Jeremy L. Dillon
RW Monitor
3/13/2015
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission officially will move forward with the supplemental Environmental Impact Statement needed for the Yucca Mountain license review, according to the Staff Requirements Memoranda released this week. NRC Chair Steven Burns had said last month the NRC would complete the EIS in the Department of Energy’s stead, but this SRM gives the Staff clear direction to move forward with completing the report. “The Commission has approved the staff’s recommendation to: (1) develop and issue the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) supplement; and (2) proceed with proposed safety evaluation report (SER) wrap-up activities,” the SRM said. “The Commission also approves the lessons learned activities for the SER, but as a lower priority than the other items.”
Burns said this week at the NRC’s Regulatory Information Conference that he anticipates that the report would most likely take a year to complete. In a notice posted in the Federal Register this week, the NRC Staff intends to issue the draft supplement in the late summer of 2015 for public comment. The NRC also intends to host a public meeting at NRC headquarters in Rockville, Md., two public meetings in Nev., and a public conference call.
DOE Declined to Complete the Report
The Department of Energy originally said it would complete the EIS on groundwater issues early last year, but it later decided against completing the report, choosing to give the NRC all the technical information needed to complete it instead. DOE felt it needed to only provide the information to satisfy its legal responsibilities under the Nuclear Waste Policy Act. It had originally been unclear if the NRC would complete the EIS instead. But Burns said last month that with the NRC’s approximately $4 million in Nuclear Waste Fund appropriations that are still unspent following the completion of the Yucca Safety Evaluation Report, the Commission should have enough funding to complete the report. The NRC will, however, use most of its Yucca appropriated funds to complete the EIS, leaving the adjudication process un-funded. The Commission did not request additional funding in its Fiscal Year 2016 budget request to complete the Yucca licensing review.
The NRC issued an Order in November 2013 setting the path forward on restarting the Yucca Mountain licensing review in order to comply with the writ of mandamus from a federal appeals court that compelled the Commission to expend remaining carry-over funds meant for the review. A major part of the Order included the completion of the Safety Evaluation Reports, which the NRC wrapped up last month. The NRC concluded in the SERs that the Yucca Mountain license application met most regulatory requirements for pre and post-closure public and environmental safety, but that issues remain concerning land ownership and water rights.
