The purpose of this document is to provide waste quantity and sequencing information that serves as the design basis for commercial spent nuclear fuel (CSNF) arriving at the repository, and the information on the transportation systems that will be used to deliver this fuel. It is intended as input for waste package and repository design analyses needed to ensure that facilities are flexible enough to be capable of receiving, unloading, handling, and emplacing the amounts and types of CSNF expected for receipt under realistic bounding conditions.

In the November 1989 Report to Congress on Reassessment of the Civilian
Radioactive Waste Management Program (DOE/RW-0247), the Secretary of Energy
announced an initiative for developing a monitored retrievable storage (MRS) facility
that is to start spent-fuel acceptance in 1998. This facility, which will be licensed by
the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), will receive spent fuel from
commercial nuclear power plants and provide a limited amount of storage for this

This briefing paper is a component of the comprehensive briefing package developed for the Negotiator, and describes previous DOE experience in its attempt to site an MRS facility. The Background section highlights, in chronological order, significant events in DOE's MRS siting history from enactment of the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 to the issuance of the "Report to Congress on Reassessment of the Civilian Radioactive Waste Management Program" in November 1989.

In response to Section 141 of the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982, the Department of Energy hereby submits a proposal for the construction of a facility for monitored retrievable storage (MRS). The approval of this proposal by the Congress would specifically--
• Approve the construction of an MRS facility at a site on the Clinch River in the Roane County portion of Oak Ridge, Tennessee.
• Limit the storage capacity at the MRS site to 15,000 metric tons of uranium.

With the passage of the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 (NWPA), Congress for the first time established in law a comprehensive Federal policy for commercial high-level radioactive waste management, including interim storage and permanent disposal. NWPA provides sufficient authority for
developing and operating a high-level radioactive waste management system based on disposal in mined geologic repositories. Authorization

The voluntary siting process for the Monitored Retrievable Storage (MRS) facility set forth in the Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act (NWPAA) of 1987 provides a potential host community a unique opportunity to improve its present situation and to gain greater control over its future.