Safeguarding Nuclear Waste - After Fukushima, Waste Storage Scrutinized in U.S.

About our program:

In 1982, the U.S. Congress enacted a law called the Nuclear Waste Policy Act (NWPA-as amended). The Act established a comprehensive national program for the safe, permanent disposal of highly radioactive wastes.

The Act directed the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to study suitable sites for a geologic repository. The geologic repository envisioned by the Act is an engineered disposal facility located deep underground. After more than two decades of scientific study, in 2002, Congress and the President approved the development of a geologic repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada.

Churchill County is considered a "Affected Unit of Government" (AULG) by the Nuclear Waste Policy Act. The term "affected unit of local government" means the unit of local government with jurisdiction over the site of a repository or a monitored retrievable storage facility. Such term may, at the discretion of the Secretary, include units of local government that are contiguous with such unit. ([31]NWPA)

The Commissioners of Churchill County established the Yucca Mountain Oversight Program's who's primary goal is to focus the limited resources funded to the affected units of government on:

  • Conducting adequate program oversight and monitoring.

  • Identifying potential impacts affecting the local community areas.

  • Providing appropriate levels of public information.

  • Understanding key geotechnical issues facing the repository program.

  • On-going Socioeconomic Monitoring and Impact Assessment

Churchill County has investigated potential social and economic impacts associated with the repository program. Potential fiscal impacts including impacts to local government revenue sources, and property values have been identified and analyzed for each year. The current update can be accessed here (Churchill County Baseline Report update 2011). Other studies conducted through the program can be found on our Publications page. The County will continue to monitor risk related behavior, its affects on tourism, and the associated economic and fiscal impacts.

The Future of Yucca Mountain:

Final BRC report - BRC Report to the Secretary of Energy - January 2012

2011 Updates

February 17

The NRC issued the following redacted copies of preliminary drafts of Volumes 2 and Volume 3 of the Safety Evaluation Report.

Safety Evaluation Report Related to Disposal of High-Level Radioactive Wastes in a Geologic Repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada Volume 1: General Information

Safety Evaluation Report Related to Disposal of High-Level Radioactive Wastes in a Geologic Repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada Volume 3: Repository Safety After Permanent Closure

Volume 2 - Summarizes the results of the NRC staff's review of the Preclosure operations that the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) described and provided in its June 3, 2008, license application, as updated on February 19, 2009, seeking an authorization to begin construction of a repository at Yucca Mountain.


March 23, 2011

GAO report says "DOE Nuclear Waste: Better Information Needed on Waste Storage at DOE Sites as a Result of Yucca Mountain Shutdown"

Quick View
Summary (HTML)
Highlights Page (PDF)
Full Report (PDF, 40 pages)
Accessible Tex
Recommendations (HTML)

May 2011

May 12: GAO report - COMMERCIAL NUCLEAR WASTE-Effects of a Termination of the Yucca Mountain Repository Program and Lessons Learned. The US General Accounting Office.

August 23, 2011 - "Just two years ago, the GAO estimated that the legal liabilities due to federal inaction on nuclear waste would be "about $12.3 billion in damages through 2020." So, over the last two years, the GAO's estimated legal hit to taxpayers has jumped by more than $3 billion."

What GAO Recommends
GAO suggests that Congress consider whether a more predictable funding mechanism would enhance future efforts and whether an independent organization would be more effective. GAO also recommends that DOE assess remaining risks of the shutdown; create a plan to resume licensing if necessary; and report on federal property and its disposition. NRC concurred with the facts in a draft of this report, but DOE strongly disagreed with the draft and the recommendations, questioning the veracity of GAO's information. GAO continues to believe its findings and recommendations are sound.

June 2011


Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board - Nuclear Waste Assessment System for Technical Evaluation (NUWASTE): Status and Initial Results The report describes work being performed by the Board to evaluate the effects on the management of spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste of various fuel-cycle options being considered by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). Of particular interest to the Board are the types and quantities of the radioactive waste streams that would be generated. The Board has developed a computer-based systems analysis tool (NUWASTE) to support its technical evaluation of DOE activities in this area. Included in the report are initial findings from NUWASTE analyses. Available as: NUWASTE Report; June 2011 (PDF format - 3.8MB)

September 30:

Nuclear Regulatory Commission Suspends Yucca Mountain Licensing Hearings

September 19:

Court urged to intervene in Yucca Mountain dispute - Plaintiffs in a lawsuit against the Nuclear Regulatory Commission have renewed their request for federal judges to order the agency to complete its license review of the Yucca Mountain Project.

The petition was filed Friday Sept. 16th, a week after NRC commissioners directed the agency's Atomic Safety and Licensing Board to continue winding down its work on the proposed Nevada nuclear waste site with the goal to wrap up entirely by Sept. 30.

