Page 31 - Nuclear Plant Journal Digital Edition: January - February 2013
Basic HTML Version
Introduction and
Summary
The
Strategy for theManagement and
Disposal of Used Nuclear Fuel and High-
Level Radioactive
Waste is a framework
for moving toward a sustainable program
to deploy an integrated system capable
of transporting, storing, and disposing
of used nuclear fuel1 and high-level
radioactive waste from civilian nuclear
power generation, defense, national
security and other activities.
The DOE Strategy addresses
several important needs. First, it serves
as a statement of Administration policy
regarding the importance of addressing
the disposition of used nuclear fuel and
high-level radioactivewaste; it lays out the
overall design of a system to address that
issue; and it outlines the reforms needed
to implement such a system. Second, it
High-Level
Waste
Management
Strategy
presents the Administration’s response
to the final report and recommendations
made by the
Blue Ribbon Commission
on America’s Nuclear Future
(“BRC”).
It also responds to direction in the Joint
Explanatory Statement accompanying
the Consolidated Appropriations Act,
2012, to develop a strategy for the
management of used nuclear fuel and
nuclear waste in response to the BRC’s
recommendations. Third, this strategy
represents an initial basis for discussions
among the Administration, Congress and
other stakeholders on a sustainable path
forward for disposal of nuclear waste.
The Administration endorses the
key principles that underpin the BRC’s
recommendations. The BRC’s report
and recommendations provide a starting
point for this Strategy, which translates
many of the BRC’s principles into an
actionable framework within which the
Administration and Congress can build
a national program for the management
and disposal of the nation’s used nuclear
fuel and high-level radioactive waste. The
BRC report and the Strategy build on the
body of physical and social science work
completed during the prior decades and
benefit from the lessons learned not only
from our nation’s experiences, but also
from those of other countries.
The BRC recommendations are
summarized as follows:
1. A new, consent-based approach
to siting future nuclear waste
management facilities.
2. Aneworganizationdedicatedsolelyto
implementing the waste management
program and empowered with the
authority and resources to succeed.
3. Access to the funds nuclear
utility ratepayers are providing
for the purpose of nuclear waste
management.
4. Prompt efforts to develop one or
more geologic disposal facilities.
5. Prompt efforts to develop one or
more consolidated storage facilities.
6. Prompt efforts to prepare for the
eventual large-scale transport of used
nuclear fuel and high-level waste to
consolidated storage and disposal
facilities when such facilities become
available.
7. SupportforcontinuedU.S.innovation
in nuclear energy technology and for
workforce development.
8. Active U.S. leadership in international
efforts to address safety, waste
management, non-proliferation, and
security concerns.
This DOE Strategy includes a
phased, adaptive, and consent-based
approach to siting and implementing
a comprehensive management and
disposal system. At its core, this Strategy
endorses a waste management system
containing a pilot interim storage facility;
a larger, full-scale interim storage
facility; and a geologic repository in a
timeframe that demonstrates the federal
commitment to addressing the Strategy
for the Management and Disposal of
Used Nuclear Fuel and High-Level
Radioactive Waste nuclear waste issue,
builds capability to implement a program
to meet that commitment, and prioritizes
the acceptance of fuel from shut-down
reactors. A consent-based siting process
could result in more than one storage
facility and repository, depending on
the outcome of discussions with host
communities. The Nuclear Waste Policy
Act of 1982 (NWPA) envisaged the need
for multiple repositories as a matter of
equity between regions of the country. As
a starting place, this Strategy is focused
on just one of each facility.
With the appropriate authorizations
from Congress, the Administration
currently plans to implement a program
over the next 10 years that:
Sites, designs and licenses, constructs
•
and begins operations of a pilot
interim storage facility by 2021 with
an initial focus on accepting used
nuclear fuel from shut-down reactor
sites;
Advances toward the siting and
•
licensing of a larger interim storage
facility to be available by 2025
that will have sufficient capacity
to provide flexibility in the waste
management system and allows for
acceptance of enough used nuclear
fuel to reduce expected government
liabilities; and
Makes demonstrable progress on
•
the siting and characterization of
repository sites to facilitate the
availability of a geologic repository
by 2048.
Full implementation of this program
will require legislation to enable the timely
This report provides an excerpt of,
“Strategy for the Management and
Disposal of Used Nuclear Fuel and
High-Level Radioactive Waste” issued
by the US Department of Energy (DOE)
on January 11, 2013 in response to the
Blue Ribbon Commission’s January
2012 report titled, “Blue Ribbon
Commission on America’s Nuclear
Future” to the Secretary, US Department
of Energy. The complete text of this DOE
strategy document may be accessed
by going to the link:
downloads/strategy-management-and-
disposal-used-nuclear-fuel-and-high-
level-radioactive-waste
Nuclear Plant Journal, January-February 2013
31
1.
The term “used nuclear fuel”
as used in the BRC charter and in
this document is intended to be
synonymous with the term “spent
nuclear fuel” as used in the Nuclear
Waste Policy Act and the Standard
Contracts.
