Report to Congress on Reassessment of the Civilian Radioactive Waste Management Program, Report to the Congress by the Secretary of Energy

The success of the Civilian Radioactive Waste Management Program of the U.S.
Department of Energy (DOE) is critical to U.S. ability to manage and dispose of
nuclear waste safely--and to the reestablishment of confidence in the nuclear energy
option in the United States. The program must conform with all applicable standards
and, in fact, set the example for a national policy on the safe disposal of radioactive
waste.
The Secretary of Energy has recently completed an extensive review of the
Civilian Radioactive Waste Management Program and concluded that it cannot be
effectively executed in its current form. In response to Congressional concerns about
schedule slips, management structure, and contractor efforts in the program, this report
describes the results of that review and outlines actions the Secretary has taken and
will take in the near future to restructure the program in order to get it moving
forward again.
An important underlying premise of these Secretarial actions is that the program
and supporting activities have a sound scientific basis. The intent is to develop and
follow a solid, integrated plan based on a realistic assessment of the current situation.
Several months ago, the Secretary directed that a comprehensive review of the
schedule for repository-related activities be performed. For the first time since the
passage of the Nuclear Waste Policy Act, the program has put together a schedule
based on a realistic assessment of activity durations and past experience. This schedule
shows a significant slip for the expected start of repository operations--from the year
2003 to approximately 2010. In developing the revised schedule, the DOE was mindful
that certain activities, such as the issuance of environmental permits by the State of
Nevada and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission review of the license application, are
outside the DOE's control.
One new emphasis of the program's efforts will be on completing an integrated
array of near-term milestones directed at the scientific investigation of the potential site
at Yucca Mountain in Nevada. Since a licensed geologic repository is a first-of-a-kind
undertaking, the later dates in the schedule should be viewed as reasonable targets that
represent the current estimate of activity durations. The DOE, however, pledges its
best efforts toward meeting the near-term and later milestones consistent with its goals
of safety and scientific excellence.
To promote the DOE's ability to achieve such milestones and goals, the Secretary
is announcing the initiation of a three-point action plan. This plan centers on a restructuring of the Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management, initiatives to
gain access to the Yucca Mountain site to continue the scientific investigations needed
to evaluate the site's suitability for a repository, and an initiative for establishing
integrated monitored retrievable storage (MRS) with a target for spent-fuel acceptance
in 1998.