Order Code IB92059
CRS Issue Brief for Congress
Received through the CRS Web
Civilian Nuclear Waste Disposal
Updated March 8, 2005
Mark Holt
Resources, Science, and Industry Division
Congressional Research Service ˜ The Library of Congress

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CONTENTS
SUMMARY
MOST RECENT DEVELOPMENTS
BACKGROUND AND ANALYSIS
Introduction
Other Programs
Nuclear Utility Lawsuits
Nuclear Spent Fuel Legislation
Characteristics of Nuclear Waste
Spent Nuclear Fuel
Commercial Low-Level Waste
Current Policy and Regulation
Spent Nuclear Fuel
Current Program
Waste Facility Schedules
Private Interim Storage
Regulatory Requirements
Alternative Technologies
Funding
Low-Level Radioactive Waste
Current Policy
Regulatory Requirements
LEGISLATION
CONGRESSIONAL HEARINGS, REPORTS, AND DOCUMENTS
FOR ADDITIONAL READING

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Civilian Nuclear Waste Disposal
SUMMARY
Management of civilian radioactive
Yucca Mountain licensing to proceed despite
waste has posed difficult issues for Congress
the state veto was signed by the President July
since the beginning of the nuclear power
23, 2002 (P.L. 107-200).
industry in the 1950s. Federal policy is based
on the premise that nuclear waste can be
Upon releasing the civilian nuclear waste
disposed of safely, but new storage and dis-
program’s FY2006 budget request on Febru-
posal facilities have frequently been chal-
ary 7, 2005, DOE officials announced that the
lenged on safety, health, and environmental
opening of the Yucca Mountain repository
grounds. Although civilian radioactive waste
would be delayed at least two years from the
encompasses a wide range of materials, most
previous goal of 2010. The waste program’s
of the current debate focuses on the highly
funding request of $651.4 million is about
radioactive spent fuel from nuclear power
14% above the FY2005 level but only about
plants.
half the amount that last year’s budget justifi-
cation said would have been needed to open
The Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982
the repository by 2010. DOE officials also
(NWPA) calls for disposal of spent nuclear
announced that a Yucca Mountain license
fuel in a deep geologic repository that is
application to NRC will be delayed by a year,
unlikely to be disturbed for thousands of
to the end of 2005.
years. NWPA established an office in the
Department of Energy (DOE) to develop such
Delays in the Yucca Mountain project
a repository and required the program’s civil-
could be exacerbated by a July 2004 federal
ian costs to be covered by a fee on
circuit court decision that the Environmental
nuclear-generated electricity, paid into the
Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) 10,000-year
Nuclear Waste Fund. Amendments to NWPA
regulatory compliance period for the reposi-
in 1987 restricted DOE’s repository site stud-
tory was too short. However, the court re-
ies to Yucca Mountain in Nevada. DOE is
jected several other challenges to EPA’s
studying numerous scientific issues at Yucca
Yucca Mountain regulations.
Mountain in preparing an application to the
Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) for
Low-level waste sites are a state respon-
the planned repository. Questions about the
sibility under the Low-Level Radioactive
site include the likelihood of earthquakes,
Waste Policy Act of 1980. Pursuant to that
volcanoes, groundwater contamination, and
act, 10 regional compacts for disposal of low-
human intrusion.
level waste have been approved by Congress.
Three commercial low-level waste sites are
NWPA’s goal for loading waste into the
currently operating, in the states of South
repository was 1998, but DOE now does not
Carolina, Utah, and Washington. The Wash-
expect to open the facility until 2012 at the
ington facility is accepting waste just from
earliest. President Bush recommended the site
within the Northwest and Rocky Mountain
to Congress February 15, 2002, and Nevada
regional compacts, and the Utah site accepts
Governor Guinn exercised his right to “veto”
only the least-concentrated class of low-level
the site April 8, 2002. A resolution to allow
waste.
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MOST RECENT DEVELOPMENTS
During the February 7 release of the civilian nuclear waste program’s FY2006 budget
request, Department of Energy (DOE) officials announced that the opening of the planned
nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, would be delayed at least two years
from the previous goal of 2010. The waste program’s funding request of $651.4 million is
about 14% above the FY2005 level but only about half the amount that last year’s budget
justification said would have been needed to open the repository by 2010. DOE officials also
announced that a Yucca Mountain license application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission
(NRC) will be delayed by a year, to the end of 2005.
A key aspect of the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) regulations for the
Yucca Mountain repository was overturned July 9 by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the
District of Columbia Circuit. The three-judge panel ruled that EPA’s 10,000-year
compliance period was too short, but it rejected several other challenges to the standards.
Further delays in the nuclear waste program could prove costly under a settlement
announced August 10 between the Department of Justice and Exelon Corporation, which had
filed a breach-of-contract suit over DOE’s failure to begin accepting spent fuel by 1998 as
required by the Nuclear Waste Policy Act. Under the settlement, Exelon is to be reimbursed
from the federal Judgment Fund for its spent fuel storage costs caused by the waste program
delays. Exelon estimates that it will receive $300 million if DOE begins accepting waste by
2010 as previously scheduled, and up to $600 million if waste acceptance does not begin
until 2015.
The delays in the DOE waste program could increase interest in a planned private
interim waste storage facility in Utah. An NRC licensing board on February 24
recommended that NRC issue a license for the facility, which is being developed by a nuclear
utility consortium called Private Fuel Storage (PFS). The above-ground PFS facility is
intended to store up to 4,000 casks of spent nuclear fuel awaiting eventual disposal at Yucca
Mountain.
