Consideration of the technical feasibility of Yucca Mountain in Nevada as the site for a high-level nuclear<br/>waste repository has led to an intense debate regarding the economic, social, and political impacts of the<br/>repository.
Solving the United States' high level nuclear waste<br/>disposal dilemma is vital to our energy independence and<br/>economic growth. The issue has been stalled for decades and<br/>presently faces enormous political obstacles despite renewed<br/>government effort to achieve a solution.
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Yucca Mountain Site Characterization Project Office (YMPO) assigned Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), the Technical and Management Support Services (T&MSS) contractor to the YMPO, the task of conducting an Early Site Suitability Evaluation (ESSE) of the Yucca Mountain site as a potential site for a high-level radioactive waste repository.
This study evaluated the technical suitability of Yucca Mountain, Nevada, as a potential site for a mined geologic repository for the permanent disposal of radioactive waste. The evaluation was conducted primarily to determine early in the site characterization program if there are any features or conditions at the site that indicate it is unsuitable for repository development. A secondary purpose was to determine the status of<br/>knowledge in the major technical areas that affect the suitability of the site.
Historical inventories of spent fuel are combined with U.S Department of Energy (DOE) projections of future discharges from commercial nuclear reactors in the United States to provide estimates of spent fuel storage requirements over the next 50 years, through the year 2040. The needs for storage capacity beyond that presently available in the pools are estimated. These estimates incorporate the maximum capacities within current-and planned in-pool storage facilities and any planned transshipments of fuel to ther reactors or, facilities.
This Implementation Plan provides the scope, schedule, and funding needed to develop and implement a method for early evaluation of site suitability. The following is the sequence of events which resulted in the preparation of this implementation plan:<br/>1. On December 24, 1990, John W. Bartlett, Director of the Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management (OCRWM), transmitted guidance to Carl P. Gertz, Associate Director of the Office of Geologic Disposal (OGD), to develop an OGD Plan for this effort. <br/>2.
The director of the Task Force on Civilian Radioactive Waste Management of the Secretary of Energy Advisory Board, United States Department of Energy, asked the National Academy of Public Administration, to convene a group of approximately one dozen individuals to attend a twoday "state-of-the-art" workshop on the issue of how institutions establish, maintain, or recover trust and confidence among significant members of their task environments.
DOE requested $100 million over the next 3 years to develop an MRS facility by 1998. DOE can begin accepting delivery of utilities’ waste by 1998 only by having an MRS facility then. To accomplish this, however, the Nuclear Waste Negotiator must complete a siting agreement and obtain congressional approval of the agreement, including the removal of statutory links to repository development, by the end of 1992. The negotiator does not believe this is possible.<br/><br/>Whether DOE is legally obligated to store or dispose of waste in 1998 is unclear.
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 spent fuel.
Reaching negotiated agreement with a state or Indian tribe and preparing of 1he environmental assessment (EA) required by Section 404 of the Nuclear Waste Policy Act, as amended (NWPAA), are the first steps in a process intended to result in the acceptance of radioactive waste at a monitored retrievable storage (MRS) facility starting in 1998. This paper examines requirements for the EA, the first environmental document to be prepared for siting an MRS facility, and discusses the process used to develop that document.
