Copyright 1999 Federal News Service, Inc.
Federal News Service
MARCH 16, 1999, TUESDAY
SECTION: IN THE NEWS
LENGTH:
8563 words
HEADLINE: PREPARED STATEMENT OF
LAKE H.
BARRETT
ACTING DIRECTOR
OFFICE OF CIVILIAN RADIOACTIVE WASTE MANAGEMENT
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY
BEFORE THE HOUSE
APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE
ENERGY AND WATER DEVELOPMENT SUBCOMMITTEE
SUBJECT - FY 2000 APPROPRIATIONS HEARING
BODY:
Mr. Chairman and members of the Committee, I am Lake H. Barrett, Acting
Director of the Department of Energy's Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste
Management. I appreciate the opportunity to present our Fiscal Year 2000 budget
request to you and discuss our plans for continuing to move forward with the
scientific and technical program activities at the Yucca
Mountain site in Nevada.
The FY 2000 budget request of $409 million
is devoted to supporting principally those activities that may lead to a
decision to recommend the site currently being characterized at Yucca
Mountain, Nevada for development of a repository for the Nation's spent
nuclear fuel and highlevel radioactive waste. Background
The Civilian
Radioactive Waste Management Program and, in particular, the Yucca
Mountain Site Characterization Project being implemented is the
cornerstone of the national policy for the management of spent nuclear fuel
produced by nuclear power reactors for the generation of electricity and the
clean-up of the high-level radioactive waste currently stored at sites that were
key facilities of the nuclear weapons complex. The Civilian Radioactive Waste
Management Program also directly supports the requirement to dispose of the
Department of Energy's spent nuclear fuel including naval nuclear spent fuel.
The disposition of surplus plutonium and other nuclear weapons materials in a
permanent geologic repository is a key factor in maintaining the United States'
international leadership position regarding nuclear nonproliferation.
Since
the enactment of the Nuclear Waste Policy Act in 1982, we have made significant
progress. We have designed and are implementing a program that is leading the
developed countries in planning for geologic disposal of spent nuclear fuel and
high level waste. Despite the progress made, the implementation of this program
continues to be one of the most daunting public policy challenges before us. The
Department, is however, getting closer to being able to make a decision
regarding the recommendation of the site to the President for development as a
repository, if it proves to be suitable.
Viability Assessment
Since I
last appeared before you, the Department completed, and submitted to the
President, the Congress, and the public, the Viability Assessment of a
Repository at Yucca Mountain and its companion documents. The
Viability Assessment is comprised of four major elements: 1) a preliminary
design concept for a repository and waste package; 2) a total system performance
assessment that describes the probable behavior of a repository in the
Yucca Mountain geologic setting; 3) a plan and cost estimate
for the remaining work required to complete and submit a License Application to
the Nuclear Regulatory Commission; and 4) an estimate of the costs to construct
and operate a repository.
The Viability Assessment is the compilation of
over fifteen years of scientific and engineering work at the Yucca
Mountain site. It provided Congress, the President, and the public with
information on the progress of the Yucca Mountain Site
Characterization Project. The Viability Assessment serves as an important
management tool for the Program to guide the completion of site characterization
by identifying critical issues that need to be addressed before a decision can
be made by the Secretary on whether to recommend the Yucca
Mountain site for a repository.
The key conclusion of the Viability
Assessment is that there are no "show stoppers" with respect to the
Yucca Mountain site and that work should proceed to support a
decision in 2001 on whether to recommend the site. The President's FY 2000
budget request supports that conclusion and I seek your support as well. It is
important to note that we still have work to do. The budget request, building
off of the scope of work identified in the Viability Assessment, spells out, in
some detail, what we plan to do in FY 2000 to support the decision process in
the coming years.
The Civilian Radioactive Waste Management Program, in
accordance with the guidance provided by the FY 1997 Energy and Water
Development Appropriations Act, applied the majority of our funding and two
years of focused, concentrated effort to the development of the Viability
Assessment. The Viability Assessment having been issued only three months ago,
now provides both the short-term and long-term planning basis for the Program.
It lays out the scope of work and the cost profile for the remaining work that
must be accomplished to not only reach the decision point regarding the
recommendation of the site to the President, if the site is found to be
suitable, but also the work that must be accomplished and costs associated with
it to construct a repository subsequent to receiving a License from the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission. It is being used by the Program as a point of departure
for developing and implementing the planning baseline against which Congress and
outside observers may measure our progress in the future.
We have also made
the Viability Assessment widely available by putting it and its companion
documents - The Analysis of the Total System Life Cycle Cost of the Civilian
Radioactive Waste Management Program, December 1998 (Total System Life Cycle
Cost Report) and the statutorily required Nuclear Waste Fund Fee Adequacy: An
Assessment, December 1998 (Fee Adequacy Report), and all the supporting
technical studies - on our Internet home page.