BACKGROUND AND ANALYSIS
Introduction
Nuclear waste has sometimes been called the Achilles’ heel of the nuclear power
industry; much of the controversy over nuclear power centers on the lack of a disposal
system for the highly radioactive spent fuel that must be regularly removed from operating
reactors. As a result, progress on nuclear waste disposal is widely considered a prerequisite
for any future growth of nuclear power.
Under the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 (NWPA) and 1987 amendments, the
Department of Energy (DOE) is focusing on Yucca Mountain, Nevada, to house a deep
underground repository for spent nuclear fuel and other highly radioactive waste. The State
of Nevada has strongly opposed DOE’s efforts on the grounds that the site is unsafe, pointing
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to potential volcanic activity, earthquakes, water infiltration, underground flooding, nuclear
chain reactions, and fossil fuel and mineral deposits that might encourage future human
intrusion.
Despite those concerns, DOE contends that the evidence so far indicates that Yucca
Mountain is likely to prove suitable and that licensing of the site by the Nuclear Regulatory
Commission (NRC) should proceed. A Draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS)
completed by DOE in July 1999 and finalized in February 2002 recommended that the
project proceed as planned. However, DOE now does not expect the planned Yucca
Mountain repository to open until 2012 at the earliest, more than a decade later than the 1998
goal specified by NWPA.
The safety of geologic disposal of highly radioactive waste, as planned in the United
States, depends largely on the characteristics of the rock formations from which a repository
would be excavated. Because many geologic formations are believed to have remained
undisturbed for millions of years, it appeared technically feasible to isolate radioactive
materials from the environment until they decayed to safe levels. “There is no scientific or
technical reason to think that a satisfactory geological repository cannot be built,” according
to the National Research Council.
But, as the Yucca Mountain controversy indicates, scientific confidence about the
concept of deep geologic disposal has turned out to be difficult to apply to specific sites.
Every high-level waste site that has been proposed by DOE and its predecessor agencies has
faced allegations or discovery of unacceptable flaws, such as water intrusion or earthquake
vulnerability, that could release radioactivity into the environment. Much of the problem
results from the inherent uncertainty involved in predicting waste site performance for the
10,000 years or longer that nuclear waste is to be isolated. Opponents of geologic disposal
have urged greater emphasis on new or alternative technologies that might allow entirely
different approaches to high-level radioactive waste management.
Other Programs. Other types of civilian radioactive waste have also generated public
controversy, particularly low-level radioactive waste, which is produced by nuclear power
plants, medical institutions, industrial operations, and research activities. Civilian low-level
waste currently is disposed of in large trenches at sites in South Carolina and Washington
state, and the Washington facility does not accept waste from outside its region. The lowest-
concentration class of low-level radioactive waste is also accepted by a Utah commercial
disposal facility, which is no longer seeking approval to receive all major classes of low-level
waste. Threats by states to close their disposal facilities led to congressional authorization
of regional compacts for low-level waste disposal in 1985, although no new sites have been
opened by any of the 10 approved disposal compacts. Pursuant to a 2003 Texas statute, an
application to build a disposal facility for commercial and federal low-level waste in
Andrews County, Texas, was filed August 2, 2004, by Waste Control Specialists LLC.
Nuclear Utility Lawsuits
Nuclear utilities, which pay for most of the high-level waste disposal program through
a fee on nuclear power, have sued DOE for failing to begin the removal of spent nuclear fuel
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from storage at commercial reactors by January 31, 1998, the deadline established by the
Nuclear Waste Policy Act.
In response to a utility lawsuit, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia
Circuit ruled November 14, 1997, that DOE would be liable for unspecified damages to
nuclear utilities if it missed the 1998 deadline. DOE was ordered to work out a remedy with
the utilities under the procedures of the standard disposal contract signed by all nuclear
utilities pursuant to NWPA.
In the first set of rulings on breach-of-contract suits filed by several utilities, the U.S.
Court of Federal Claims decreed on October 29, 1998, that DOE must pay fuel storage costs
for three closed commercial reactors. Those costs are to be determined by future trials; the
three utilities are claiming damages of $2.4 billion. Damage claims were denied to Northern
States Power by another Court of Federal Claims judge on April 6, 1999, but that ruling was
reversed by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on August 31, 2000.
The Appeals court decision cleared the way for nuclear power companies to proceed
with lawsuits in the Court of Federal Claims against DOE. Industry officials contend that
total damages for missing the 1998 disposal deadline could eventually reach tens of billions
of dollars, assuming that no disposal ever takes place. Claims from more than 20 nuclear
utilities are pending.1 The Court of Claims on May 21, 2004, denied a claim of $100 million
in damages from Indiana Michigan Power Company, ruling that the company had not
demonstrated any costs resulting from DOE’s breach of contract.2
DOE has been negotiating with various reactor owners since 1999 on the missed nuclear
waste deadline and reached its first settlement agreement with a nuclear utility, PECO
Energy Co. (now part of Exelon), on July 19, 2000. The agreement allowed PECO to keep
up to $80 million in nuclear waste fee revenues during the subsequent 10 years. However,
other utilities sued DOE to block the settlement, contending that nuclear waste fees may be
used only for the DOE waste program and not as compensation for missing the disposal
deadline. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit agreed, ruling September 24, 2002,
that any compensation would have to come from general revenues or other sources than the
waste fund.
