TRANSPORTATION CONSIDERATIONS IN SELECTING A NUCLEAR WASTE REPOSITORY

The United States Department of Energy (DOE) has recommended three candidate sites for the first geological repository sites for commercial spent fuel and defense and commercial high-level waste. Transportation was an important factor in making the selection because it affects many performance objectives of a repository. In developing the detailed influencing factors for transportation and by providing the input which was used by DOE policymakers to select the sites, it became apparent that distance, the condition of the transportation infrastructure near the site, and site topography were important in influencing site selection.