INTRODUCTION

Why This Program Matters


Spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste locations in the United States

What is the extent of "the nuclear waste problem"?
Decisions made many decades ago to pursue a nuclear weapons program and to develop nuclear energy for civilian use committed the Nation to perpetual custody of a large and growing inventory of radioactive materials, as described in Appendix C. Spent nuclear fuel from commercial power plants constitutes the largest part of the inventory. The balance consists of nuclear materials managed by the Department of Energy (DOE), which result primarily from defense activities and include spent nuclear fuel from weapons production, domestic research reactors, and foreign research reactors; high-level radioactive waste from reprocessing spent nuclear fuel; surplus weapons-usable plutonium waste forms; and naval spent nuclear fuel.


Future spent nuclear fuel amounts

The Nuclear Waste Policy Act (NWPA) of 1982 created the Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management (OCRWM) to develop a permanent, safe geologic repository for disposal of spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste. The Act affirmed the authority of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) under the Atomic Energy Act and Energy Reorganization Act to authorize construction and operation of the repository. Initially, OCRWM was concerned primarily with disposal of commercial spent nuclear fuel. In 1985, President Reagan determined that defense-related high-level radioactive waste would also be disposed of in the repository. Since then, disposal of DOE-managed nuclear materials has grown in importance.


U.S. disposal policy supports disposition of spent nuclear fuel and
high-level radioactive waste from many sources

The Program Profile in Appendix B provides basic information on the Civilian Radioactive Waste Management Program.

What is at stake?

The Administration continues to believe that permanent geologic disposal should remain the basic goal of the Nation's high-level radioactive waste management policy.

• The international consensus on the management of commercial spent nuclear fuel identifies permanent geologic disposal as the preferred approach. The United States remains committed to disposal of commercial spent nuclear fuel in geologic repositories. This policy assumes that fuel originating in the United States and used in foreign research reactors will be disposed of in a U.S. repository. It undergirds our Nation's advocacy of limiting international trade in weapons-usable nuclear materials and signals our commitment to a policy of nonproliferation of nuclear materials.



• A geologic repository is critical to the accelerated environmental cleanup of numerous DOE sites around the country. That cleanup serves not only an environmental, but also a fiscal goal: reduction of the huge mortgage costs that are the legacy of the Cold War.



• The Department of the Navy is committed to ensuring uninterrupted operation of its nuclear-powered fleet and the management of its spent nuclear fuel to facilitate safe disposal. Naval spent nuclear fuel is currently stored at the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory, for which DOE is responsible. Under a consent agreement among DOE, the Navy, and the State of Idaho, DOE is to remove all the spent nuclear fuel from Idaho by January 1, 2035.



• Operation of nuclear reactors, currently supplying 20 percent of the Nation's electricity, is contingent on NRC's licensing of the reactors, which depends on periodic reviews that NRC conducts to assess prospects for timely disposal of commercial spent nuclear fuel. Without progress toward a repository, continued reactor operations and license renewals could be jeopardized.



• A repository is needed to facilitate the orderly and safe shutdown and decommissioning of older nuclear power plants. Without a repository to accept spent nuclear fuel, utilities will be unable to decommission a closed nuclear power reactor as long as they continue to maintain custody of the spent nuclear fuel.

What have we achieved to date?

High-level radioactive waste management presents a daunting set of challenges: (1) the complexities of managing a large, first-of-its-kind, project in a Federal setting subject to multiple regulatory requirements; (2) the challenges of operating on a scientific frontier; (3) the need to integrate an unusually broad array of scientific, technical, and managerial disciplines; (4) the demands of a complex and lengthy licensing process; and (5) the political sensitivities associated with an inherently controversial mission. The Congress, several Administrations, regulatory and oversight bodies, stakeholders, OCRWM staff and contractors, and DOE's national laboratories have worked steadily toward the policy of geologic disposal. They have achieved significant results:

Enhanced characterization repository block studies

• Landmark legislation, the NWPA, that provided the Federal Government with responsibility for high-level nuclear waste disposal, created a financial mechanism to pay for it, and defined an orderly, open process to develop a waste management system.



• An extensive underground laboratory at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, that gives scientists direct access to geologic formations within which a repository could be housed.



• An increasingly comprehensive body of scientific, engineering, and performance assessment expertise with which we can: (1) design site investigations that yield needed data, (2) use the data to design a repository that could be tailored to the site and comply with NRC's licensing requirements, and (3) develop models simulating the performance of a repository under a range of site conditions over thousands of years.



• The regulatory expertise needed to participate in a complex licensing proceeding that could take at least three years and entail the reviewing of thousands of supporting documents. A shared understanding of how to approach difficult technical issues has been achieved through years of consultation between OCRWM and NRC.



• Important steps toward finalizing the regulatory framework that will govern the site suitability evaluation and a possible licensing proceeding, including issuance of final standards by the Environmental Protection Agency and approaching completion of rulemakings by NRC and DOE.



• Longstanding and productive working relationships that have strengthened our work. Critical comments from oversight bodies, the larger technical and scientific communities, and a host of stakeholders provide the foundation of our efforts to earn public acceptance.

The expertise, data, working relationships, and physical assets that we have developed are the resources with which OCRWM is working. We have reached important milestones in moving toward a national decision on whether to develop a geologic repository at Yucca Mountain. In 1998, we released a comprehensive viability assessment detailing what has been learned from years of site characterization. In 1999, we published a draft environmental impact statement providing the background, data, and analyses to help decision makers and the public understand the potential environmental impacts that could result from a repository at Yucca Mountain.

As the United States approaches the crucial national decision on geologic disposal of its spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste, other nations facing the same challenge are observing our progress. A measure of our achievement is the fact that other nations continue to look to our Program as a model for their own efforts. The discussion of international cooperation in Chapter 3 underscores the importance of the U.S. contribution to resolution of this global problem.

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