Licensing Facts

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Licensing Support Network (LSN)

Mineral County's Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Oversight Program's documentation has been certified with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's Pre-hearing Application Presiding Officer Board (PAPO) complying with the NRC rules. You can view all of Mineral's documentation on our publications page.

To access the NRC's Licensing Application Network, which contains the current documentation from the DOE, NRC, NEI, State of Nevada, Affected Units of Local Government and others please click here.

Fact Sheet: Contents of the License Application

Fact Sheet: The U.S. Department of Energy's Role in the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's Licensing Process for a Repository

Fact Sheet: Licensing Support Network

Fact Sheet: Repository Licensing Overview

Public Hearings Transcript

General Yucca Mountain Information

Licensing a Repository:

Update - February 1, 2010 - The Obama Administration has indicated that it does not support developing a repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. Consistent with that position, DOE may submit to the NRC a motion to withdraw or suspend its Yucca Mountain license application during FY 2010.

It is important to note that Congress created a legal obligation in 1982 establishing a comprehensive federal policy to resolve the nations problem of what to do with wastes from nuclear reactors and defense facilities. The policy centers on deep geologic disposal of high-level radioactive waste. Nuclear Waste Policy Act.

For more information please see these webpages:

US Office of Mangement and Budget (DOE)

http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/fy2011/assets/doe.pdf

In passing the Nuclear Waste Policy Act, Congress assigned the primary responsibility for implementing this national policy to the Department of Energy (DOE). On February 14, 2002, Spencer Abraham, Secretary of Energy, recommended Yucca Mountain to President Bush (4 page letter) . On February 15, 2002, having received the Secretary’s recommendations, President Bush considered the site qualified for a construction authorization and urged congress to undertake necessary legislative action to expedite the process (President Bush's letter to Congress). As directed by congress the DOE prepared and submitted a licensing application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission on June 3, 2008 seeking authorization to construct a high-level waste geologic repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. For details, see the following documents and correspondence from DOE:

• Transmittal Letter (June 3, 2008)
• General Information
• Safety Analysis Report (SAR)
• 2002 Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS)
• 2008 Final Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement
• Letter to NRC re: Notification of Plan for Supplementing the Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) (October 3, 2008)

 

Where can the public access the LSN?

You can access the LSN on the Internet at http://www.lsnnet.gov/. If you do not have access to the Internet, you can find public Internet access at the following locations:

• Pahrump Yucca Mountain Information Center
• Most community libraries
• Most colleges and universities

The U.S. Department of Energy's role in the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's licensing process for a repository

Environmental Protection Agency

Several documents that you may find useful in learning about EPA's Yucca Mountain standards and the basis for them are included in the following kinds of information:

Yucca Mountain regulatory documents

Licensing Hearing Schedules

Updated schedule August of 2009:

Key Milestones	Completion Date (days after receipt of application)
Publication of FRN announcing opportunity for hearings	10/22/08
Deadline for filing petitions for intervention & contentions	12/22/08
Answers to intervention and interested government participant Petitions	02/10/09
Petitioner’s response to answers	02/24/09
First Prehearing Conference	03/12/09
First Prehearing Conference Order identifying participants in proceeding, admitted contentions, and setting discovery and other schedules	05/11/09

 

Schedule for the Proceeding on Consideration of Construction Authorization for a High-Level Waste Geologic Repository.

Schedule for the Proceeding on Consideration of Construction Authorization for a High-Level Waste Geologic Repository (After SER is Issued)

 

The Hearing Process

Hearings are conducted in accordance with the Rules of Practice established in 10 CFR Part 2 of NRC's regulations.

To learn more about the NRC's rules of practice that govern the conduct of NRC hearings, the NRC has provided resources for understanding 10 CFR Part 2. For information about decisions resulting from these hearings, see the Hearing Decisions page.

The NRC's hearing process makes it possible for the public to get a full and fair hearing on civilian nuclear matters. Administrative judges from the NRC's Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Panel (ASLBP) generally conduct these hearings. On rare occasions the Commission itself may preside at a hearing. The ASLBP's judges are employees of the NRC; however, under NRC rules and under the Administrative Procedure Act, they are independent from the NRC staff. The judges have no stake in the outcome of a proceeding, and reach objective decisions based on the record.

The Commission entertains appeals and petitions for review of the decisions of the ASLBP. A special Commission office (Office of Commission Appellate Adjudication) assists the Commission in these reviews by analyzing the cases, determining the legal options for a final decision, and drafting decisions for the Commission in accordance with the Commission's guidance. The Secretary of the Commission maintains the files for NRC's licensing and enforcement adjudications, known as the Adjudicatory Docket.

To participate in NRC hearings, members of the public must explain the nature of their interest in the proposed NRC licensing or enforcement action and set forth the reasons and bases for their concerns. Generally, hearings are sought by those who reside or work near an affected nuclear facility and who believe that a proposed action raises environmental or safety questions. Participants in NRC hearings have included individuals, citizen groups, private businesses, and governmental bodies. For more on how to become involved in the hearing process regulations see NRC page on Public Involvement in Hearings page.

NRC's regulations in 10 CFR Part 2 specify different types of hearing processes for different types of agency actions. For some cases, particularly in the enforcement and certain reactor licensing areas, the NRC employs a formal, trial-type process similar to the procedures used in non-jury Federal court lawsuits, including pre-trial discovery between the parties and questioning of witnesses at an evidentiary hearing. In most cases, however, the NRC follows a more informal hearing process. Decisions of licensing boards can be appealed to the Commission, and Commission decisions can be appealed to the U.S. Courts of Appeals.

Contention submittals:

The Nevada Counties of Churchill, Esmeralda, Lander and Mineral filed joint contentions on December 19, 2008. As " Affected Units of Local Government" (AULG) and pursuant to the Nuclear Waste Policy Act, as amended. (42 U.S.c. §10247 et seq.) and pursuant to Nuclear Regulatory Commission Federal Register Notice Vol. 73, No. 205, dated October 22,2008, "any AULG seeking party status shall be considered a party to this proceeding, provided that it files at least one admissible contention in accordance with 10 CFR 2.309. An AULG need not address the standing requirements under that section."

Four counties petitions to intervene (due to large file sizes the petition is broken into 6 sections):

Section 1
Section 2
Section 3
Section 4
Section 5
Section 6

Four Counties Notice of Adoption of Contentions

ATOMIC SAFETY & LICENSING BOARD ADMITS EIGHT PARTIES 299 CONTENTIONS IN YUCCA MOUNTAIN PROCEEDING

Summary of four county contentions accepted for hearing

Our Trackhearings link has all the updates related to the ongoing Yucca Mountain High-Level Waste hearings.

All petitions to intervene and the DOE responses can be viewed at trackhearings.com

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