Licensing a Repository: Facts -
FACTS BROCHURE
- There are more than 100 nuclear power complexes
in the United States, with Illinois leading the way.
- Net electrical generation from the nuclear sector has been increasing despite the fact that many of these plants run well under their planned capacity. No new nuclear plant has been licensed since the early 1980s, largely as a result of the near catastrophic meltdown of the No. 2 reactor at the Three Miles Island complex in Pennsylvania in 1979.
- The Bush energy plan calls for renewing nuclear plant construction, citing improved safety records and technology. Critics remain skeptical, and there is no plan for disposing of the waste these plants would produce.
- The new Obama administration will be tasked with determining what will happen to high-level nuclear waste. Here is what he has said:
Obama on Nuclear Waste Storage and Disposal
Obama opposes creating a national nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada, believing the process used to select Yucca Mountain was flawed and the site does not meet the necessary scientific and safety criteria necessary for a nuclear waste storage facility.
At a Senate committee hearing on Yucca Mountain in October 2007, Obama submitted a letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Environment and Public Works Committee Chair Barbara Boxer, calling government leaders to abandon the project and to focus on finding other solutions for nuclear waste disposal.
“The selection of Yucca Mountain has failed, the time for debate on this site is over, and it is time to start exploring new alternatives for safe, long-term solutions based on sound science,” Obama wrote. (Read the full letter.)
The NRC Review Process
- A license application has been submitted to the NRC by the Department of Energy on June 3, 2008. Elements of the License Application
- After the NRC completed its acceptance review of the material contained in the License Application, general information and Safety Analysis Review and announced in the Federal Register (Federal Register Notice of Intent) an opportunity for interested parties to participate in hearings. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) staff determined, pursuant to Section 114(f)(4) of the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982, as amended (NWPA), that it is practicable to adopt, with further supplementation, DOE’s environmental impact statements prepared in connection with the proposed repository at Yucca Mountain, Nye County, Nevada.
- The NRC staff concluded that the Yucca Mountain Final EIS and Repository SEIS did not address adequately all of the repository related impacts on groundwater, or from surface discharges of groundwater, and therefore requested that DOE prepare a supplement to these environmental impact statements. Based on a review of the NRC staff evaluation, the Department has decided to prepare the requested supplement. DOE Issues Notice of Intent to Supplement Repository EIS
- The hearings will be presided over by an Atomic Safety and Licensing Board. Multiple boards may be appointed. Boards typically have three members — an administrative law judge who is a lawyer to run the proceeding and two technical experts. Boards may have more than three members. Board members are drawn from a panel of pre-approved, qualified members.
- Entities and individuals interested in supporting or opposing the repository will be required to file petitions to be admitted as parties to the proceeding, as well as file legally- or technically-relevant contentions.
- The board may permit limited appearances by those wishing to make brief statements but not become parties.
- At the same time the board is performing its legal functions, the NRC staff will conduct a technical review of the general information and SAR. As a result of that review, the NRC staff will generate questions on the license application, referred to as requests for additional information, which DOE will answer in the form of revisions to the general information and SAR.
- The Board will examine the proposed contentions and rule on each. After the NRC staff completes its technical review and the board completes processing proposed contentions, the two efforts will converge in the hearing process. DOE, NRC, and (in some instances) contractor staff will have to take the stand to address contentions admitted by the board. After all contentions and responses have been heard by the board, the board will issue its initial decision regarding construction. If the decision is not overturned by the commissioners or the appellate court, construction can begin.
