Key Issues
Government Must Meet Used Fuel Responsibility Including Completion of Yucca Mountain Facility
Government Calls for Repository; Looks to Yucca Mountain
The Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 and its 1987 amendments assigned to DOE the responsibility for managing used fuel from commercial nuclear power plants and nuclear waste from U.S. defense and research activities. The law levied a tax on electricity generated by nuclear power to pay for the federal government’s waste program.
Under contracts with electric companies, DOE agreed to accept the used fuel at a repository, beginning in 1998. Consumers have committed $30 billion to the Nuclear Waste Fund.
Presidential and congressional approvals of the site in 2002 resulted in the Yucca Mountain Development Act. This is the government’s most significant step to date toward meeting its obligation. However, DOE is still years behind in meeting its commitment to electricity ratepayers. DOE must obtain licenses from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to build and operate the repository and prepare for transportation of fuel to the facility.
Several obstacles have slowed DOE’s efforts to complete a license application for Yucca Mountain, but the agency has met some regulatory and management challenges.
DOE plans to submit a license application to the NRC by June 2008. Under DOE’s “best-achievable” construction schedule, the repository could open in 2017. This assumes Congress will appropriate full funding for the project each year. This also assumes timely approval of the license application by the NRC. DOE officials have conceded that, given these obstacles, 2021 is a more likely opening date.
While preparing the application, DOE held numerous pre-licensing discussions with the NRC. These discussions have helped resolve technical issues raised by the NRC. The documentation resulting from this process should expedite the licensing review. This strong record of accomplishment supports the NRC’s commitment to review the license application within four years, as mandated by law.
Under the terms of the 1982 law, DOE also must assume ownership of the used fuel and remove it from nuclear plant sites. Preferably, the agency will use multi-purpose canisters approved by the NRC for storage and transportation of the used fuel. In addition, DOE must be responsible for providing and paying for storage. Simply taking ownership of the used fuel and leaving it at current locations defers this issue to future generations.
Yucca Mountain Is Fundamental Part of Advanced Fuel Cycles
Reassessment of the nation’s used fuel management policies, together with the expansion of nuclear power, has spurred new interest in recycling used nuclear fuel. The industry fully supports the development of advanced nuclear fuel cycles, including advanced reprocessing technology, and considers a successful repository program an essential step toward achieving these goals. Even advanced fuel cycles will produce radioactive byproducts that will require disposal in a repository.
The development of advanced nuclear fuel cycles should not delay progress on the Yucca Mountain repository. Advanced fuel cycles will require significant investment. To make that investment with confidence, the federal government must progress further toward managing the byproducts of today’s fuel cycle. In reality, DOE will modify the repository many times to accommodate future developments over the 50- to 300-year period that it is expected to be open. DOE has said the license application will include methods for disposing of waste from advanced recycling technology in the repository. But the disposal of today’s byproducts must not be put on hold while we develop new technologies. Completion of the Yucca Mountain project therefore should remain a national priority.
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