Technical Advancements and Issues Associated with the Permanent Disposal of High-Activity Wastes: Lessons Learned from Yucca Mountain and Other Progra

This report from the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board "is not meant to be an assessment of the licenseability of a Yucca Mountain repository. If licensing goes forward, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission will determine whether a license should be granted. ... The purpose of this report, then, is to extract from the history of the Yucca Mountain program, and to a lesser degree from other programs, some of the technical “lessons learned” that may apply to future U.S. programs for waste management and waste disposal."

"The United States has a variety of waste forms with different chemical and physical properties because of their generation through defense activities, reactor-development work, and electricity production. Specialized deep geologic disposal methods that take advantage of these differences may be reasonable to consider. A possible scenario is using deep geologic repositories that permit retrieval of spent nuclear fuel and boreholes that preclude retrieval of waste forms that offer few or no further recycling advantages, such as vitrified high-level waste."

Nuclear Waste: Disposal Challenges and Lessons Learned from Yucca Mountain -- GAO

This Government Accountability Office report (GAO-11-731T), dated June 1, 2011, finds that uncertainties exist about the direction of the nation’s policy for nuclear waste disposal. Under NWPA, DOE investigated Yucca Mountain as a site for a repository. In 2002, DOE recommended the site to the President and in 2008 submitted a license application to NRC.

DOE is now seeking to withdraw the application from NRC’s Atomic Safety and Licensing Board. DOE did not cite technical or safety issues but stated that Yucca Mountain is not a workable option because of a lack of public acceptance by the people of Nevada. On June 29, 2010, the board denied DOE’s motion, ruling that NWPA requires DOE to continue the licensing effort.

The NRC commissioners announced they might consider reviewing the board’s decision, but as of May 26, 2011, no review had been announced. Separately, state and local governments and a private party filed suit in federal court against DOE and NRC in an effort to stop the repository termination. The court has not yet ruled. Amid this uncertainty, DOE took steps to shut down Yucca Mountain by September 30, 2010. DOE also established a Blue Ribbon Commission to evaluate alternatives for nuclear waste disposal, which plans to report by January 2012.

Three primary waste storage options offer benefits but also face challenges, including high costs. Two options are for interim storage—continued on-site or centralized storage—which could allow time for research into new approaches that might have wider public acceptance than the Yucca Mountain permanent repository. Continued on-site storage would require less effort to implement since it is the current method of waste storage.

However, this option could trigger significant financial liabilities as a result of industry lawsuits stemming from DOE’s failure to accept the waste in 1998, as required under NWPA. The federal government has already paid $956 million, and future liabilities are estimated to be at least $15.4 billion through 2020. DOE and the Navy also might not meet certain commitments to remove their waste from two states, which could bring penalties and a suspension of the Navy’s shipments of spent fuel, raising concerns about the Navy’s ability to refuel its nuclear-powered warships.

The second interim option, centralized interim storage, may face challenges because DOE states that it currently has no authority to implement this option.

The third option, a geologic repository, is widely considered the only currently feasible option for permanently disposing of nuclear waste. DOE has faced challenges in identifying an acceptable site for permanent geologic disposal. Restarting the search would likely take decades and cost billions of dollars. Published reports and interviews--with federal, state, and local government officials and representatives of various organizations--suggest two broad lessons that can be learned from past nuclear waste management efforts.

Commercial Nuclear Waste: Effects of a Termination of the Yucca Mountain Repository Program and Lessons Learned -- GAO

This report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO-11-229), dated April 2011, finds that "terminating the Yucca Mountain repository program could bring benefits, such as allowing DOE to search for a more acceptable alternative, which
could help avoid the costly delays experienced by Yucca Mountain. However,
there is no guarantee that a more acceptable or less costly alternative will be
identified; termination could instead restart a costly and time-consuming
process to find and develop an alternative permanent solution. It would also
likely prolong the need for interim storage of spent nuclear fuel at reactor
sites, which would have financial and other impacts. For example, the federal
government bears part of the storage costs as a result of industry lawsuits
over DOE’s failure to take custody of commercial spent nuclear fuel in 1998,
as required. These costs exceed $15.4 billion and could grow by an additional
$500 million a year after 2020."