The Status of Activities Under the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 (NWPA). PDF Download

Author: U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Office of the Secretary
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Radioactive waste disposal
Languages : en
Pages : 70

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Author: U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Office of the Secretary
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Radioactive waste disposal
Languages : en
Pages : 22

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Book Description

Author: United States. Congress. House. Committee on Science and Technology. Subcommittee on Energy Research and Production
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Radioactive waste disposal
Languages : en
Pages : 676

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Author: United States. Congress. House. Committee on Armed Services. Procurement and Military Nuclear Systems Subcommittee
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Radioactive waste disposal
Languages : en
Pages : 204

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Author: United States. Department of Energy. Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Radioactive waste disposal
Languages : en
Pages : 560

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Author: United States. General Accounting Office
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Nuclear industry
Languages : en
Pages : 144

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Author: Congressional Research Service
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN: 9781979693455
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 50

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Book Description
Management of civilian radioactive waste has posed difficult issues for Congress since the beginning of the nuclear power industry in the 1950s. Federal policy is based on the premise that nuclear waste can be disposed of safely, but proposed storage and disposal facilities have frequently been challenged on safety, health, and environmental grounds. Although civilian radioactive waste encompasses a wide range of materials, most of the current debate focuses on highly radioactive spent fuel from nuclear power plants. The United States currently has no disposal facility for spent nuclear fuel. The Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 (NWPA) calls for disposal of spent nuclear fuel in a deep geologic repository. NWPA established the Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management (OCRWM) in the Department of Energy (DOE) to develop such a repository, which would be licensed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). Amendments to NWPA in 1987 restricted DOE's repository site studies to Yucca Mountain in Nevada. DOE submitted a license application for the proposed Yucca Mountain repository to NRC on June 3, 2008. The State of Nevada strongly opposes the Yucca Mountain project, citing excessive water infiltration, earthquakes, volcanoes, human intrusion, and other technical issues. Licensing and design work for the proposed Yucca Mountain repository was halted under the Obama Administration, which cited continued opposition from Nevada. However, the Trump Administration included funds to restart Yucca Mountain licensing in its FY2018 budget submission to Congress on March 16, 2017. The House-passed omnibus appropriations bill for FY2018 (H.R. 3354, H.Rept. 115-230) includes the Administration's proposed funding for Yucca Mountain. However, the FY2018 Energy and Water Development Appropriations bill approved by the Senate Appropriations Committee (S. 1609, S.Rept. 115-132) would provide no funding. Although no funding has been appropriated for Yucca Mountain activities since FY2010, a federal appeals court on August 13, 2013, ordered NRC to continue the licensing process with previously appropriated funds. The NRC staff completed its safety evaluation report on Yucca Mountain on January 29, 2015, concluding that the repository would meet NRC standards after specific additional actions were taken, such as acquisition of land and water rights. After halting the Yucca Mountain project, the Obama Administration established the Blue Ribbon Commission on America's Nuclear Future to develop an alternative nuclear waste policy. The commission issued its final report on January 26, 2012, recommending a "consent based" process for siting nuclear waste storage and disposal facilities. After OCRWM was dismantled, responsibility for implementing the Obama Administration's nuclear waste policy was given to DOE's Office of Nuclear Energy (NE). In January 2013, NE issued a nuclear waste strategy based on the Blue Ribbon Commission recommendations. The strategy called for a pilot interim storage facility for spent fuel from closed nuclear reactors to open by 2021 and a larger storage facility to open by 2025. A site for a permanent underground waste repository would be selected by 2026, and the repository would open by 2048. DOE issued a draft consent-based nuclear waste siting process on January 12, 2017. A bill to provide the necessary land controls for the planned Yucca Mountain repository (H.R. 3053) was ordered reported by the House Committee on Energy and Commerce on June 28, 2017. As amended by the committee, the bill would authorize DOE to store commercial waste from nuclear power plants at a nonfederal interim storage facility. It would also increase the capacity limit on the Yucca Mountain repository from 70,000 to 110,000 metric tons, in comparison with the 76,500 metric tons currently stored at U.S. nuclear plants, and provide mandatory funding for specific stages of repository development.

Author: Lynn Etheridge Davis
Publisher: Rand Corporation
ISBN: 0833078968
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 127

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Book Description
Following the President's decision in January 2010 to withdraw the license application for a geologic repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, the Secretary of Energy established the Blue Ribbon Commission on America's Nuclear Future (BRC) to consider alternatives to the nation's current institutional arrangements for management and disposition of used fuel and defense high-level nuclear waste. In February 2012, the BRC issued its final report. Among its recommendations was a call for a new, single purpose organization to be established to replace the Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management (OCRWM) in the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) that had been established under the authority of the 1982 Nuclear Waste Policy Act. The BRC suggested that a congressionally chartered federal corporation offers the most promising model, but the commission left open the possibility of alternative concepts to achieve the desired ends. In response to this recommendation, DOE asked the RAND Corporation to examine alternative organizational models for such a new management and disposition organization (MDO). Our study supports the work of DOE's Office of Nuclear Energy and the Management and Disposition Working Group(MDWG) formed to consider implementation options and activities.

Author: United States. Congress. House. Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs. Subcommittee on Energy and the Environment
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Hazardous waste sites
Languages : en
Pages : 624

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Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 69

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Book Description
This is the first revision of the Project Decision Schedule (PDS) for the Civilian Radioactive Waste Management Program. The status date for milestones in the PDS is as of April 1991. This revision replaces the original PDS issued in March 1986. The PDS, which is required by Section 114(e) of the Nuclear Waste Policy Act (NWPA) of 1982, as amended, is to portray the optimum way to attain the operation of the repository. The PDS includes a description of objectives and a sequence of deadlines for all Federal agencies that are required to take action in achieving this goal. The activity deadlines in this issue of the PDS are based on the Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act of 1987 and the Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management's Program Schedule Baseline. The Program Schedule Baseline supports the Secretary of Energy's Report to Congress on Reassessment of the Civilian Radioactive Waste Management Program, November 1989. That report, among other things, contains the results of a comprehensive review of the schedule for repository-related activities, including a realistic assessment of activity durations and past experience. This schedule shows a significant slip for the expected start of repository operations -- from the year 2003 to approximately 2010. To promote the Department of Energy's ability to achieve the new milestones and goals, the Secretary of Energy announced an action plan that centers on gaining access to the Yucca Mountain candidate site to continue the scientific investigations needed to evaluate the site's suitability for a repository and on establishing integrated Monitored Retrievable Storage with a target for spent fuel acceptance in 1998. 5 figs., 6 tabs.