Litigation
Before I
discuss the FY 2000 budget request and some of the accomplishments in FY 1998
and FY 1999, I would like to touch briefly on the ongoing litigation with State
agencies and utilities regarding the Department's delay in accepting commercial
spent fuel.
As you know, the Department is in litigation over our inability
to meet our contractual obligation to accept spent fuel from the nuclear utility
companies by January 31, 1998. The Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia
Circuit found that the Department has an obligation to commence spent fuel
disposal by January 31, 1998. The Court denied the utilities' and States'
request for a move-fuel order, finding that the Standard Disposal Contract
provides a potentially adequate remedy. The Court stated that the Department may
not rely on the "unavoidable delays" clause to excuse its delay in performance
and suggested the "avoidable delays" clause of the Standard Contract as the
potentially adequate remedy. This clause provides for an equitable adjustment of
schedules and contract charges to reflect any estimated additional costs
incurred by the contract holder. Pursuant to the ruling of the Court of Appeals
for the District of Columbia Circuit, the Department will process claims
presented to it under the standard disposal contract. Although we have held
settlement discussions with several utilities, only one utility has proposed a
bilateral modification and request for equitable adjustment of the contract, and
no formal claims have been filed.
To date, ten utilities have filed
claims for monetary damages in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims. In the first
three cases decided by the Court, the Department was found to have breached its
contracts with three utilities, each with only one shutdown reactor, and the
Department is now engaged in discovery to determine the amount of damages the
Government must pay these utilities. Other cases, most involving utilities with
operating reactors paying ongoing fees to the Department, are currently pending.
Quality Assurance
Our Quality Assurance Program, working as it should,
has detected certain deficiencies in the execution of the Yucca
Mountain Site Characterization effort, which has resulted in a
redirection of work to respond to these deficiencies. Corrective Action Plans
approved by our Office of Quality Assurance are being implemented. Process
improvements have been identified, procedures have been revised, training is
underway, and managers have increased their selfassessments. Although these
efforts are causing us to refocus and redefine some of our currently planned
work, we anticipate that we can accommodate this effort with minimal impact on
cost and schedule. We expect some of the analyses, however, may have to be based
on less data than previously planned but we are confident that the analyses will
support the Site Recommendation Report and License Application.
Payments to
the State and Affected Units of Local Government
We believe that the support
envisioned by Section 116(c) of the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982, as
amended, to the State and units of local government affected by site
characterization activities is important in enabling local governments and the
citizens most directly impacted by the Yucca Mountain Project
to remain informed and to participate in a meaningful way in the day to day
program actions that affect them. Financial support is particularly important
for the rural counties' programs where financial resources are severely limited
and I would urge that you support the funding requested.
Summary of FY 2000
Request
With respect to FY 2000, we are requesting $370 million in new
budget authority and the release of $39 million from funds appropriated in FY
1996 in the Defense Nuclear Waste Disposal Appropriation (currently in a
Congressional Reserve) for total funding of $409 million. This request level
fully supports the funding profile for the scientific and engineering activities
planned for the Yucca Mountain Project as described in the
Viability Assessment.
We have proposed allocating $332 million to continue
the scientific and engineering work at the Yucca Mountain Site
Characterization Office; $6 million for the activities directed by the Office of
Waste Acceptance, Storage and Transportation; $10 million for the Program's
Nuclear Quality Assurance program; and $61 million to carry out the Program's
Management and Integration functions.
Before I review with you how we are
proposing to use the funds provided for in the FY 2000 budget request, I would
like to briefly highlight, in summary fashion, some of the FY 1998 and projected
FY 1999 accomplishments.
FY 1998 - FY 1999 Accomplishments
Yucca
Mountain
At the Yucca Mountain Site
Characterization Project Office, we are continuing the transition from a project
whose principal focus was on the collection of scientific data to a project that
is increasingly focused on activities that support the remaining key near-term
requirements described in the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982, as amended.
Those key activities will provide the remaining technical documentation
(collectively these materials are referred to as the "Site Recommendation
Report"), to support whether the Secretary should recommend to the President the
site currently being characterized at Yucca Mountain, Nevada,
if the site is found to be suitable, as a repository for the Nation's spent
nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste.
In FY 1999, the Program
applied $282 million to the site characterization effort at Yucca
Mountain. That was almost 80 percent of the Program's total
appropriation.The Project is focusing their activities on scientific and
engineering investigations related to the remaining key uncertainties about the
Yucca Mountain site. Those uncertainties were discussed in the
Viability Assessment. They include the presence and movement of water through
the repository block; the effects of water movement on the waste package; and
the effects of heat from the decay of radioactive materials inside the waste
packages on the site's geologic and hydrologic behavior.
The focus at
Yucca Mountain during FY 1998 was on completing the Viability
Assessment, completing excavation of, and starting testing in, the Exploratory
Studies Facility Cross Drift that extends to the west side of the repository
block, and on starting one major thermal test and completing two others.