Exelon announced a settlement with the Department of Justice August 10, 2004, in
which compensation for the company’s nuclear waste storage costs would be paid from the
federal Judgment Fund. Exelon, which operates 17 reactors, calculates that it would be
reimbursed $300 million if DOE began taking waste by the previous goal of 2010, and up
to $600 million if the schedule slipped to 2015.
Although some of the program’s delays have been blamed on poor management, DOE
contends that tight funding has been a major barrier. DOE cannot spend the nuclear
industry’s mandatory waste fees without congressional appropriations, and only about half
the total fees collected have been appropriated to the program so far. However, some surplus
1 “More Utility Damage Claims Expected,” NuclearFuel, January 20, 2003, p. 8.
2 Hiruo, Elaine. “Indiana Michigan Mulls Appeal in Spent Fuel Default Case,” Nucleonics Week,
June 3, 2004, p. 5.
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in the fund may be necessary to pay future nuclear waste disposal costs after today’s nuclear
plants have ceased operation. The nuclear industry and others have long urged changes in
the waste program’s funding mechanism but have consistently been stymied by budget
scoring and policy issues.
Nuclear Spent Fuel Legislation
President Bush recommended the Yucca Mountain site to Congress on February 15,
2002, and Nevada Governor Guinn submitted a notice of disapproval, or “state veto,” April
8, 2002, as allowed by NWPA. The state veto would have blocked further repository
development at Yucca Mountain if a resolution approving the site had not been passed by
Congress and signed into law within 90 days of continuous session.
Senator Bingaman introduced the approval resolution in the Senate April 9, 2002
(S.J.Res. 34), and Representative Barton introduced it in the House April 11, 2002 (H.J.Res.
87). The Subcommittee on Energy and Air Quality of the House Committee on Energy and
Commerce approved H.J.Res. 87 on April 23 by a 24-2 vote, and the full Committee
approved the measure two days later, 41-6 (H.Rept. 107-425). The resolution was passed
by the House May 8, 2002, by a vote of 306-117. The Senate Committee on Energy and
Natural Resources approved S.J.Res. 34 by a 13-10 vote June 5, 2002 (S.Rept. 107-159).
Following a 60-39 vote to consider S.J.Res. 34, the Senate passed H.J.Res. 87 by voice vote
July 9, 2002. President Bush signed the resolution July 23, 2002 (P.L. 107-200).
The nuclear industry and its supporters have urged Congress to require DOE to build
an interim storage facility that could begin receiving spent fuel from nuclear power plants
as soon after the missed 1998 deadline as possible. Such a facility, consisting of storage
casks on concrete pads or in surface-based bunkers, could reduce spent fuel storage costs,
increase safety, and fulfill the federal government’s legal obligations, supporters contend (see
NEI perspective at [http://www.nei.org]).
But environmental, anti-nuclear power, and other groups warn that interim storage
would result in earlier transportation of unprecedented quantities of nuclear waste; they
contend it would be safer to leave the waste in place until a permanent solution can be found
(see Nuclear Information and Resource Service perspective at [http://www.nirs.org]).
Characteristics of Nuclear Waste
Radioactive waste is a term that encompasses a broad range of material with widely
varying characteristics. Some has relatively slight radioactivity and is safe to handle, while
other types are intensely hot in both temperature and radioactivity. Some decays to safe
levels of radioactivity in a matter of days or weeks, while other types will remain dangerous
for thousands of years. Major types of radioactive waste are generally defined by DOE and
the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) as follows:
Spent nuclear fuel. Fuel rods that have been permanently withdrawn from a nuclear
reactor because they can no longer efficiently sustain a nuclear chain reaction (although they
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contain uranium and plutonium that could be extracted through reprocessing to make new
fuel). By far the most radioactive type of civilian nuclear waste, spent fuel contains extremely
hot but relatively short-lived fission products (fragments of uranium and other fissile
elements) as well as long-lived radionuclides such as plutonium, which remains dangerously
radioactive for tens of thousands of years.
High-level waste. Highly radioactive residue created by spent fuel reprocessing (almost
entirely for defense purposes in the United States). High-level waste contains most of the
radioactive fission products of spent fuel, but most of the uranium and plutonium usually has
been removed for re-use. Enough long-lived radioactive elements remain, however, to
require isolation for 10,000 years or more.
Transuranic (TRU) waste. Relatively low-activity waste that contains more than a
certain level of long-lived elements heavier than uranium (primarily plutonium). Shielding
may be required for handling of some types of TRU waste. In the United States, transuranic
waste is generated almost entirely by nuclear weapons production processes. Because of the
plutonium, long-term isolation is required.
Low-level waste. Radioactive waste not classified as spent fuel, high-level waste, TRU
waste, or byproduct material such as uranium mill tailings (below). Four classes of low-level
waste have been established by NRC, ranging from least radioactive and shortest-lived to the
longest-lived and most radioactive. Although some types of low-level waste can be more
radioactive than some types of high-level waste, in general low-level waste contains
relatively low amounts of radioactivity that decays relatively quickly. Low-level waste
disposal facilities cannot accept material that exceeds NRC concentration limits.
Uranium mill tailings. Sand-like residues remaining from the processing of uranium
ore. Such tailings have very low radioactivity but extremely large volumes that can pose a
hazard, particularly from radon emissions or groundwater contamination.
Mixed waste. High-level, low-level or TRU waste that contains hazardous non-
radioactive waste. Such waste poses serious institutional problems, because the radioactive
portion is regulated by DOE or NRC under the Atomic Energy Act, while the Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) regulates the non-radioactive elements under the Resource
Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA).
