CHAPTER THREE

Program Management Center

The Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management (OCRWM) Program Management Center consists of the Office of Quality Assurance, the Office of Program Management and Administration, and the Systems Engineering and International Division of the Office of Acceptance, Transportation and Integration. The first of these organizations is located in Las Vegas, Nevada, and the latter two are in Washington, D.C.

Appropriation and budget

Our Fiscal Year 2000 appropriation of $351.2 million was $6.3 million less than our Fiscal Year 1999 appropriation of $357.5 million, and $51.5 million less than the President's $409 million budget request for the Program. We allocated $281.2 million, or roughly 80 percent of our appropriation, to the Yucca Mountain Site Characterization Project. The remaining funds were used to support the Waste Acceptance, Storage, and Transportation Project, which received $1.8 million, and the Program Management Center, which received $68.2 million. Funds directed toward the Program Management Center constituted roughly 20 percent of the total, and approximately half of those funds supported the Yucca Mountain Site Characterization Project.

Distribution of OCRWM Fiscal Year 2000 budget (dollars in millions)
Distribution of OCRWM Fiscal Year 2000 budget (dollars in millions)


Quality assurance

Fiscal Year 2000 quality assurance activities continued to focus on tasks related to a potential site recommendation and, in particular, on activities supporting a total system performance assessment. Quality assurance personnel worked closely with the technical staff that conducts scientific, engineering, and performance assessment work.

The Office of Quality Assurance took steps to ensure that appropriate quality assurance requirements were in place and that they were fully understood and implemented. Close interactions between quality assurance and technical staffs fostered real-time feedback on the quality assurance program's implementation status. As a result, the quality assurance staff was able to assist in streamlining and improving requirements in several key areas, including scientific model validation, data qualification, and software control. These improvements were incorporated into Revision 10 of the OCRWM Quality Assurance Requirements and Description Document, which became effective in April 2000.

Through audits, surveillance, observations, and reviews, quality assurance personnel continued to examine the full range of quality-affecting activities performed by OCRWM, its contractors, and the high-level waste and spent nuclear fuel organizations within the Department of Energy's (DOE) Office of Environmental Management that interface with OCRWM. Audits and monitoring were used to evaluate how well quality assurance requirements were being met and whether documentation was sufficient to demonstrate compliance. Quality assurance personnel ensured that any deficiencies identified were evaluated, and that adequate investigations, where warranted, were conducted. For each deficiency identified, a corrective action plan was developed, reviewed, approved, implemented, and verified. Quality assurance audit and surveillance schedules and reports were posted on the OCRWM web site.

In Fiscal Year 2000, OCRWM performed 19 performance-based quality assurance audits, in which processes and activities were assessed against their expected results, and the adequacy of both the products and the processes was examined. In addition, 27 quality assurance supplier audits were completed. OCRWM quality assurance personnel also continued to interact with staffs from the Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program and the Office of Environmental Management; and, in December 1999, OCRWM completed its review of the quality assurance program documentation of the Department's Office of Fissile Materials Disposition. Because the Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program, the Office of Environmental Management, and the Office of Fissile Materials Disposition are responsible for waste forms that may be placed in the repository, OCRWM quality assurance staff worked with them to ensure they used appropriate approaches to activities that could have an impact on OCRWM's acceptance and disposal of their materials.

Program management and integration

Program planning
On March 13, 2000, OCRWM released Revision 3 of the Civilian Radioactive Waste Management Program Plan, which provides a summary of the Program's statutory mission, vision, and strategic objectives and establishes performance goals and strategies for their achievement. The Plan also details the Program's milestones, major activities over the next five years, and projected funding requirements.

This revision of the OCRWM Program Plan reflects OCRWM's desire to keep planning references up-to-date as we approach the determination on a potential site recommendation. OCRWM issued its first Program Plan in 1994 and published revisions in 1996 and 1998. Revision 3 of the Program Plan reflects programmatic changes made since the December 1998 publication of the Viability Assessment of a Repository at Yucca Mountain. It also describes the Program's updated regulatory framework resulting from the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) proposed site-specific radiation protection standards for Yucca Mountain, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's (NRC) proposed revised site-specific licensing criteria, and DOE's proposed revised site suitability guidelines.

In keeping with the Government Performance and Results Act's emphasis on strategic planning, internal review, and stakeholder input, we held two OCRWM planning workshops, in October 1999 and April 2000. Program managers, senior contractor personnel, and representatives of DOE Headquarters, the national laboratories, and the U.S. Geological Survey came together in these planning workshops to be briefed on key issues and to analyze and recommend courses of action to deal with them. Fiscal Year 2000 meetings focused particularly on our strategy for completing the work related to a potential site recommendation. Other topics included integrated safety management, strategic planning, and planning and communication activities.

