Key Issues
Yucca Mountain Licensing Process to Provide Rigorous, Fair Safety Determination
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Licensing Process Is Open to the Public
DOE’s license application references studies conducted by more than 3,000 scientists and engineers representing five national laboratories and several major universities. The licensing process will require full public disclosure of all documentation of this work.
The NRC established an Internet-based Licensing Support Network to catalog these documents. Already, millions of documents are available for public viewing at www.lsnnet.gov . The NRC also plans to test the value of webcasting licensing hearings to further expand access to this information.
Scientific and technical issues to be considered in the licensing process already have been the subject of an extensive public dialogue. Since Congress approved the Yucca Mountain site in 2002, DOE and the NRC have met dozens of times in public to discuss, in considerable detail, the preliminary information upon which DOE is basing its license application. These interactions have provided the two agencies and other participants with a keen understanding of the scientific and technical information contained in the application.
All hearings and numerous related interactions held during the licensing process will be open to the public. Most licensing hearings will be in Las Vegas.
Process to Continue Beyond Initial Decisions
A key feature of the NRC licensing process is the ability to include scientific discovery and technical advances over several decades of repository operations. Even as it pursues a license for Yucca Mountain, DOE will continue to address technical issues and conduct scientific investigations at the site. That effort also will continue throughout the operational period of the facility.
These additional investigations will provide further improvement to the repository’s long-term performance and build added confidence in systems to protect public health and safety well into the future. Given this approach, the NRC will have several opportunities to adjust its licensing decisions when the agency makes future decisions to authorize repository operations and closure.
DOE also will retain the ability to retrieve the used fuel rods for an extended period. This would further assure repository performance and provide DOE the option of employing advanced recycling technologies to derive additional energy from the material. Recycling the material using advanced technologies could reduce significantly the heat, volume and radiotoxicity of remaining byproducts that DOE must deposit in the repository.
Licensing Process Is Open to the Public
DOE’s license application references studies conducted by more than 3,000 scientists and engineers representing five national laboratories and several major universities. The licensing process will require full public disclosure of all documentation of this work.
The NRC established an Internet-based Licensing Support Network to catalog these documents. Already, millions of documents are available for public viewing at www.lsnnet.gov . The NRC also plans to test the value of webcasting licensing hearings to further expand access to this information.
Scientific and technical issues to be considered in the licensing process already have been the subject of an extensive public dialogue. Since Congress approved the Yucca Mountain site in 2002, DOE and the NRC have met dozens of times in public to discuss, in considerable detail, the preliminary information upon which DOE is basing its license application. These interactions have provided the two agencies and other participants with a keen understanding of the scientific and technical information contained in the application.
All hearings and numerous related interactions held during the licensing process will be open to the public. Most licensing hearings will be in Las Vegas.
Process to Continue Beyond Initial Decisions
A key feature of the NRC licensing process is the ability to include scientific discovery and technical advances over several decades of repository operations. Even as it pursues a license for Yucca Mountain, DOE will continue to address technical issues and conduct scientific investigations at the site. That effort also will continue throughout the operational period of the facility.
These additional investigations will provide further improvement to the repository’s long-term performance and build added confidence in systems to protect public health and safety well into the future. Given this approach, the NRC will have several opportunities to adjust its licensing decisions when the agency makes future decisions to authorize repository operations and closure.
DOE also will retain the ability to retrieve the used fuel rods for an extended period. This would further assure repository performance and provide DOE the option of employing advanced recycling technologies to derive additional energy from the material. Recycling the material using advanced technologies could reduce significantly the heat, volume and radiotoxicity of remaining byproducts that DOE must deposit in the repository.