Spent Nuclear Fuel
When spent nuclear fuel is removed from a reactor, usually after several years of power
production, it is thermally hot and highly radioactive. The spent fuel is in the form of fuel
assemblies, which consist of arrays of metal-clad fuel rods 12-15 feet long.
A fresh fuel rod, which emits relatively little radioactivity, contains uranium that has
been enriched in the isotope U-235 (usually 3-5%). But after nuclear fission has taken place
in the reactor, many of the uranium atoms in the fuel rods have been split into a variety of
highly radioactive fission products; others have absorbed neutrons to become radioactive
plutonium, some of which has also split into fission products. Radioactive gases are also
contained in the spent fuel rods. Newly withdrawn spent fuel assemblies are stored in large
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pools of water adjacent to the reactors to keep them from overheating and to protect workers
from radiation.
Spent fuel discharged from U.S. commercial nuclear reactors is currently stored at 72
power plant sites around the nation, plus two small central storage facilities. At the end of
2002 (the most recent DOE survey), commercial spent fuel totaled 46,927 metric tons. A
typical large commercial nuclear reactor discharges an average of 20-30 metric tons of spent
fuel per year — an average of about 2,150 metric tons annually for the entire U.S. nuclear
power industry. As a result, the total amount of commercial spent fuel is expected to exceed
53,000 metric tons by the end of 2005 and 62,000 metric tons by 2010, when the Yucca
Mountain repository is planned to open. Including 7,000 metric tons of DOE spent fuel and
high-level waste that is also planned for disposal at Yucca Mountain, the total amount would
nearly reach NWPA’s 70,000-metric-ton limit by the time the repository is scheduled to
open. (For details on current spent fuel storage, see CRS Report RS22001, Spent Nuclear
Fuel Storage Locations and Inventory, by Anthony Andrews.)
As long as nuclear power continues to be generated, the amounts stored at plant sites
will continue to grow until an interim storage facility or a permanent repository can be
opened — or until alternative treatment and disposal technology is developed. DOE
estimates that the amount of commercial spent fuel and other highly radioactive waste may
grow to 105,000 metric tons by 2035.3
New storage capacity at operating nuclear plant sites or other locations will be required
if DOE is unable to begin accepting waste into its disposal system for another five years or
longer. Most utilities are expected to construct new dry storage capacity for their older fuel.
On-site dry storage facilities currently in operation or planned typically consist of metal casks
or concrete modules. NRC has determined that spent fuel could be stored safely at reactor
sites for up to 100 years.
The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, have heightened concerns about the
vulnerability of stored spent fuel. Concerns have been raised that an aircraft crash into a
reactor’s pool area could drain the pool and cause the spent fuel inside to overheat. A report
released by NRC January 17, 2001, found that overheating could cause the zirconium alloy
cladding of spent fuel to catch fire and release hazardous amounts of radioactivity, although
it characterized the probability of such a fire as low. Nuclear industry representatives
contend that the several hours required for uncovered spent fuel to heat up enough to catch
fire would allow ample time for alternative measures to cool the fuel.
Commercial Low-Level Waste
Low-level waste disposed of in commercial sites makes up about a third of all
accumulated low-level waste in the United States; the remaining two-thirds has been
generated by DOE activities and sent to DOE-owned disposal sites. Several million cubic
feet of commercial low-level waste is shipped to disposal sites each year, according to NRC.
3 DOE Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management. OCRWM Annual Report to Congress,
Fiscal Year 2002. DOE/RW-0560. October 2003. Appendix C.
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Volumes can vary widely from year to year, based on the status of nuclear decommissioning
projects and cleanup activities that can generate especially large quantities.
For more background on radioactive waste characteristics, see CRS Report RL32163,
Radioactive Waste Streams: An Overview of Waste Classification for Disposal, by Anthony
Andrews.
Current Policy and Regulation
Spent fuel and high-level waste are a federal responsibility, while states are authorized
to develop disposal facilities for commercial low-level waste. In general, disposal
requirements have grown more stringent over the years, in line with overall national
environmental policy and heightened concerns about the hazards of radioactivity.
Spent Nuclear Fuel
Current Program. The Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 (NWPA, P.L. 97-425)
established a system for selecting a geologic repository for the permanent disposal of up to
70,000 metric tons (77,000 tons) of spent nuclear fuel and high-level waste. DOE’s Office
of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management (OCRWM) was created to carry out the
program. The Nuclear Waste Fund, consisting of a fee on commercial nuclear power and
federal contributions for emplacement of high-level defense waste, was established to pay
for the program. DOE was required to select three candidate sites for the first national
high-level waste repository.
After much controversy over DOE’s implementation of NWPA, the act was
substantially modified by the Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act of 1987 (Title IV,
Subtitle A of P.L. 100-203, the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1987). Under the
amendments, the only candidate site DOE may consider for a permanent high-level waste
repository is at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. If that site cannot be licensed, DOE must return
to Congress for further instructions.
The 1987 amendments also authorized construction of a monitored retrievable storage
(MRS) facility to store spent fuel and prepare it for delivery to the repository. But because
of fears that the MRS would reduce the need to open the permanent repository and become
a de facto repository itself, the law forbids DOE from selecting an MRS site until
recommending to the President that a permanent repository be constructed. The repository
recommendation occurred in February 2002, but DOE has not announced any plans for an
MRS.