Program-level systems studies
Systems studies serve to ensure that changes evolving from a major decision about one component of the national waste management system are technically integrated with all other components.

The evolution of the reference design had an impact on OCRWM's cost estimates for the radioactive waste management system. Consequently, we also updated the 1998 total system life-cycle cost estimate, which had supported the 1998 viability assessment, to reflect these design changes.

Section 302 of the Nuclear Waste Policy Act requires DOE to review annually the amount of the fees paid into the Nuclear Waste Fund to evaluate whether the fees will provide sufficient revenues to offset the costs of radioactive waste disposal activities authorized by the Act. OCRWM publishes the results of these reviews in a fee adequacy assessment report. OCRWM prepared an updated total system life cycle cost estimate, released in May 2001, to accompany the updated fee adequacy report.

In August 2000, we issued the Major System Management Policy, Revision 1. This document defines how the Program is managed. It implements statutory, regulatory, and Departmental requirements for an integrated program/project management system; states minimum requirements; and establishes a performance-based management approach. The management policy is designed to promote implementation of an integrated management system that functions efficiently and effectively, producing products and services that are timely and of high quality, at the lowest possible cost, and in compliance with applicable statutory, regulatory, and Departmental requirements.

Integrated safety management
DOE requires that safety be systematically integrated into management and work practices at all levels so that missions are accomplished while protecting the public, workers, and the environment. OCRWM met the DOE requirement to have an integrated safety management system in place and verified by September 30, 2000.

As part of our efforts to improve our integrated safety management strategy in Fiscal Year 2000 and to meet DOE's goal, we built on the 1999 revision of the OCRWM Safety Major Management Functions, Responsibilities, and Authorities Manual. We continued to implement DOE's Major System Management Policy, which commits to the institutionalization of an integrated safety management system throughout DOE and in contractor organizations as well, as required by DOE acquisition regulations.

Program-level baseline control
Integrated technical, cost, and schedule baselines are the foundation of our Program/Project Management System. The technical, cost, and schedule components of the baseline must be integrally linked. Because baselines are so important, changes to them must be closely controlled. Our Major System Management Policy outlines a process that ensures that baselines are defined and controlled at the appropriate level of authority. As the Program evolves, baselines are modified, but only after change control boards at each appropriate level approve each change. These boards follow formal procedures to evaluate proposed changes against impact thresholds specified for each level of authority.

The Civilian Radioactive Waste Management System Requirements Document defines the basic technical requirements for a national waste management system. In Fiscal Year 2000, we made important revisions to reflect the evolution of the reference design and addressed repository thermal constraints, particularly with regard to heat and future closure decisions. The revised document requires that the repository design permit closure as early as 30 years after emplacement of the last waste package but not preclude the repository's remaining open for up to 300 years. Another change added a requirement for using solar power as part of the mix at the site. We also incorporated requirements to comply with NRC's proposed rule in 10 CFR 63.

Another significant baseline change was an update of the total projected spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste inventory through 2035. This clarification supports planning a repository design capable of accommodating the full inventory of spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste expected to be generated. Finally, we added definitions to the Civilian Radioactive Waste Management System Requirements Document of various terms used in new requirements.

In Fiscal Year 2000, we also updated the Total System Description, which provides a top-level description of design assumptions for the waste management system's basic physical facilities and concept of operations. It enables senior managers to evaluate the impacts of significant proposed design and operational decisions that affect major subsystems. It also serves as a frame of reference for communication with Program participants, regulatory and oversight bodies, and stakeholders. Because the Program continues to evolve, information that will be presented in the next version of the Total System Description will reflect updates based on activities associated with the enhanced repository design evaluations conducted in Fiscal Year 2000.

During Fiscal Year 2000, we continued with the development and incorporation of updates to the Integrated Interface Control Document. It specifies the physical and operational interface agreements among all components of the national waste management system, including the waste acceptance, transportation, and repository systems, and the utilities and DOE offices whose materials OCRWM will accept. These interfaces are important to the design of a repository because they determine how waste handling facilities and equipment must be designed to accommodate different shipping casks and waste forms.

Information management
Information management involves the strategic application of information technology to enhance productivity, facilitate process improvement, promote information exchange and system interoperability, and reduce overall Program costs. Information management activities include document development and production support, data and records storage, data access and control, information systems and network support, and information security.

In Fiscal Year 2000, information management actions focused on supporting possible site recommendation activities, and preparing for a possible license application and the licensing process. An Architectural Review Board, comprised of members of OCRWM's information management team, was established in Fiscal Year 2000 to evaluate current and future information systems, eliminate duplication and outdated data base functionality, and establish a goal for future growth and consolidation of OCRWM systems. Through this Board, Program-wide information architecture was developed. The Program information base was consolidated into a normalized, distributed data base with a standardized data dictionary.

