TRANSPORTATION OF HIGH-LEVEL WASTE AND SPENT FUEL

To address the need for the safe disposal of spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste in the United States, the Congress enacted the Nuclear Waste Policy Act (NWPA) of 1982. The objective of the act, subsequently amended by the Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act of 1987 (NWPAA), is to provide for the permanent disposal of nuclear waste in a deep geologic repository. The NWPA assigned the responsibility for developing a Federal Waste Management System (FWMS) to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), and within DOE established the Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management (OCRWM) for that purpose. The NWPA and the NWPAA both require the DOE to seek public involvement in developing the FWMS, which includes the transportation system. Both acts also require the DOE to use private industry to the maximum possible extent. The DOE issued two documents in 1986 to outline its transportation strategies with regard to a business and an institutional plan. The Transportation Business Plan (DOE/RW-0046, January 1986), describes the DOE's approach to acquisition of a transportation system. The business plan focuses on technical development of cask designs that could form the basis of a safe and efficient cask fleet. The Transportation Institutional Plan (DOE/RW-0094, August 1986), has been developed to form the basis for interaction among all interested parties in the development of the transportation system. There are 121 nuclear facilities in the U.S. located on 75 reactor sites, and 1 storage site, from which spent fuel will be accepted by the FWMS. To meet the requirements of the NWPA, OCRWM is developing a system that is adapted to accepting and transporting the fuel to waste-management facilities. Commencing in 1998, the OCRWM transportation system, consisting of a shipping-cask fleet and support services, will deliver spent fuel from nuclear facilities to a Monitored Retrieval Storage (MRS) site, and later to a permanent repository. At present, neither a site nor a design for an MRS have been determined. Although a potential repository site has been identified at Yucca Mountain in Nevada, it is currently being evaluated and will only be used if determined to be suitable. The focus of this paper is on the advanced technology cask system development program activities currently being conducted to meet the long term transportation needs for the FWMS. OCRWM is also planning to acquire a small fleet of casks that rely on current cask technology to meet the short term need for a 1998 initial operational capability. Pursuit of these two activities is to assure that OCRWM meets its responsibilities to have a transportation system available for use in 1998, and to facilitate system efficiency by use of high capacity casks. That is, current technology casks will satisfy the need for a transportation system start up beginning in 1998, while advanced technology casks will assure maximum efficiency of the matured transportation system.