NRC Makes Public Staff’s Administrative and Programmatic Technical Evaluation Report (September 12, 2011)
  • NUREG-2109, “Technical Evaluation Report on the Content of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Yucca Mountain Repository License Application; Administrative and Programmatic Volume” (ML11255A002).

August 2011:

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has published three NUREG technical evaluation reports (TERs) detailing the agency staff's review of the Department of Energy's license application for a high-level waste repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada.

Publication of the TER provides the staff's technical review of the postclosure information in the Yucca Mountain application. The TER's do not include findings as to whether NRC's regulatory requirements have been satisfied.

"Technical Evaluation Report on the Content of the U.S. Department of Energy's Yucca Mountain Repository License Application; Postclosure Volume: Repository Safety After Permanent Closure," is part of the agency's orderly closeout of the Yucca Mountain license review process and is intended as a public record of the staff's scientific and technical work in preparing for and reviewing the application. It was developed using the draft Volume 3 of the staff's Safety Evaluation Report on the application.

The TER's were prepared as part of the agency's knowledge management activities during the closeout of the Yucca Mountain licensing review.
  • NUREG-1949, Volume 1, "Safety Evaluation Report Related to Disposal of High-Level Radioactive Wastes in a Geologic Repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada; Volume 1: General Information"
  • (July 21, 2011) NUREG-2107, “Technical Evaluation Report on the Content of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Yucca Mountain Repository License Application; Postclosure Volume: Repository Safety After Permanent Closure.” (ML11223A273)
  • NUREG-2108, “Technical Evaluation Report on the Content of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Yucca Mountain Repository License Application; Preclosure Volume: Repository Safety Before Permanent Closure” (ML11250A093)


The Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future

July 2011 - Blue Ribbon Commission's draft report:

The Blue Ribbon Commission on America's Nuclear Future has submitted its draft report to the Secretary of Energy, as required by the Commission charter. The Commission will seek public comment on the draft through October 31, 2011, and will consider those comments in preparing its final report, which is due to the Secretary in January 2012. Comments may be submitted through the Commission web site at www.brc.gov; at one of several public meetings to be held during the comment period (dates and times to be announced soon); via email to brc@nuclear.energy.gov, or in writing to:

Mr. Timothy A. Frazier
Designated Federal Officer
Blue Ribbon Commission on America's Nuclear Future
U.S. Department of Energy
1000 Independence Ave., SW
Washington, DC 20585

The draft report is available at http://brc.gov/sites/default/files/documents/brc_draft_report_29jul2011.pdf.

Watch Blue Ribbon meeting video webcasts provided at this link

“The Commission should conduct a comprehensive review of policies for managing the back end of the nuclear fuel cycle, including all alternatives for the storage, processing, and disposal of civilian and defense used nuclear
fuel and nuclear waste. This review should include an evaluation of advanced fuel cycle technologies that would optimize energy recovery, resource utilization, and the minimization of materials derived from nuclear activities in a manner consistent with U.S. nonproliferation goals.” From the January 29, 2010 - Federal Register Notice of Presidential Memorandum on the Commission

LEE HAMILTON, CO-CHAIRMAN, represented Indiana's 9th Congressional District from January 1965-January 1999. In Congress, Hamilton served as the ranking member of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, and chaired the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. He is president and the director of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, and the director of The Center on Congress at Indiana University.

BRENT SCOWCROFT, CO-CHAIRMAN, served as the national security adviser to Presidents Gerald Ford and George H.W. Bush. Served in the military for 29 years, and concluded at the rank of lieutenant general following service as the deputy national security adviser.

MARK AYERS, president, Building and Construction Trades Department, AFL-CIO

VICKY BAILEY, former commissioner, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission; former Department of Energy assistant secretary for policy and international affairs

ALBERT CARNESALE, chancellor emeritus and professor, UCLA

PETE V. DOMENICI, senior fellow, Bipartisan Policy Center; former U.S. senator from New Mexico

SUSAN EISENHOWER, president, Eisenhower Group Inc.

CHUCK HAGEL, former U.S. senator from Nebraska

JONATHAN LASH, president, World Resources Institute

ALLISON MACFARLANE, associate professor of environmental science and policy, George Mason University

RICHARD A. MESERVE, president, Carnegie Institution for Science; former chairman, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission

ERNIE MONIZ, professor of physics and Cecil & Ida Green Distinguished Professor, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

PER PETERSON, professor and chairman, Department of Nuclear Engineering, University of California-Berkeley

JOHN ROWE, chairman and chief executive officer, Exelon Corp.

PHIL SHARP, president, Resources for the Future

NV. State Legislature

Nevada State Legislature Committee on High Level Waste Video webcasts link

Schedule for the Licensing Hearing

Map of Nevada showing the location of Churchill County and Yucca Mountain

 

homeHome

arrow Back to top

sitemap Site Map

contactContact us