UNDERSTANDING THE VALUE OF STAKEHOLDER COLLABORATION FROM THE ONSET THOUGH ALL PHASES OF THE SPENT FUEL TRANSPORTATION PROJECT

The transportation of commercial spent nuclear fuel (SNF) and high-level radioactive waste (HLW) requires participation and cooperation from many entities. The Department of Energy’s (DOE) approach to developing the Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management’s (OCRWM) transportation system is to collaborate with its stakeholders from the planning phase of the project through execution of shipments. As the program moves through the continuum of planning, the planning partners (stakeholders) become partners in operations. Institutional program activities are designed to integrate key stakeholders into transportation planning early in the overall process of project development. The purpose is to identify the issues that need to be resolved, initiate relationship building, and begin to develop a framework by which to recognize agreements and settle differences. Long-term cooperation and the development of working relationships are important to the success of the project. A collaborative process with stakeholders from the onset of the project has been shown to be integral to implementing a transportation system that is safe and secure and merits public confidence. This paper will describe an increasingly accepted view of the roles stakeholders play in program development of any transportation system and why it is critical to involve stakeholders during the initial phases of the project through execution of shipments. The paper also explores the notion that operations begins much earlier in a program and thinking differently about the timing of operations initiation leads to some different conclusions about stakeholder roles in transportation.