U.S. DOE Approach to Address U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Key Technical Issues for a High-Level Radioactive Waste Repository License Application.
Interactions between the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) staff and the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) staff prior to submittal of a license application (LA) for NRC review are focused on resolution of issues relevant to licensing a geologic repository at the Yucca Mountain site. These interactions take place in meetings that are open to the public, the State of Nevada, affected units of local government, and other interested parties. Consistent with a 1992 agreement between the DOE and NRC, resolution of an issue at the staff level can be achieved during the pre-licensing period when the NRC staff has no further questions or comments regarding how the DOE is addressing that issue. In no case does such resolution at the NRC staff level preclude an issue being raised during the licensing proceedings by the NRC or another party to the proceedings. Beginning in 1996, interactions between the DOE and NRC began to focus significant attention on the nine topical areas, called Key Technical Issues (KTIs), that the NRC staff considers to be important in evaluating the post-closure performance of a Yucca Mountain repository. DOE-NRC meetings to discuss each KTI and achieve technical agreement on the information needed to resolve the issues were held between August 2000 and September 2001. As a result of these meetings, 293 agreements were reached regarding information to be developed by the DOE to supplement the basis for NRC review of the initial LA. As of April 23, 2003, 77 of these agreements are considered by the NRC to be complete based on information provided by the DOE.
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