CHAPTER TWO

Waste Acceptance, Storage, and Transportation Project

The commercial spent nuclear fuel and nuclear materials managed by the Department of Energy (DOE) that would be disposed of in a repository are now stored at 129 commercial and DOE sites in 35 States. It is the primary responsibility of the Waste Acceptance, Storage, and Transportation Project to develop a process for the legal and physical transfer of commercial spent nuclear fuel and DOE-owned nuclear material from their owners and generators to DOE.

Potential interstate highway transportation routes
Potential interstate highway transportation routes


However, due to budget constraints, most of the transportation-related elements of this work have been put on hold pending approval of a Federal site to which waste could be shipped.

In preparation for such a transfer, the Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management (OCRWM) maintains the core capability to implement a private sector-based national transportation capability for waste acceptance and transportation, to resolve institutional issues with stakeholders, and to prepare for implementation of the training of emergency response personnel as required by the Nuclear Waste Policy Act (NWPA), Section 180(c).

Acceptance of commercial spent nuclear fuel

The NWPA authorized the Secretary to enter into contracts with the owners and generators of commercial spent nuclear fuel. Our interactions with them on matters concerning receipt, shipment, and disposal of their spent nuclear fuel are governed by the Standard Contract for Disposal of Spent Nuclear Fuel and/or High-Level Radioactive Waste, 10 CFR Part 961, promulgated as a Federal rule in 1983. Under the standard contract, OCRWM was to start accepting spent nuclear fuel from utilities in 1998.

Commercial power reactors
Commercial power reactors


With no Federal facility yet available to receive the material, utilities are pursuing litigation to seek relief from hardships they allege as a consequence of DOE's inability to accept waste. Details of ongoing litigation can be found in Appendix A.

In Fiscal Year 2000, DOE negotiated an agreement with the PECO Energy Company regarding compensation for the costs incurred by PECO as a result of the delay in spent fuel acceptance. The agreement is structured as an amendment to the existing contract between PECO and DOE and applies only to the Peach Bottom Plant in Pennsylvania. In the settlement, DOE has agreed to allow PECO to claim fee adjustments for costs associated with managing fuel that DOE has not accepted since 1998. The settlement also provides PECO the option to ask DOE to take title to the spent fuel, storage casks, and storage facility with 18 months notice, subject to certain stipulated conditions.

Dry transfer system for spent nuclear fuel
Development of the spent nuclear fuel dry transfer system continued in Fiscal Year 2000. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) completed its review of the Topical Safety Analysis Report and issued a draft Safety Assessment Evaluation Report. We reviewed the Safety Assessment Evaluation Report and provided comments to NRC.

The dry transfer system has the potential to assist utilities and DOE in future spent fuel management activities by enabling the transfer of individual spent fuel assemblies between a conventional top-loading cask and a multipurpose canister in a shielded overpack, or by accommodating spent fuel transfers between two conventional casks.

Acceptance of DOE-managed materials

Integrating DOE-managed nuclear materials into our Program
Three offices within DOE manage materials destined for geologic disposal. The Office of Environmental Management maintains custody of and prepares for the transfer to OCRWM for disposal of high-level radioactive waste, DOE-owned spent nuclear fuel, and surplus nuclear materials. The Office of Fissile Materials Disposition plans for the disposition of surplus weapons-usable plutonium. Naval spent nuclear fuel is managed by the Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program, which represents both DOE's Office of Nuclear Energy, Science, and Technology and the Department of the Navy.

DOE-managed nuclear materials (defense waste)
DOE-managed nuclear materials (defense waste)


In April 2000, we issued the first revisions of our memoranda of agreements with the Director of the Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program and the Office of Environmental Management to achieve safe and timely disposal of DOE-owned spent nuclear fuel and high-level nuclear waste. The revisions to the agreements modified the procedure for recording changes to the agreements and revised the quality assurance subagreements between the affected parties. Work continued to clarify the waste inventories of these offices, to identify data needs to support acceptance for repository disposal, to define requirements for transportation and storage systems, and to specify transportation, loading, and waste acceptance operations.

OCRWM also continued to integrate acceptance criteria and schedules for DOE-owned spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste under the auspices of the Office of Environmental Management, surplus plutonium and mixed-oxide fuel under the auspices of the Office of Fissile Materials Disposition, and spent nuclear fuel and high-level waste from the naval reactor program. When finalized by OCRWM, the Office of Environmental Management, and the Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program, the integrated waste acceptance criteria and schedule will fulfill important commitments in the memoranda of agreements and will provide an annual waste acceptance rate for use in repository planning and design.

Baseline management

There are four documents that constitute the Project's technical baseline: The Waste Acceptance System Requirements Document was updated in Fiscal Year 2000 with criteria for DOE spent fuel. The remaining documents required only minor modifications this year.