Development of the Viability Assessment represented many "firsts" for us. It
was the first time we have articulated our integrated understanding about the
whole Yucca Mountain Site since the 1986 Environmental
Assessment supporting the decision to carry out site characterization. It was
the first time an integrated technical review of one of our major technical
reports included members of the Department of Energy complex who currently have
responsibility for waste forms planned for geologic disposal. It was the first
time we have used the Internet as an important part of our process for
distributing major technical reports to the public. Lessons we have learned from
these activities are being implemented as we start developing the Site
Recommendation Report and the License Application. In addition to the Viability
Assessment, we produced key supporting documents such as the Total System
Performance AssessmentViability Assessment Analysis Technical Basis Document and
the Yucca Mountain Site Description.
In December 1997, we
started excavation of the 16.5-foot diameter cross drift in the Exploratory
Studies Facility to better understand the geologic and hydrologic conditions of
the west side of the repository block. By the close of FY 1998, we completed
excavation of over 2578 meters. The remaining 103 meters were completed in
October 1998. Geologic mapping of the cross drift has been completed. Model
predictions of the stratigraphy of the cross drift were verified to be within a
few meters in elevation of the actual stratigraphic contacts. The eastern splay
of the Solitario Canyon fault was mapped, and showed the actual offset to 220 to
230 meters matched the predicted offset of 230 meters.
Long duration tests
are providing critical input for validating models we use to predict performance
of a repository. We designed three different thermal tests to evaluate how the
high temperatures in a repository (from heat generated by radioactive decay of
the emplaced waste) can affect the natural barriers (i.e., the rock surrounding
the emplacement drifts) and the engineered barriers (i.e. the waste package and
the emplacement drift openings). Our thermal testing program is well underway.
- The single heater test, which began in August 1996, was completed in FY
1998. The final results from this test are generally consistent with model
predictions of temperature, rockdisplacement, and moisture movement. Data were
obtained on heat transfer, thermal conductivity, thermal expansion, thermal
chemistry, air permeability, and hydrology of the heated rock. The test also
allowed us to refine the design and instrumentation of the drift scale heater
test.
- The large-block heater test, which began in February 1997 in a
fourteen foot high section of an outcrop at Fran Ridge, an area adjacent to
Yucca Mountain in a portion of the potential repository host
rock exposed at the surface, was completed in FY 1998. The use of an isolated
block allowed us to measure the moisture movement caused by heat in a controlled
environment. Core samples obtained from the block are now being analyzed to look
for changes in rock fractures due to heating. - The drift scale heater test is a
long-term test to obtain data on the mechanical and thermohydrologic properties
of a repository host rock. The test, which began in FY 1998, nearly 1000 feet
below the surface of Yucca Mountain inside the Exploratory
Studies Facility, is in the heat-up cycle. On December 3, 1997, a series of
electric heaters were turned on, initiating the flow of heat into a section of
the mountain. Designed to simulate the heat from actual waste packages, the
drift scale test is the largest of the three heater tests at Yucca
Mountain, and for that matter, is the largest underground thermal test
ever conducted in the world. During FY 1998, we increased the temperature in the
test drift from ambient 86 degrees Fahrenheit to 275 degrees Fahrenheit. The
goal is to maintain the drift wall rock temperature at 392 degrees Fahrenheit
for two years before the cool down cycle begins.
The total duration of
this test will be eight years: four to heat-up and four to cool down.
Testing in an underground facility at Busted Butte near Yucca
Mountain began in FY1998 and is still ongoing. Test results in the
Calico Hills rock unit will provide an analog to expected conditions in the same
type of rock that lies below the potential repository horizon. Tests are being
conducted to validate laboratory data and conceptual numerical transport models.
These tests are intended to reduce uncertainties in assessments of the potential
transport of key radionuclides from the repository area, through the unsaturated
zone, and into the water table underlying Yucca Mountain. Tests
also will address the importance of colloid-facilitated transport of
radionuclides, especially plutonium. Observations at Busted Butte are important
to understanding transport in the unsaturated zone, beneath the emplacement
drifts, because additional sorption of radionuclides is expected even in a
scenario dominated by fracture flow. Future work will quantify the
fracture-matrix coupling that will be incorporated into the updated site-scale
models to support the total system performance assessment for the Site
Recommendation Report and the License Application.
Under the agreement with
Nye County, eight wells have been completed along Highway 95 south of
Yucca Mountain. We have collected cutting samples and are
reviewing the geologic logs. We are in the process of analyzing water samples
from these wells. This data will be used in updating the geologic framework
model.Thus far, our repository performance assessments have shown that the rate
and amount of seepage of water into the emplacement drifts is very important to
repository performance. Since the effects of tunnel ventilation may well mask
the detection of any seepage, in 1998 we isolated individual niches in the
Exploratory Studies Facility from ventilation to see whether any seepage can be
detected. To date, no seepage has been observed in these test niches.
One
alcove in the Exploratory Studies Facility has been isolated from ventilation
effects to monitor humidity and seepage during the higher rainfall caused by El
Nifo. This alcove is within the vicinity of the potential repository block area
near to and within the Ghost Dance fault exposure. To date, no seepage has been
observed.
