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Nuclear Waste Bill Feedback

On April 25, 2013, Senators Wyden, Alexander, Feinstein, and Murkowski released a draft bill to create a sustainable, participatory process for managing nuclear waste. The senators requested comments and suggestions on the draft bill, as well as on the alternative language for siting an interim storage facility proposed by Senators Alexander and Feinstein. In addition, the senators posed eight questions on which they sought comments.

Transuranic Burning Issues Related to a Second Geologic Repository

This report defines issues that need to be addressed by a development program recently initiated to establish the viability of a transuranic program recently initiated to establish the viability of a transuranic burning concept application that would achieve a substantial delay to the need date for a second geologic repository. The visualized transuranic burning concept application is one in which spent fuel created after a date in the 2010 timeframe or later would be processed and the separated plutonium used to start up liquid metal reactors.

Review of DOE's Nuclear Energy Research and Development Program - Summary

There has been a substantial resurgence of interest in nuclear power in the United States
over the past few years. One consequence has been a rapid growth in the research
budget of DOE’s Office of Nuclear Energy (NE). In light of this growth, the Office of
Management and Budget included within the FY2006 budget request a study by the
National Academy of Sciences to review the NE research programs and recommend
priorities among those programs. The programs to be evaluated were: Nuclear Power

EPRI Review of Geologic Disposal for Used Fuel and High Level Radioactive Waste: Volume IV—Lessons Learned

The effective termination of the Yucca Mountain program by the U.S. Administration in 2009
has further delayed the construction and operation of a permanent disposal facility for used fuel
and high level radioactive waste (HLW) in the United States. In concert with this decision, the
President directed the Energy Secretary to establish the Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s
Nuclear Future to review and provide recommendations on options for managing used fuel and

Commercial Spent Nuclear Fuel Waste Package Misload Analysis

The purpose of this calculation is to estimate the probability of misloading a commercial spent
nuclear fuel waste package with a fuel assembly(s) that has a reactivity (i.e., enrichment and/or
burnup) outside the waste package design. The waste package designs are based on the expected
commercial spent nuclear fuel assemblies and previous analyses (Macheret, P. 2001, Section 4.1
and Table 1). For this calculation, a misloaded waste package is defined as a waste package that

Overview of High-Level Nuclear Waste Materials Transportation: Processes, Regulations, Experience and Outlook in the U.S.

Every year, more than 300 million packages of hazardous material are shipped in the
United States (U.S.). Most of the hazardous material shipped – about 97 percent – is
flammable, explosive, corrosive or poisonous. About 1 percent – three million packages –
of the hazardous materials shipped annually contains radioactive material, most of them
from medical and industrial applications. [DOT 1998b]
Spent nuclear fuel comprises a very small fraction of the hazardous materials packages

THE REPORT TO THE PRESIDENT AND THE CONGRESS BY THE SECRETARY OF ENERGY ON THE NEED FOR A SECOND REPOSITORY

The Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982, as amended (NWPA), establishes a process for the siting, construction and operation of one or more national repositories for permanent disposal of the Nation’s spent nuclear fuel (SNF) and high-level radioactive waste (HLW). In 1987, after the Department of Energy (the Department or DOE) had conducted studies of nine potential repository sites located throughout the United States, Congress amended the NWPA and selected the Yucca Mountain site in Nye County, Nevada as the only site for further study for the first national repository.

Summary Report of SNF Isotopic Comparisons for the Disposal Criticality Analysis Methodology

The "Summary Report of SNF Isotopic Comparisons for the Disposal Criticality Analysis Methodology" contains a summary of the analyses that compare SNF measured isotopic concentrations (radiochemical assays) to calculated SNF isotop~c concentrations (SAS2H module ·orScale4.3). The results of these analyses are used to support the validation of the isotopic models for spent commercial light water reactor (LWR) fuel.

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