Year
1982
Abstract
The principal objective of the National Waste Terminal Storage (NWTS) Program is to site, design, license, construct, and operate at least one mined geologic repository for high-level commercial nuclear wastes before the end of this century. Siting investigations will intensify when three potential repository sites will be investigated starting in 1983 by means of exploratory shafts sunk to repository horizons. Two of these sites have already been selected—one in deep basalt flows at the Department of Energy's Hanford Site in Richland, Washington and one in welded volcanic tuff at the Department of Energy's Nevada Test Site in Las Vegas, Nevada. The third site will be selected from among several salt domes in the Gulf Interior Region of Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi, and bedded salt formations in Utah and Texas. The current program schedule calls for selecting one of these sites in 1987 for the first repository, submitting a request for a construction permit to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in 1988, initiating construction in 1992, and beginning repository operation in 1998. Various options for expediting the schedule are currenty under consideration.