The focus at Yucca Mountain during FY 1999 will
be on issuing the Draft Environmental Impact Statement; completing the last
phase of the peer review of the Total System Performance Assessment that
supported the Viability Assessment; and updating repository and waste package
designs to support updating the Total System Performance Assessment for the Site
Recommendation Report. Those activities are also the Program's Government
Performance and Results Act commitments.
In FY 1999, to date, we have made
the following progress:
- In support of the Environmental Impact Statement,
we began the Department-wide review of the Draft Environmental Impact Statement.
We are on schedule for meeting the July 1999 date for publishing the Draft
Environmental Impact Statement and starting the public hearings.
- Completed
a topical report on the methods we plan to use to model and evaluate the
potential for a nuclear criticality event (sustained chain reaction). The report
was transmitted to the NRC in January 1999.
- Completed License Application
Design Selection workshops aimed at assuring validity and transparency of the
process for selecting repository designs and options that will be modeled for
the Site Recommendation Report and License Application.
- Completed
management plans to guide writing both the Site Recommendation Report and the
License Application and began developing the first drafts of both these
documents.
- Completed phase one of the Busted Butte radionuclide transport
test. The preliminary results provided significant information on flow
partitioning between fracture and matrix of the rocks beneath the potential
repository.
- Continued National Environmental Policy Act consultation and
coordination activities with numerous federal, state, and local agencies and
Native American tribal organizations. Status briefings on the Environmental
Impact Statement's development, as well as coordination ofany Environmental
Impact Statement data needs, were conducted with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory
Commission, Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board, U.S. Bureau of Land
Management, U.S. Air Force, State of Nevada and affected counties, and Native
American tribes.
Waste Acceptance, Storage, and Transportation
The
Department's acceptance of commercial spent nuclear fuel remains a critical
objective of the Program and, in the Office of Waste Acceptance, Storage, and
Transportation (OWAST) area, that is where we focused our efforts. However, in
recognition of the hardships associated with the Department's delay in waste
acceptance, we have offered to make equitable adjustments with the contract
holders to address those, issues.
In FY 1998, we developed a generic,
non-site specific topical safety analysis report for a centralized interim
storage facility. The report was submitted to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission
and contained the required analyses and evaluations necessary to show that the
operation of such a facility would meet the Commission's requirements for the
protection of the environment, public safety, and health. We have continued
interactions with the Commission and expect their approval this year.
In FY
1999, the Program utilized just under $2 million to conduct activities that are
the responsibility of the Office of Waste Acceptance, Storage, and
Transportation. Several of the sub-elements of the OWAST function were
de-emphasized in FY 1998 and FY 1999 to apply resources to the Yucca
Mountain Site Characterization activity rather than on transportation
activities.
We continued to refine a competitive procurement strategy for
acquiring waste acceptance and transportation services utilizing private
industry. We issued a revised draft Request for Proposals (RFP) in December
1997, that embodies a market-driven approach relying on the maximum use of
private industry capabilities, expertise and experience to acquire contractor
services to accept and transport commercial spent nuclear fuel to a Federal
facility. In September 1998, the draft RFP was revised to address
public/industry comments, and a Notice of Availability was published in the
Federal Register. Work on the RFP was subsequently deferred until a repository
siting decision process is completed. When that process is completed, activities
related to the acquisition of waste acceptance and transportation services will
be reinitiated.
Program Management and Integration
In FY 1999, we
continued to ensure that the integration requirements between the various
components of the waste management system were adequately addressed and
alternative system designs and proposals were evaluated with careful attention
paid to their effects on system operations and costs. We completed a Total
System Life Cycle Cost Report and a statutorily required Fee Adequacy Report.
Those two documents accompanied the Viability Assessment at the time of its
issuance.The Program also concluded and is implementing Memoranda of Agreement's
with the Office of Environmental Management and the Naval Nuclear Propulsion
Program that specify each Office's technical, programmatic, and financial
responsibilities with respect to spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive
waste.
In an effort to utilize our resources more efficiently, we
streamlined our operations. The program reduced headquarters staff in 1998
through a significant reduction-in-force. With reductions-inforce and staff
reassignments, the Program reduced Headquarters staffing by 39 percent. Since
fiscal year 1992, the Program has significantly shifted the balance of staffing
from headquarters to Nevada, with a reduction at headquarters of 50 percent and
an increase in Nevada of 40 percent.
In FY 1999, responding to the
Congressional direction regarding the use of its support service contractors,
the Program reduced, by over 10 percent, funding for "... management and
administrative support service contractors at the Yucca
Mountain Site Characterization Project Office and Headquarters." No
reductions were made in other support service contracts that provide support for
Nuclear Regulatory Commission-required quality assurance verification and
support for preparation and publication of the required Environmental Impact
Statement.
The attachment to my statement provides a more detailed
treatment regarding the objectives of work and progress made in FY 1998 and FY
1999.
