The Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 (the NWPA) (42 USC Sections 10101-10226) requires the environmental assessment to include a detailed statement of the basis for nominating a site as suitable for characterization. This detailed statement is to be an evaluation of site suitability under the DOE siting guidelines; the evaluation will be the basis for the comparison of sites reported in Chapter 7. Such an evaluation for the Richton Dome site is presented in Sections 6.2, 6.3, and 6.4 of this chapter, and is based in part on impacts associated with the reference repository design.