Foreign Research Reactor Spent-Fuel Environmental Assessment

In this paper a discussion of the port-of-entry selection process developed for a U.S. Department of Energy (USDOE) proposal to receive European spent-fuel is presented. Transportation risks for ports that meet and for ports that do not meet the criteria of the process are presented. The results indicate that port-election criteria can be unnecessarily restrictive with regard to the safety of spent-fuel shipments. The transportation of foreign spent nuclear fuel into the United States is a highly controversial issue. Proposals by the Government of the United States to receive and store foreign spent nuclear fuel have been challenged in the courts and restricted under congressional legislation. Section 3151 of Public Law 103-160, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 1994 (the Act), imposes criteria on the USDOE for selecting a port for the receipt of spent nuclear fuel. A major concern for many stakeholders is the selection of a port of entry into the United States for the spent-fuel.