Application of the FY 2000 Budget Request Overview
The President's
FY 2000 Budget Request for the Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management
is consistent with the policy direction provided by Congress in the last several
Energy and Water Development Appropriations Acts. The Program's Budget Request
focuses principally on the activities being conducted by the Yucca
Mountain Site Characterization Project. The Budget Request will fund
activities necessary to complete the final years of the site characterization
program, including:
- Completion of the Final Environmental Impact Statement
in 2000; and
- The decision, by the Secretary, whether to recommend the site
to the President in 2001 for development of a repository, if the site is found
to be suitable.
Should the President and Congress accept the site
recommendation, the work to be completed in FY 2000 is critical to the
development and submission of a License Application for repository construction
to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in 2002.Yucca Mountain
In FY 2000, the funds that will be allocated to the Yucca
Mountain Site Characterization Project will be used to move us beyond
the Viability Assessment, specifically to:
- Continue the necessary
scientific and engineering work to complete the characterization of the
Yucca Mountain site;
- Address the remaining uncertainties
about the site's ability to contain and isolate nuclear waste, including
completion of some of the design analyses for the engineered barrier that will
serve, in part, as the basis for the Site Recommendation Report and License
Application (such as structural, shielding, thermal, criticality, cost, and
design basis event aspects); - Further refine our repository and waste package
designs to assist in the assessment of a repository safety strategy and total
system performance, including updated reports on waste package materials and
waste form characteristics;
- Continue to strengthen our understanding of
the expected performance of the proposed repository's natural and engineered
barriers;
- Evaluate total system performance using updated models to
support development of the Site Recommendation Report and License Application;
- Complete the public hearings on the draft Environmental Impact Statement
and develop a Comment Response Document that will be included in the final
Environmental Impact Statement;
- Prepare, and issue, the final
Environmental Impact Statement for a Geologic Repository for the Disposal of
Spent Nuclear Fuel and High- level Radioactive Waste at Yucca
Mountain; Nye, County Nevada. Incorporate public comments, as
appropriate, on the draft Environmental Impact Statement; and
- Continue
efforts to support the preparation of a high quality, complete, and defensible
Site Recommendation Report and, if the site recommendation is approved, a
License Application.
The plan for FY 2000 and beyond reflects the transition
of the project activities from scientific investigations to data synthesis,
model validation, repository and waste package design, and safety analysis.
Those activities are essential inputs to: 1) the decision by the Secretary
whether to recommend the site to the President, if the site is found to be
suitable; and 2) the submission of a License Application to the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission, if the site is approved for repository development.
Near-term priorities will be on enhanced characterization efforts to develop the
remaining information required to support the Site Recommendation Report and the
License Application. Specific activities for FY 2000 will focus on:
Core
Science: Core Science includes collection of site characterization and
performance confirmation data from the surface and subsurface, and testing in
the laboratory; environmental data collection, monitoring, and requirements
compliance; site and materials performance testing; scientific test planning and
design; formulation of scientific hypotheses; modeling and hypothesis testing;
development of scientific information for technical data bases; and completion
of models and synthesis reports that serve as the basis for scientific
descriptions and analyses used in the documentation supporting remaining major
program milestones, including the Site Recommendation Report and License
Application.
Our planned activities in the Core Science area are focused on
data synthesis and documentation, model updating and validation and continuing
performance confirmation efforts to advance our overall knowledge for the Site
Recommendation Report and the License Application. Specific activities will
focus on testing in the Exploratory Studies Facility, including the Cross-Drift
and the drift scale test; confirmatory field-scale tests; modeling;
environmental, safety and health compliance; and environmental monitoring and
mitigation activities.
Within the Exploratory Studies Facility, we will
continue the long- term drift-scale thermal test that began in December 1997.
This test will allow us to explore how the rock and fluids in a repository
system will behave in the long-term presence of heat generated by radioactive
decay of the emplaced waste. Testing in the Cross-Drift will continue to collect
data on hydrologic properties of the repository horizon (i.e., fracture-matrix
interaction, and fracture flow properties, particularly of the lower lythopysal
unit where approximately 65 percent of the emplacement drifts are expected to be
located).
We will refine the geologic process models that underlie the total
system performance assessment models that will support both the Site
Recommendation Report and License Application. Conceptual and numerical models
of flow and transport, the near-field environment, and repository
thermohydrology used in the Viability Assessment will be updated to reflect
scientific data that have been collected since mid-1998. Saturated zone and
unsaturated zone models for flow and radionuclide transport will be validated
for use in the Site Recommendation Report and License Application. Confirmatory
data collection and long-duration testing will continue.
Confirmatory
field-scale tests will continue to support refinement of near-field environment
models. These models involve coupled thermal, chemical, mechanical, and
hydrologic processes and describe how water could enter emplacement drifts,
interact with waste packages, and transport radionuclides through the engineered
barrier system. These tests support the evaluation of near-field process models
that will directly support the total system performance assessment for the Site
Recommendation Report by reducing and quantifying uncertainty in calculations of
radionuclide releases from the engineered barrier system. These tests will also
confirm predictions of coupled process behavior in the repository near-field
associated with repository heating.We will continue to monitor transient
seismicity and meteorological events and moisture movement in the Exploratory
Studies Facility and we will conduct hydrographic monitoring in boreholes.