Waste Facility Schedules. Upon releasing the civilian nuclear waste program’s
FY2006 budget request on February 7, 2005, DOE officials announced that the opening of
the planned Yucca Mountain repository would be delayed at least two years from the
previous goal of 2010 — and more than 14 years after the statutory deadline of January 1998.
The waste program’s funding request of $651.4 million is about 14% above the FY2005 level
but only about half the amount that last year’s budget justification said would have been
needed to open the repository by 2010. DOE officials also announced that a Yucca Mountain
license application to NRC will be delayed by a year, to the end of 2005.
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The major activity at the Yucca Mountain site so far has been the construction and
operation of an “exploratory studies facility” (ESF) with a 25-foot-diameter tunnel boring
machine. The ESF consists primarily of a five-mile tunnel with ramps leading to the surface
at its north and south ends. The tunnel boring machine began excavating the north ramp in
October 1994 and broke through to the surface at the south entrance April 25, 1997.
Underground studies are being conducted at several side alcoves that have been excavated
off the main tunnel.
DOE completed a “viability assessment” of Yucca Mountain in December 1998, which
was followed by a draft environmental impact statement (EIS) for the project in July 1999.
DOE issued a preliminary site suitability evaluation August 21, 2001, that found Yucca
Mountain could meet EPA and NRC requirements.
Energy Secretary Abraham on February 14, 2002, recommended to the President that
the Yucca Mountain project go forward. At the same time, the Secretary submitted the final
EIS (see [http://www.ymp.gov/documents/feis_a/index.htm]) and other supporting materials
(for details, see the Yucca Mountain Project home page at [http://www.ocrwm.doe.gov]).
As noted previously, President Bush recommended the Yucca Mountain site to Congress the
day after the Secretary’s recommendation, and Nevada Governor Guinn subsequently
submitted a notice of disapproval, or “state veto,” as allowed by NWPA. An approval
resolution passed by the House and Senate to overturn the state veto was signed by the
President July 23, 2002 (P.L. 107-200).
DOE announced April 8, 2004, that it planned to transport nuclear waste mostly by rail
to the planned Yucca Mountain repository. The Record of Decision on the waste
transportation mode was published in the Federal Register along with the selection of a
corridor in Nevada for a 300-mile rail spur to the Yucca Mountain site. DOE estimated that
Yucca Mountain would receive 9,000-10,000 rail shipments and 3,000-3,300 truck shipments
over a 24-year period after the repository opened. The repository is to be permanently closed
in 2116, according to the DOE viability assessment.
The State of Nevada plans to vigorously oppose the Yucca Mountain license application
when it is submitted to NRC and is also fighting DOE in court. A suit filed in June 2002
charged DOE with violating NWPA by relying too strongly on casks and other engineered
barriers to prevent radioactive releases, rather than on Yucca Mountain’s natural site
characteristics. The most recent, filed January 9, 2003, contended that Congress violated the
Constitution in eliminating all candidate waste sites except Yucca Mountain. The U.S. Court
of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit rejected those challenges July 9, 2004, but
it struck down EPA’s 10,000-year regulatory compliance period as too short.
Nevada also successfully challenged DOE’s June 30, 2004, certification that it had made
all licensing background materials available. NRC requires that such material be available
on its web-based Licensing Support Network at least six months before a repository
application is docketed, so the DOE certification was on the last day that would still allow
docketing before the end of 2004. An NRC licensing board ruled August 31, 2004, that DOE
had not yet placed all relevant information onto the system; however, the board estimated
that completing the task would not “take DOE a significant amount of time.”
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The DOE Total System Life Cycle Cost Report, issued in May 2001 and updated in
September 2003, estimates that the entire program will cost $48.5 billion (in constant 2000
dollars) from 2003 to 2119. The report says the program spent $7.5 billion in year-of-
expenditure dollars through FY2002.
Private Interim Storage. Delays in the federal nuclear waste program have
prompted interest in a private interim storage facility. A utility consortium signed an
agreement with a Utah Indian tribe on December 27, 1996, to develop a private spent fuel
storage facility on tribal land. The Private Fuel Storage (PFS) consortium submitted a
license application to NRC on June 25, 1997, and an NRC licensing board recommended
approval on February 24, 2005.
Project officials told NRC in March 1997 that the dry-cask storage facility would be
located on 98 acres of the sparsely populated reservation of the Skull Valley Band of Goshute
Indians, about 70 miles southwest of Salt Lake City. The initial lease for the site would run
for 25 years, with possible renewal for another 25 years. The facility’s capacity would be
40,000 metric tons, available to any U.S. nuclear utility in addition to the eight consortium
members.
The PFS facility, strongly opposed by the State of Utah, would not require DOE
assistance or congressional or state approval. Six of the eight partners in the PFS consortium
have told the State of Utah that they would continue to fund the project only through the
NRC licensing phase, which is still ongoing, and not move into the construction phase unless
progress on Yucca Mountain were to bog down.
The NRC licensing board had determined on March 10, 2003, that the PFS facility
should not be licensed without sufficient evidence that it could withstand a crash from fighter
jets based nearby. In its February 2005 decision, the three-member panel decided 2-1 that
most crashes would not breach the storage casks and that the probability of radioactive
releases was therefore low enough to allow the facility to be licensed. The U.S. Circuit Court
of Appeals for the 10th Circuit on August 4, 2004, struck down several statutes that Utah had
enacted to block the PFS project, but the state is appealing the decision.