OCRWM's Information Technology Investment Review Board plans and manages information technology investment decisions. The Board was established pursuant to the Clinger-Cohen Act in Fiscal Year 1999. It met in Fiscal Year 2000 to implement new investment review thresholds, procedures, and criteria used in decision making. We are addressing a number of improvements derived from the lessons learned from last year's meeting.

The processing and indexing of more than 200,000 records and re-indexing of documents in the Information Products Database were completed, thereby increasing document and record retrievability. We also implemented a solution for managing e-mail messages as Federal records. Finally, the Program's data, voice, and video telecommunications network was updated.

We developed and are implementing a Licensing Support Network in anticipation of the license application requirements we will face if the Yucca Mountain site is recommended and approved. In Fiscal Year 2000, we initiated the procurement of a full-text data base management system to provide the retrieval techniques necessary to support licensing, as required by NRC's rule defining the Licensing Support Network's components and features. On August 22, 2000, NRC issued proposed changes to that rule, clarifying the time at which DOE must certify that the initial Licensing Support Network requirements have been met, adding minimum design standards for the network, and modifying the responsibilities of the Commission's Licensing Support Network Administrator. DOE responded by submitting comments on these proposed changes on October 6, 2000.

Staffing

We continue to participate in DOE's Workforce for the 21st Century initiative, termed "Workforce 21," aimed at strengthening DOE's technical and management capability. OCRWM's Workforce 21 Plan outlines our strategy to further streamline and restructure the workforce and to hire and retain personnel with the skills and technical expertise in key areas needed to accomplish our mission.

Federal staffing levels remained relatively stable from the end of Fiscal Year 1999 through Fiscal Year 2000. At the end of Fiscal Year 2000, 169 Federal employees were working in Las Vegas, Nevada, and at the Washington, D.C., Headquarters.

Contractor staffing increased slightly from the end of Fiscal Year 1999; at the end of Fiscal Year 2000, approximately 2,200 contractor full-time equivalents were supporting the Program. The Program's current management and operating contract, awarded in 1991, expired in February 2001. Consistent with DOE's contracting policy regarding management and operating contracts, and in conformance with direction provided in the enacted Energy and Water Development appropriation, we recompeted our management and operating contract. After evaluating submittals by three teams, a follow-on performance-based contract was awarded to a Bechtel/SAIC team on November 14, 2000; that was followed by a transition period of approximately three months.

Scholarship and fellowship programs
Through its Radioactive Waste Management Graduate Fellowship Program, OCRWM provided fellowships to eight graduate students pursuing advanced degrees in disciplines directly related to high-level radioactive waste management at the Nation's top colleges and universities. Fellows complete a practicum assignment that involves research relevant to ongoing site characterization studies either at the Yucca Mountain Site Characterization Project or with Program participants.

Ten undergraduate scholars received scholarships through the Historically Black Colleges and Universities Undergraduate Scholarship Program, sponsored by OCRWM. Recipients are chosen by a panel comprising representatives from historically black colleges and universities and experts in civilian radioactive waste management from the Department's national laboratories, academia, and private industry. The Historically Black Colleges and Universities Undergraduate Scholarship Program is designed to encourage students to consider a career in high-level radioactive waste management by providing support to academically superior juniors and seniors pursuing degrees in related fields at historically black colleges and universities. Undergraduate scholars are encouraged to apply to OCRWM's Radioactive Waste Management Graduate Fellowship Program to increase the diversity of OCRWM's future workforce.

External interactions

Outreach

Each milestone on the path to an operating repository presents opportunities for public participation. To participate meaningfully and constructively, stakeholders want and need information about our work. In turn, we want and need their views as we formulate our plans and assess our performance. Although some of our external interactions have been curtailed in recent years because of funding cuts, we continue to provide information to other parties and to actively solicit their views.

OCRWM interests with many organizations
OCRWM interacts with many organizations


In Fiscal Year 2000, OCRWM's Director, Dr. Ivan Itkin, made extensive efforts to meet the numerous individuals and organizations with which OCRWM interacts to address their concerns and to meet the challenges ahead. The Director and staff, both in Washington, D.C., and Las Vegas, Nevada, met with representatives of over 20 Federal agencies, environmental groups, technical and professional organizations, policy groups, and international organizations, including: These meetings helped to build understanding of our work and enabled us to learn the views of other parties.

We rely heavily on our web site as the most efficient and cost-effective means of making Program documents, announcements, and other materials available to the general public. The OCRWM web site at http://www.ocrwm.doe.gov/ presents current Program and budget plans, major documents, congressional testimony, Federal Register notices, speeches, fact sheets, news releases, and photographs of the Yucca Mountain site. An interactive mailbox on our web site facilitates responses to individual questions and elicits comments. The site is linked to the web sites of other agencies and organizations with which OCRWM regularly interacts, including NRC, EPA, the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board, and the State of Nevada. Web site visitors came from more than 30 countries and represented a variety of government, commercial, academic, and private organizations.