Meteorological data for use in radiological dose assessments and biosphere
modeling will be collected and airborne transport characteristics monitoring at
Yucca Mountain will continue.
The FY 2000 budget includes
$10 million for a cooperative agreement between the Department and the
University and Community College System of Nevada (UCCSN). The agreement started
in FY 1999 and will continue into FY 2002. The principal purpose of the
cooperative agreement is to develop and continue providing the public and the
Yucca Mountain project with an independently derived body of
scientific and engineering data concerning the study of Yucca
Mountain as a potential high level waste repository in support of the
Site Recommendation Report and License Application. Under this agreement, UCCSN
will perform scientific or engineering research, and develop and foster
collaborative working relationships between government and academic researchers.
In FY 2000, work will focus primarily on research and evaluation in the
areas of seismology and hydrology and improvement of data retrieval systems to
support Program goals.
Geodetic measurements and studies with respect to
the strain rate of the earth's crust in the Yucca Mountain
region will be conducted to help determine the probability of the occurrence and
magnitude of seismic events. The UCCSN will conduct studies related to fluid
inclusions with respect to potential rising of hydrothermal fluids at
Yucca Mountain. Under this task, UCCSN will collect and analyze
data and share the results with federal and State of Nevada scientists.
Continuing work on improving data retrieval systems will explore and enhance
record indexing techniques to provide a better method of tracking and retrieving
data in the records management system in support of the licensing support
system. In addition many smaller tasks will be conducted by UCCSN such as
saturated zone data analysis, long term performance confirmation monitoring,
microbiologically influenced corrosion research and hydrogen embrittlement
testing.
Nye County is drilling a network of boreholes to be used to monitor
the movement of. groundwater south of the proposed repository, off the Nevada
Test Site. The county's researchers are establishing the conditions that exist
before repository construction and will use the network as an Early Warning
Monitoring System. We are coordinating with Nye County to obtain water
measurements and water and rock samples from their drilling program. Cooperative
planning has produced a program of scientific activities that complement the Nye
County objectives. We will conduct chemistry and isotopic analysis of the water;
and paleohydrologic, Eh/redox potential, rare earth and trace element analysis;
and geophysical log interpretations.
Environmental monitoring and compliance
activities will continue. These activities include monitoring air quality and
meteorology, water resources studies, archeological and radiological studies,
and monitoring of ecosystem and socioeconomic indicators. We will maintain and
acquire requisite permits so that uninterrupted site activities may continue,
and we will conduct surveillances, audits and assessments of site activities to
ensure regulatory compliance. Many ofthese activities are regulated by statutes
and regulations such as the Endangered Species Act, Comprehensive Environmental
response, Compensation, and Liability Act, and the Clean Water Act.
Design
and Engineering: The Design and Engineering includes three major areas - Waste
Package Development, Repository Design, and Systems Engineering. Waste Package
Development includes two very distinct areas of engineering activity - waste
package design and waste forms and waste package materials testing. Repository
design also includes two distinct areas - subsurface facilities design and
surface facilities design. Systems Engineering integrates all aspects of design
and ensures that the Monitored Geologic Repository can be constructed as
designed, and will perform safely and efficiently.
The FY 2000 performance
measure, associated with the Government Performance and Results Act, involves
deciding on the reference design that will be presented in the Site
Recommendation Report and License Application. The License Application Design
Selection evaluation now underway, will result in technical recommendations for
repository/waste package designs and options. The design will, most likely,
result in additional features that will require detailed design analyses prior
to the design selection in FY 2000.
The reference design for the Site
Recommendation Report and License Application will be documented. Design
documentation will include safety and accident analyses and will describe the
design in sufficient detail to show that a repository can be operated safely
during waste emplacement at Yucca Mountain and after all waste
packages have been emplaced (i.e., preclosure period).
Important areas of
ongoing design emphasis include: waste package materials; waste form testing and
analyses; waste handling system and emplacement operations; (i.e., repository
concept of operations); a demonstration of design compliance with codes,
standards, and regulatory requirements (i.e., design verification); assurance
that the technical work being performed within the individual engineering
specialties is integrated (i.e., interface control); and detailed engineering
for these elements of a repository system that show no similarities to systems
licensed previously in commercial nuclear power plants.
Nuclear waste forms
that will be placed in a repository include spent nuclear fuel from commercial
nuclear power plants, spent nuclear fuel and high-level waste from the
Department of Energy, Naval nuclear spent fuel, and immobilized plutonium. A
repository will be designed to accommodate the varied size, weight,
radioactivity, and heat characteristics of these materials in the repository.
Development of repository acceptance criteria (e.g., disposal interface
specifications) for noncommercial spent fuel will continue.