Regulatory Requirements. NWPA requires that high-level waste facilities be
licensed by the NRC in accordance with general standards issued by EPA. Under the Energy
Policy Act of 1992 (P.L. 102-486), EPA was required to write new standards specifically for
Yucca Mountain. NWPA also requires the repository to meet general siting guidelines
prepared by DOE and approved by NRC. Transportation of waste to storage and disposal
sites is regulated by NRC and the Department of Transportation (DOT). Under NWPA,
DOE shipments to Yucca Mountain must use NRC-certified casks and comply with NRC
requirements for notifying state and local governments. Yucca Mountain shipments must
also follow DOT regulations on routing, placarding, and safety.
NRC’s licensing requirements for Yucca Mountain, at 10 CFR 63, require compliance
with EPA’s standards (described below) and establish procedures that DOE must follow in
seeking a repository license. For example, DOE must conduct a repository performance
confirmation program that would indicate whether natural and man-made systems were
functioning as intended and assure that other assumptions about repository conditions were
accurate.
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DOE’s repository siting guidelines, at 10 CFR 960, developed with NRC concurrence,
established the criteria that the Secretary of Energy used in determining the suitability of the
Yucca Mountain site. DOE issued new siting guidelines November 14, 2001, that prompted
the State of Nevada to file a court challenge on December 17, 2001. The new guidelines
replaced numerous individual disqualifying conditions, such as a high rate of water
movement through the repository, with an analysis of “total system performance,” in which
previously unacceptable conditions could be mitigated by other factors. The Nevada lawsuit
contended that the new guidelines allow too much reliance on waste packages and other
engineered barriers, rather than natural geologic features, to prevent radioactive releases from
the repository. However, as noted above, the Court of Appeals rejected that contention on
July 9, 2004.
The Energy Policy Act of 1992 (P.L. 102-486) made a number of changes in the nuclear
waste regulatory system, particularly that EPA must issue new environmental standards
specifically for the Yucca Mountain repository site. General EPA repository standards
previously issued and subsequently revised no longer apply to Yucca Mountain. DOE and
NRC had complained that some of EPA’s general standards might be impossible or
impractical to meet.
The new standards, which limit the radiation dose that the repository could impose on
individual members of the public, were required to be consistent with the findings of a study
by the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), which was issued August 1, 1995. The NAS
study recommended that the Yucca Mountain environmental standards establish a limit on
risk to individuals near the repository, rather than setting specific limits for the releases of
radioactive material or on radioactive doses, as under previous EPA standards. The NAS
study also examined the potential for human intrusion into the repository and found no
scientific basis for predicting human behavior thousands of years into the future.
Pursuant to the Energy Policy Act, EPA published its proposed Yucca Mountain
radiation protection standards on August 27, 1999. The proposal would have limited annual
radiation doses to 15 millirems for the “reasonably maximally exposed individual,” and to
4 millirems from groundwater exposure, for the first 10,000 years of repository operation.
EPA calculated that its standard would result in an annual risk of fatal cancer for the
maximally exposed individual of seven chances in a million. The nuclear industry criticized
the EPA proposal as being unnecessarily stringent, particularly the groundwater standard.
On the other hand, environmental groups contended that the 10,000-year standard proposed
by EPA was too short, because DOE had projected that radioactive releases from the
repository would peak after about 480,000 years.
EPA issued its final Yucca Mountain standards on June 6, 2001. The final standards
include most of the major provisions of the proposed version, including the 15 millirem
overall exposure limit and the 4 millirem groundwater limit. The most significant changes
in the final rules were to require that compliance be demonstrated about one mile closer to
the repository and to double the amount of groundwater that would be analyzed. Despite the
Department’s opposition to the EPA standards, DOE’s site suitability evaluation determined
that the Yucca Mountain site would be able to meet them. NRC revised its repository
regulations September 7, 2001, to conform to the EPA standards.
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In a ruling that could delay the nuclear waste program, a three-judge panel of the U.S.
Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on July 9, 2004, struck down the
10,000-year regulatory compliance period in the EPA and NRC Yucca Mountain standards.
The court ruled that the 10,000-year period was inconsistent with the NAS study on which
the Energy Policy Act required the Yucca Mountain regulations to be based. In fact, the
court found, the NAS study had specifically rejected a 10,000-year compliance period
because of analysis that showed peak radioactive exposures from the repository would take
place several hundred thousand years in the future.
EPA had limited the regulatory period to 10,000 years because of the difficulty in
addressing the inherent uncertainties in demonstrating compliance for longer time frames.
The Administration is not appealing the decision but instead is moving to revise the Yucca
Mountain regulations to accommodate the long-term uncertainties. It remains unclear
whether NRC could begin considering a Yucca Mountain license application from DOE
before revised regulations were in place.
Alternative Technologies. Several alternatives to the geologic disposal of spent
fuel have been studied by DOE and its predecessor agencies, as well as technologies that
might make waste disposal easier. However, most of these technologies involve large
technical obstacles, uncertain costs, and potential public opposition.
Among the primary long-term disposal alternatives to geologic repositories are disposal
in deep ocean trenches and transport into space, neither of which is currently being studied
by DOE. Other technologies have been studied that, while probably not replacing geologic
disposal, might make geologic disposal safer and more predictable. Chief among these is the
concept of “burning” long-lived plutonium and other radionuclides in a special nuclear
reactor or particle accelerator, converting them to faster-decaying fission products.
Funding. The nuclear waste program’s FY2006 funding request of $651.4 million
is about 14% above the FY2005 level but only about half the amount that last year’s budget
justification said would have been needed to open the repository by 2010.
