Waste Control Specialists / NRC pre-application public meeting slides
These slides were presented by Waste Control Specialists LLC (WCS) to the NRC at the June 16, 2015 pre-application public meeting at the NRC offices in Rockville, Maryland.
Yucca Mountain Licensing Standard Options for Very Long Time Frames: Technical Bases for the Standard and Compliance Assessments
In the existing U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) regulations governing the spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste site at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, the time period of compliance was set at 10,000 years. Recently, a Court ordered that EPA and NRC either revise the regulation on this topic to be "based upon and consistent with" recommendations made by a panel of the National Academy of Sciences, who recommended a time period of compliance out to as long as one million years, or seek congressional relief.
Technical Bases for Extended Dry Storage of Spent Nuclear Fuel
Independent spent fuel storage installations (ISFSIs) are currently licensed for 20 years. However, delays in developing permanent spent fuel disposal capability require continued ISFSI storage beyond the 20-year term. This report provides a technical basis for demonstrating the feasibility of extended spent fuel storage in ISFSIs.
DSNF and Other Waste Form Degradation Abstraction
Several hundred distinct types of DOE-owned spent nuclear fuel (DSNF) may potentially be disposed in the Yucca Mountain repository. These fuel types represent many more types than can be viably individually examined for their effect on the Total System Performance Assessment for the License Application (TSPA-LA). Additionally, for most of these fuel types, there is no known direct experimental test data for the degradation and dissolution of the waste form in repository groundwaters.
slides - Potential Improvements to the Licensing Process for a Recycling Plant
Presented at the NEI Used Fuel Management Conference, St. Petersburg, FL, May 7-9, 2013
Overview of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and Its Regulatory Process for the Nuclear Fuel Cycle for Light Water Reactors
This paper provides a brief description of the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and its regulatory process for the current nuclear fuel cycle for light water power reactors (LWRs). It focuses on the regulatory framework for the licensing of facilities in the fuel cycle. The first part of the paper provides an overview of the NRC and its regulatory program including a description of its organization, function, authority, and responsibilities.
slides - Certification/Licensing Approaches for High Burnup Spent Fuel
Presented at the NEI Used Fuel Management Conference, St. Petersburg, FL, May 7-9, 2013
Civilian Nuclear Waste Disposal
Management of civilian radioactive waste has posed difficult issues for Congress since the beginning of the nuclear power industry in the 1950s. Federal policy is based on the premise that nuclear waste can be disposed of safely, but proposed storage and disposal facilities have frequently been challenged on safety, health, and environmental grounds.
Closing Yucca Mountain: Litigation Associated with Attempts to Abandon the Planned Nuclear Waste Repository
Passed in 1982, the Nuclear Waste Policy Act (NWPA) was an effort to establish an explicit statutory basis for the Department of Energy (DOE) to dispose of the nation’s most highly radioactive nuclear waste. The NWPA requires DOE to remove spent nuclear fuel from commercial nuclear power plants, in exchange for a fee, and transport it to a permanent geologic repository or an interim storage facility before permanent disposal. Defense-related high-level<br>waste is to go into the same repository.
LESSONS LEARNED FROM YUCCA MOUNTAIN: HOW TO IMPROVE THE PROCESS IN THE UNITED STATES FOR DEVELOPING FACILITIES FOR GEOLOGIC DISPOSAL OF USED NUCLEAR REACTOR FUEL AND HIGH-LEVEL RADIOACTIVE WASTE
This white paper offers some suggestions about how to improve the process in the United States for developing facilities for geologic disposal of used nuclear reactor fuel and high-level radioactive waste. These suggestions look toward the future, and build on what I believe are the lessons that should be learned from the troubled Yucca Mountain repository project.
