose of the disposal program is
to protect human and environmental health and
safety. The alternative strategy is designed to ensure
the achievement of that purpose and, in the near
term, to build increasing confidence that it will be
achieved. The goal of the alternative strategy is the
early development and licensed demonstration of
the capability for full, safe and final disposal in a
repository. By "demonstrating capability," we mean
to begin actual waste disposal in a licensed
repository that could accommodate large amounts of
waste.
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