Last year, the FY2005 budget request for the nuclear waste program had assumed that
Congress would enact legislation to offset most of the program’s spending with revenue from
the nuclear waste fee, which currently is not available without appropriation. Because last
year’s net appropriations request was relatively small, congressional appropriators had to
scramble to find funding for the nuclear waste program when the Administration’s fee-offset
proposal was not enacted. For FY2006, the Administration is again proposing that nuclear
waste funding be offset by fees, but the budget request does not assume the proposal will be
enacted and therefore includes full funding through appropriations.
One of the largest proposed increases in the civilian waste disposal budget request is for
transportation, which would rise from $30.7 million in FY2005 to $85.4 million in FY2006.
The 178% increase is needed for developing a new branch rail line to Yucca Mountain and
for preparing a national waste transportation system, according to the budget justification.
Funding for waste disposal packages would triple under the budget request, to $14.5 million,
and funding to develop a nuclear waste handling facility at Yucca Mountain would rise 45%
to $30 million.
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Funding for the program is provided under two appropriations accounts, as shown in
Table 1. The Administration is seeking $300.0 million from the Nuclear Waste Fund, which
holds the fees paid by nuclear utilities. An additional $351.5 million is being requested
under the Defense Nuclear Waste Disposal account, which pays for disposal of high-level
waste from the nuclear weapons program in the planned Yucca Mountain repository.
Although nuclear utilities pay fees to the Nuclear Waste Fund to cover the disposal
costs of civilian nuclear spent fuel, DOE cannot spend the money in the fund until it is
appropriated by Congress. Through the end of FY2004, utility nuclear waste fees and
interest totaled $22.509 billion, of which $6.160 billion had been disbursed to the waste
disposal program, according to DOE’s program summary report (see [http://www.ocrwm.
doe.gov/pm/budget/]), leaving a balance of $16.349 billion in the Nuclear Waste Fund. The
nuclear waste program’s appropriations for FY1983-FY2004 total $8.076 billion, according
to DOE, including $2.344 billion for defense waste disposal.
Table 1. DOE Civilian Spent Fuel Management Funding
(in millions of current dollars)
Program
FY2003
FY2004
FY2005
FY2006
Approp.
Approp.
Approp.
Request
Yucca Mountain
368.3
403.6
413.1
427.3
Transportation
7.9
63.6
30.7
85.4
Program integration
21.2
29.7
49.3
57.2
Program direction
59.6
79.8
79.4
81.5
Total
457.0
576.6
572.4
651.4
Source of Funding
Nuclear Waste Fund approp.
144.1
188.9
343.3
300.0
Defense waste appropriations
313.0
387.7
229.2
351.4
Sources: House and Senate Appropriations Committees, DOE FY2006 Congressional Budget Request,
Congressional Record.
Low-Level Radioactive Waste
Current Policy. Selecting disposal sites for low-level radioactive waste, which
generally consists of low concentrations of relatively short-lived radionuclides, is a state
responsibility under the 1980 Low-level Radioactive Waste Policy Act and 1985
amendments. Most states have joined congressionally approved interstate compacts to
handle low-level waste disposal, while others are developing single-state disposal sites.
Under the 1985 amendments, the nation’s three (at that time) operating commercial low-level
waste disposal facilities could start refusing to accept waste from outside their regional
interstate compacts after the end of 1992. One site is currently using that authority and
another closed, leaving one open to nationwide disposal of all major types of low-level
waste. A third site, in Utah, has since become available nationwide for most Class A low-
level waste. The Utah site’s operator, Envirocare, applied to the State on November 1, 1999,
for a license amendment to accept Class B and C waste as well. However, the facility was
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sold on February 1, 2005, and the new owners immediately announced their withdrawal of
the Class B and C license application.
Despite the 1992 deadline, no new disposal sites have been opened. A facility in
California’s Ward Valley to serve California, Arizona, North Dakota, and South Dakota
received a state operating permit in 1993. However, the site is on federal land, which the
Department of the Interior would not transfer to the state as had originally been expected.
Legislation providing congressional consent to a compact among Texas, Maine, and
Vermont was signed by President Clinton September 20, 1998 (P.L. 105-236). However, on
October 22, 1998, a proposed disposal site near Sierra Blanca, Texas, was rejected by the
Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission, and Maine has since withdrawn. Texas
Governor Perry signed legislation June 20, 2003, authorizing the Texas Commission on
Environment Quality to license adjacent disposal facilities for commercial and federally
generated low-level waste. Pursuant to that statute, an application to build a disposal facility
for commercial and federal low-level waste in Andrews County, Texas, was filed August 2,
2004, by Waste Control Specialists LLC.
The Midwestern Compact voted June 26, 1997, to halt development of a disposal
facility in Ohio. Nebraska regulators rejected a proposed waste site for the Central Compact
December 21, 1998, drawing a lawsuit from five utilities in the region. A U.S. district court
judge ruled September 30, 2002, that Nebraska had exercised bad faith in disapproving the
site and ordered the state to pay $151 million to the compact. A settlement was reached
August 9, 2004, in which Nebraska will pay the compact $140.4 million, and the compact
will seek access to the planned Texas disposal facility. Most other regional disposal
compacts and individual states that have not joined compacts are making little progress
toward finding disposal sites, largely because of public opposition and the continued
availability of the disposal facilities in South Carolina and, for most Class A waste, Utah.