The OCRWM Enterprise, a semiannual newsletter, is posted on our web site. We continued to publish it and distribute it through the mail to meet the needs of interested parties without access to the Internet. The OCRWM calendar is both posted on the web site and published in The OCRWM Enterprise; it announces opportunities for public involvement, Program-wide meetings, and Yucca Mountain tours open to the public.

International cooperation
The United States leads the world in efforts to develop a geologic repository, and the Program actively shares information and fosters safe radioactive waste management around the globe. OCRWM's international activities promote cooperation with other countries and international organizations to exchange information and develop consensus on common issues.

Our international program focuses on areas of technical exchange that will benefit the U.S. high-level radioactive waste management program and further nonproliferation objectives. Currently, the United States holds bilateral agreements with Belgium, Canada, Japan, Switzerland, Sweden, and Spain, and participates in a memorandum of understanding with the Russian Federation. Bilateral agreements are being developed with the United Kingdom and Finland. The primary purpose of these agreements is to exchange information on radionuclide transport; transportation of radioactive materials; environmental effects; public acceptance; and waste treatment, packaging, and storage. Senior OCRWM management have presented briefings and participated in technical exchanges throughout Fiscal Year 2000, most recently with the Russian Federation, Japan, Taiwan, and China.

During Fiscal Year 2000, OCRWM continued to participate in collaborative activities with the Organization for Economic and Cooperative Development/Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

Representing the United States on the Nuclear Energy Agency's 27-nation Radioactive Waste Management Committee, we participated in a number of technical projects. For example, we participated in the Integration Group for the Safety Case, which is the Committee's main implementing group in the area of repository development for long-lived radioactive waste. We attended the Forum on Stakeholder Confidence, which is the Committee's main support group focusing on public perception and confidence. We contributed information to the Thermochemical Database, which is a comprehensive and quality-assured international thermodynamic data base developed for five transuranic elements. We participated in GEOTRAP, an international project aimed at exchanging information and conducting in-depth discussions on approaches to acquiring field data, as well as on testing and modeling the transport of radionuclides in geologic formations.

Our work with the IAEA continued to focus on the development of overall high-level radioactive waste management system technical issues, such as spent fuel burnup credits and spent fuel performance assessment and research. OCRWM also participates in the IAEA Spent Nuclear Fuel Advisory Group.

Similarly, OCRWM collaborates with the International Association for the Environmentally Safe Disposal of Radioactive Materials (EDRAM). EDRAM facilitates the exchange of views on high-level policy issues and stimulates joint research and development projects. The membership of EDRAM includes Belgium, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

During Fiscal Year 2000, OCRWM participated in the first year of the DECOVALEX project, which facilitates international cooperation on modeling and validation of coupled thermo-hydromechanical models. The project will model data from the drift-scale heater test at Yucca Mountain, and several other participating nations will use these data in their own thermo-hydromechanical models.

In the spirit of continued international cooperation, the Department sponsored an international conference on geologic repositories in Denver, Colorado (October 31 - November 3, 1999). Approximately 25 countries maintaining commercial nuclear power programs attended the conference, along with representatives from IAEA and NEA. The conference highlighted global progress on the management of nuclear materials and radioactive waste, and provided a forum to discuss ongoing and planned activities to develop geologic repositories. Both policy and technical aspects of geologic disposal were addressed.

At the close of the conference, participants issued a joint declaration affirming the international community's commitment to the safe management of nuclear waste. As a result of the Denver conference's success, planning is under way through the IAEA to hold a second international conference addressing these global efforts in St. Petersburg, Russia, in 2002.

As a separate initiative, in Fiscal Year 2000, OCRWM worked directly with the Russian Federation in a cooperative program to support our Nation's nonproliferation objectives. In May 2000, OCRWM's Deputy Director and Chief Operating Officer participated in a joint DOE-Russian Academy of Sciences workshop, which addressed potential areas of collaboration in the area of repository development. We also held several meetings during Fiscal Year 2000 with officials of the Russian Federation's Ministry for Atomic Energy (Minatom) in an effort to develop cooperative activities on safe and reliable geologic disposal of radioactive materials, to enhance sharing of joint research and design information, and to expand overall scientific and technological cooperation. OCRWM's Chief Operating Officer is a member of a joint DOE-Minatom working group established to address spent nuclear fuel issues. The working group has coordinated efforts to develop a preliminary list of general issues for the working group to address and expects to issue a report on its findings in Fiscal Year 2001.