One Step at a Time The Staged Development of Geologic Repositories for High-Level Radioactive Waste (2003) / Chapter Skim
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5. Specific Applications to the Yucca Mountain Project
5. Specific Applications to the Yucca Mountain Project
Pages 99-122
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5.1 Impacts of Adaptive Staging on the U.S. repository program Impacts of Adaptive Staging on a generic repository program are given in Chapter 4 while specific impacts on the Yucca Mountain Project are in the following section.
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, and sequences of events and processes (except human intrusion) that might affect the Yucca Mountain disposal system and their probabilities of occurring during 10,000 years after disposal; (2)
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The USNRC does not indicate whether it will consider or evaluate results beyond the 10,000-year compliance term, but the USNRC does require the DOE application to be accompanied by the environmental impact statement that presents and evaluates these results.a In response to concerns that performance assessments would be relied upon as the sole quantitative technique for evaluating compliance the USNRC stated: "Although repository post-closure performance is evaluated with respect to a single performance measure for individual protection, the NRC considers a broad range of information in arriving at a licensing decision. In the case of the proposed repository at Yucca Mountain, Part 63 contains a number of requirements (e.g., qualitative requirements for data and other information, the consideration and treatment of uncertainties, the demonstration of multiple barriers, performance confirmation program, and QA program)
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approach to a high-level waste geologic repository. In 2002, Nevada vetoed the site recommendation but Congress overrode the veto and authorized DOE to apply for a license to construct the repository at Yucca Mountain (not shown)
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DOE could choose in its first application for a construction authorization to propose a pilot stage of the reference design. The license application would be based on the full safety analysis for 70,000 metric tons of heavy metal (ISTHMI.
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Examples of the types of activities and tests for the pilot stage might include: · movement of wastes from the surface to the subsurface, while ensuring all aspects of worker safety; · demonstration of emplacement and retrieval of waste packages in the presence of drip shields, using both simulated and actual radioactive waste; analysis of worker exposure to radiation and industrial accident risk when handling, packaging, and emplacing waste using associated equipment; · analysis of barriers to develop a good safety culture; . monitoring the engineered barriers and adjacent natural systems in great detail; .
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As a part of the pilot operation or as a special test, a demonstration of retrieval should provide proof of the implementer's capability to retrieve waste from Yucca Mountain. Such demonstration should be transparent to stakeholders, the USNRC, and other oversight groups, such as the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board3 (NWTRB)
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The "general public" in this committee's report is all other citizens who may have a stake in the siting and management decisions of the Yucca Mountain repository but who remain as spectators unengaged in the decision process.
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An example of Linear approach in DOE's current program is its view that reversibility is guaranteed because Congress can direct the abandonment of the Yucca Mountain site (Williams, 2002~. The committee concludes that reversibility is not an inherent attribute of the DOE program; rather, DOE considers reversibility as something externally imposed.
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constructing the repository and beginning operations under current schedules and budgets; · designing and implementing a transportation plan; · working to maintain or enhance scientific and institutional credibility; working to maintain effective working relationships with the nuclear power utility companies who possess the spent fuel to be disposed of at Yucca Mountain; and . improving working relationships with stakeholders and the general public.
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Introducing a pilot stage and a test facility is an example of how an Adaptive Staging approach can address the challenge of completing the design and operational details of the Yucca Mountain repository. The initial pilot and test facilities could test with non-radioactive waste various alternatives for waste configuration, waste packages, backfills, and thermal operating modes in repository management.
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The three main challenges in the Yucca Mountain repository licensing process are (~) ensuring completeness of the application; (2)
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The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission should evaluate whether a license application meets the applicable regulations based on a review of what is in the application.
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For example, although Section 4.~.2 of the USNRC's Yucca Mountain Review Plan does not specifically require a physical demonstration of retrieval and alternative storage under Adaptive Staging, doing so would be expected to yield knowledge and experience to ensure reversibility. · Choosing licensing stages within the current regulatory framework.
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Their purpose would be to evaluate alternatives to the baseline design, such as better understanding of the site's local hydrology and monitoring needs; different thermal density limits for repository waste loading; different designs and materials for the drip shields; possible internal filler materials for the spent fuel waste packages to enhance their retention of key isotopes when corrosion finally penetrates the canister;8 and alternatives to the designs for receipt of waste, buffer storage, handling, packaging, and emplacement that could enhance safety or reduce cost without a safety detriment. The information obtained from this work would enter into the current licensing process only if it revealed something significantly adverse to the current application.
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For the licensing actionsconstruction authorization and license to possess and emplace waste, and amendments the USNRC is expected to use a formal hearing process before an Atomic Safety and Licensing Board to litigate and adjudicate the soundness of the license application. The litigation process has the effect of freezing, during the USNRC licensing review, the repository design and its safely analysis, as well as the filing of contentions by any parties that have been granted standing to intervene.
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directed that the capacity of Yucca Mountain, if licensed, should be limited by the USNRC to no more than 70,000 MTHM until a second repository is in operation. That restriction defines the 70,000-MTHM limit to include any monitored retrievable storage facility within 50 miles of the repository.9 Therefore, the 70,000 MTHM limit for Yucca Mountain includes not only all waste emplaced in the repository, but also all waste received for buffer storage at or near the site while awaiting packaging and emplacement.
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for the Yucca Mountain project until the site is released from all controls. Cost estimates have already increased by 26 percent since ~ 998 (DOE-OCRWM, 2001a)
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5.4.5 Designing and implementing the transportation plan The prime challenges facing DOE in transportation are: choosing modes of transport and transport routes; interacting with the numerous states and affected communities; · demonstrating convincingly the safely of transport; and · implementing a complete, reliable national waste transportation system. With congressional approval of Yucca Mountain as the repository site, transportation of spent fuel and high-level waste to the repository has become one of the more contentious issues facing the program.
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One of the conditions, necessary but not sufficient, for enhancing public acceptance of the repository is to have a credible, thorough, and well-communicated scientific program. Based on the information gathered by the committee, there appears to be a perception that some parts of the Yucca Mountain scientific program could be improved.
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Adaptive Staging also implies openness and involvement with international communities. An independent long-term science and technology program, which DOE is currently putting into place in parallel with its science program to support the license application, is consistent with Adaptive Staging.72 This long-term science and technology program may enhance DOE's scientific credibility, yet its goals may be farther-reaching and more specific.
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5.4.7 Working to maintain effective working relationships with the nuclear power utility companies The challenges facing DOE in its interactions with the utilities, the principal generators of most of the waste for disposal, include: . providing an acceptably safe repository for commercial spent fuel, · keeping costs to justifiable levels, .
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Therefore, DOE has limited timed to apply for and obtain a license to receive and emplace waste. One of DOE's top priorities is to begin shipment of spent fuel to Yucca Mountain by 2010, rather than have a full system, including all surface facilities, implemented at that date.
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One possible reason for the lack of constructive cooperation between DOE and the State of Nevada is that the final decision to concentrate the U.S. effort at Yucca Mountain is perceived by some as a purely political decision, with little direct input from the public (although strongly supported by its representatives, except for Nevada's, in Congress)
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