One disposal facility, at Barnwell, S.C., is currently accepting all Class A, B and C
low-level waste from most states. The Barnwell facility had stopped accepting waste from
outside the Southeast Compact at the end of June 1994. The Southeast Compact Commission
in May 1995 twice rejected a South Carolina proposal to open the Barnwell site to waste
generators outside the Southeast and to bar access to North Carolina until that state opened
a new regional disposal facility, as required by the compact. The rejection of those proposals
led the South Carolina General Assembly to vote in 1995 to withdraw from the Southeast
Compact and begin accepting waste at Barnwell from all states but North Carolina. North
Carolina withdrew from the Southeast Compact July 26, 1999, a move that prompted a
lawsuit from the compact on July 10, 2000.
South Carolina joined the Atlantic Compact (formerly the Northeast Compact) with
Connecticut and New Jersey on July 1, 2000. Under the compact, South Carolina can limit
the use of the Barnwell facility to the three compact members. A state law enacted in June
2000 phases out acceptance of non-compact waste through 2008.
The only other existing disposal facility for all three major classes of low-level waste
is at Hanford, Washington. Controlled by the Northwest Compact, the Hanford site will
continue taking waste from the neighboring Rocky Mountain Compact under a contract.
States barred from access to existing disposal facilities are likely to require low-level waste
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generators to store their waste on site until new disposal sites are available, particularly for
Class B and C waste.
Regulatory Requirements. Licensing of commercial low-level waste facilities is
carried out under the Atomic Energy Act by NRC or by “agreement states” with regulatory
programs approved by NRC. NRC regulations governing low-level waste licenses must
conform to general environmental protection standards and radiation protection guidelines
issued by EPA. Transportation of low-level waste is jointly regulated by NRC and the
Department of Transportation.
Most states considering new or expanded low-level waste disposal facilities, including
Texas and Utah, are agreement states. Most states, both agreement and non-agreement, have
established substantially stricter technical requirements for low-level waste disposal than
NRC’s, such as banning shallow land burial and requiring concrete bunkers and other
engineered barriers. NRC would issue the licenses in non-agreement states.
LEGISLATION
H.R. 526 (Berkley)
Redirects the Nuclear Waste Fund established under the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of
1982 into research, development, and utilization of risk-decreasing technologies for the
onsite storage and eventual reduction of radiation levels of nuclear waste. Introduced
February 2, 2005; referred to Committees on Energy and Commerce; Science; and Ways and
Means.
H.R. 895 (Berkley)
Provides for interagency planning for preparing for, defending against, and responding
to the consequences of terrorist attacks against the Yucca Mountain Project. Introduced
February 17, 2005; referred to Committees on Energy and Commerce and Homeland
Security.
CONGRESSIONAL HEARINGS, REPORTS, AND DOCUMENTS
U.S. Congress. House. Committee on Energy and Commerce. Subcommittee on Energy and
Air Quality. A Review of the President’s Recommendation to Develop a Nuclear Waste
Repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. Hearing, 107th Congress, 2nd session. April 18,
2002. Washington, U.S. Govt. Print. Off., 2002. 294 p.
“Serial no. 107-99”
U.S. Congress. House. Committee on Commerce. Subcommittee on Energy and Power.
Status of the Department of Energy Program to Develop a Permanent Geologic
Repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. Hearing, 106th Congress, 2nd session. June 23,
2000. Washington, U.S. Govt. Print. Off., 2000. 165 p.
“Serial no. 106-151”
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U.S. Congress. Senate. Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. Low-Level Radioactive
Waste. Hearing, 108th Congress, 2nd session. September 30, 2004. Washington, U.S.
Govt. Print. Off., 2005. 62 p.
—— — Yucca Mountain Repository Development. Hearings, 107th Congress, 1st session.
May 16, 22, and 23, 2002. Washington, U.S. Govt. Print. Off., 2002. 240 p.
S. Hrg. 107-483.
——Nuclear Waste Litigation. Hearing, 106th Congress, 2nd session. September 28, 2000.
Washington, U.S. Govt. Print. Off., 2001. 58 p.
S. Hrg. 106-918
U.S. Congress. Senate. Committee on Environment and Public Works. Disposal of Low-
Level Radioactive Waste. Hearing, 106th Congress, 2nd session. July 25, 2000.
Washington, U.S. Govt. Print. Off., 2001. 166 p.
FOR ADDITIONAL READING
Harvard University. John F. Kennedy School of Government. Belfer Center for Science and
International Affairs. The Economics of Reprocessing vs. Direct Disposal of Spent
Nuclear Fuel. DE-FG26-99FT4028. December 2003.
League of Women Voters Education Fund. The Nuclear Waste Primer. Washington, D.C.,
1993. 170 p.
Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board. Report to the U.S. Congress and the U.S. Secretary
of Energy. May 2004. 152 p.
U.S. Department of Energy. Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management home page;
covers DOE activities for disposal, transportation, and other management of civilian
nuclear waste. [http://www.ocrwm.doe.gov]
U.S. General Accounting Office. Nuclear Waste: Impediments to Completing the Yucca
Mountain Repository Project. GAO/RCED-97-30. January 1997. 56 p.
——Low-Level Radioactive Waste: Disposal Availability Adequate in the Short Term, but
Oversight Needed to Identify Any Future Shortfalls. GAO-04-604. June 2004. 53 p.
U.S. Geological Survey. Yucca Mountain as a Radioactive-Waste Repository. Circular
1184. 1999. 19 p.
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