Jeremy L. Dillon
RW Monitor
2/20/2015
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission will complete the supplemental Environmental Impact Statement needed for the Yucca Mountain licensing review, NRC Chair Steven Burns said this week at the 11th Annual Platts Nuclear Energy Conference in Washington, D.C. 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 need only provide the information to satisfy its legal responsibilities under the Nuclear Waste Policy Act. It had been unclear if the NRC would complete the EIS in DOE’s stead. But 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, Burns said. “The decision is we will do that since DOE told us they won’t be doing it,” Burns told reporters. “We have the funds that are left over from the carryover for high-level waste that will cover the preparation of the supplemental EIS.”
Burns could not give a timeline to when the NRC would complete the EIS. Once the EIS is complete, the next step in the licensing review would be to complete the adjudication process. There are still 300 contentions filed by Nevada and other parties challenging the repository that need adjudication before a construction authorization permit could be issued, according to the NRC. While the NRC should have enough carry-over funding to finish the EIS, it will not have enough funding to complete the adjudication process. The Commission, though, 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.