Licensing/Suitability/Performance Assessment: The primary focus in FY 2000
is to compile the technical documentation that will comprise the Site
Recommendation Report. A draft Site Recommendation Report will be developed and
will be available at the hearings planned for early FY 2001 to notify the public
that the Secretary of Energy is considering whether to recommend the site to the
President. The final Site Recommendation Report, together with the final
Environmental Impact Statement, and other information required by the Nuclear
Waste Policy Act of 1982, as amended, including the views of the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission, and the State &Nevada, will be considered by the
Secretary of Energy in deciding, in early FY 2002, whether to recommend the site
to the President.
Development of the License Application for repository
construction, which would be submitted to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission by
the Secretary of Energy, will continue. Before the License Application would be
submitted, we would continue to work with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to
resolve procedural and technical issues. Interactions with the Nuclear Waste
Technical Review Board, and other external organizations will continue.
The
focus of performance assessment activities will be to update the total system
performance assessment models used in the Viability Assessment, and use them to
support development of the Site Recommendation Report and License Application.
The total system performance assessment models will be refined based on site
characterization information, design information, and feedback from external
organizations (e.g., Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board, Nuclear Regulatory
Commission, Performance Assessment Peer Review Panel) acquired during FY 1998
and 1999.
All technical data used for a repository and waste package design,
total system performance assessment, and models for site processes and
conditions must be traceable and electronically retrievable in accordance with
10 CFR Part 2, Subpart J. The latest web-based technologies will continue to be
utilized to ensure that program data and records are quickly and easily
retrievable at the time that the Secretary of Energy may decide to recommend the
site to the President.
NEPA : The primary focus will be on National
Environmental Policy Act compliance. Activities include completing the public
hearings on the draft Environmental Impact Statement, which will be held
nationally, completing the final Environmental Impact Statement, including the
Comment Response Document, and issuing it in August 2000.
Operations/Construction: To support collection of scientific data, we will
construct one large test area (alcove) and one smaller test area (niche) in the
Cross- Drift tunnel. We will continue to provide support services necessary for
continued testing in the Exploratory Studies Facility, the Cross- Drift, and the
Busted Butte Test Facility. These services include providing test set-up,
training, and test facility modification; maintaining and upgrading the
ventilation, electric, and other utility systems; aligning the underground rail
system; providing site and underground security; and providingother services
designed to protect worker health and safety and protect the environment. We
also will support surface based testing by providing any necessary
drilling/coring and well work-over. We will continue to maintain underground and
surface test facilities, vehicles, and equipment consistent with programmatic
and asset management requirements.
External Oversight and Payments Equal to
Taxes (PETT): We will continue to support external oversight activities and
payments equal to taxes. External oversight activities consist of financial and
technical assistance to the State of Nevada and affected units of local
government (i.e., Churchill, Clark, Esmeralda, Eureka, Lander, Lincoln, Mineral,
Nye, and White Pine Counties in Nevada and Inyo County in California).
PaymentsEqual-to-Taxes are made to the State of Nevada and Nye, Clark, and Inyo
Counties. PaymentsEqual-to-Taxes will increase in FY 2000 due to the increased
value of facilities at the Yucca Mountain site.
Yucca Mountain Project Management: We will continue to
enhance our critical project management and project control activities,
including planning, budgeting, and scheduling.
This will include
activities to ensure that staff are qualified to perform their approved
activities, and trained to perform them safely, and that performing
organizations are provided with the facilities, equipment, information systems,
and support services needed to perform their approved activities.
Project
management also includes conducting public information and outreach programs to
ensure open and informative interactions with the public, technical review
organizations, and other program managers. We will maintain records and ensure
technical information is broadly disseminated to these groups.
International
Conference: In September 1998, Secretary Richardson announced at the
International Atomic Energy Agency's General Conference that, in 1999, DOE would
host a conference on global efforts to dispose of nuclear materials in
geological repositories. The "DOE International Conference on Geologic
Repositories" will be held October 31-November 3, 1999. The purpose is to share
results of our experience and progress and welcome the input of others. Tours of
the Yucca Mountain site and the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant
(WIPP) in New Mexico will be on October 31 and November 3, with the conference
taking place on November 1 and 2, 1999.
Waste Acceptance, Storage, and
Transportation
In FY 2000, the budget request for the Waste Acceptance,
Storage, and Transportation program area is $6 million. The request will support
the following set of functions:
- Interactions with standard contract
holders to discuss how best to accommodate the delay in the acceptance of spent
fuel from commercial utilities;Activities related to generic and non-site
specific long- lead time activities that must precede the removal of spent
nuclear fuel from reactor sites once a federal facility becomes available;
-
Interactions with potentially affected parties to plan for the provision of
technical and financial assistance, as required by Section 180 (c) of the NWPA,
as amended, to States and Indian Tribes for emergency response training for
public safety officials through whose jurisdiction shipments of spent nuclear
fuel and high-level radioactive waste will be transported; and
- Preparation
of acquisition documents and technical specifications to facilitate issuance of
an RFP for acquisition of waste acceptance and transportation services from
private industry.
Program Management and Integration
The $71 million
that we request will support Nuclear Quality Assurance, Regulatory Compliance,
Program Control, and Management activities.
- $17 million for Regulatory
Compliance related activities that include Nuclear Quality Assurance/Quality
Control, the Yucca Mountain Environmental Impact Statement,
andindependent technical validation and verification;
- $18 million for
Program Control that includes planning, program management and control
functions, Total System Life Cycle Cost Report and Fee Adequacy Report
preparation, systems engineering and integration; and
- $36 million for
Management functions that include federal salaries, information technology
applications, audits, records management, and public information.
As noted,
the budget request of $71 million supports the fundamental base program, which
support crosscutting programmatic activities such as strategic and contingency
planning; program monitoring and control; quality assurance; technical
oversight, systems integration; regulatory compliance and integration; human
resources and administration; information resource management; and federal
salaries.
Nuclear Quality Assurance: Our Nuclear Quality Assurance
activities ensure the adequate and appropriate implementation of
federally-mandated Nuclear Quality Assurance requirements related to
radiological health and safety and waste isolation. In FY 2000, we will conduct
audits and surveillances on activities performed by the Yucca
Mountain Site Characterization Project and the Waste Acceptance,
Storage, and Transportation Program; provide support for the disposition of the
Department's nuclear materials (including naval nuclear spent fuel); and
continue to document our compliance with quality assurance requirements. These
activities will support the development and eventual licensing of nuclear waste
storage and disposal facilities.
Regulatory Compliance: The Program's
Regulatory Compliance activities focus on ensuring that the activities leading
to the implementation of the waste management system are consistent with the
regulatory guidance and provisions of the Program's governing authorities. In FY
2000, we will continue to interact on a proactive basis with the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission and the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board to address
key technical issues. We will continue to transition our focus from the issue of
how individual features of the site perform in isolation, toward the goal of
achieving a common understanding of the issues important to overall repository
performance and the adequacy of proposed methodologies and approaches to
resolution of important technical issues.
These activities are critical to
the success of the overall program as they directly affect the Commission's
licensing process. We intend to continue our dialogue with the Commission on
these issues. Following the issuance of the Viability Assessment, we will
continue to engage in more frequent interactions to address key technical
issues.
Program Control/Systems Engineering: The overall objective of our
systems integration effort is to ensure that the various components of the
federal waste management system (such as transportation services and procurement
activities, and repository and waste package design activities) are integrated
into a single system that is safe, efficient, reliable, and cost-effective. In
FY 2000 we will ensure that those integration requirements between the various
components of the waste management system will be adequately addressed and, if
necessary, alternative system designs and proposals will be evaluated with
careful attention paid to their effects on system operations and costs. We have
just completed a Total System Life Cycle Cost Report and Fee Adequacy Report and
we will work within the Department to address a wide range of issues associated
with the acceptance of Department-owned spent nuclear fuel, high-level
radioactive waste, and Naval nuclear spent fuel.
Program Management: The
program is continuing to implement the Civilian Radioactive Waste Management
Strategic System Management Policy. The policy clarifies accountability,
responsibility, and authority. It codifies management policies and requirements.
Further, it provides for a performance- based approach that promotes
accountability across federal and contractor organizations. The implementation
will focus management attention on the identification and consolidation of
overlapping, duplicative, and redundant management system requirements,
processes, and practices necessary to manage the program.
We will continue
to use our information management technology to improve the productivity of the
Program's human resources, drive process improvements, and reduce overall
program costs. We are also responding to increased demand from Program
stakeholders and the public for easy and timely access to a wide range of
information about the Program. As an example, we made available, through our
Internet Home Page, the Viability Assessment, its companion documents, and all
relevant technical studies/analyses supporting the Viability Assessment.
Interest in these documents has been high. We have received comments or requests
for additional information related to the Viability Assessment via e-mail from
as far away as Australia, Germany, and thePhilippines. Internet access will also
be provided to program documents supporting the Site Recommendation and License
Application. We expect even greater demands for information systems, support,
and services as we move to licensing.
Concluding Remarks
As I noted in
my opening remarks, we have made substantial progress in the last year and we
are appropriately positioned to continue. The Viability Assessment, as you know,
found that there were no "show stoppers" with respect to the site at
Yucca Mountain. It laid out the path forward for the Program.
It identified the necessary remaining scientific and technical work we have to
complete and it laid out the funding profile we require.
We are almost at
the end of site characterization. Funding at our request level will give us the
resources required to address the last remaining questions about the suitability
of Yucca Mountain on the schedule we have laid out. If the site
if found suitable, the Secretary will be in a position then to make a decision
about recommending the site to the President for development as the Nation's
repository for spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste.
I urge
your favorable consideration of our appropriation request.
Thank you. I
would be pleased to answer any questions you may have.
END
LOAD-DATE: March 17, 1999