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Federal Document Clearing House
Congressional Testimony
September 28, 2000, Thursday
SECTION: CAPITOL HILL HEARING TESTIMONY
LENGTH: 3520 words
COMMITTEE:
SENATE ENERGY & NATURAL RESOURCES
HEADLINE: TESTIMONY FAILURE TO MEET NUCLEAR WASTE
STORAGE DEADLINE
TESTIMONY-BY: IVAN ITKIN , STATUS OF
THE YUCA MOUNTAIN PROJECT
BODY:
September 28, 2000
Statement of Ivan Itkin, Director Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste
Management U.S. Department of Energy Hearing on Status of the Yucca
Mountain Project Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources
INTRODUCTION Mr. Chairman and members of the Committee, I am Ivan Itkin,
Director of the Department of Energy's Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste
Management. I appreciate the opportunity to provide an update on the status of
our Program and to address issues of concern to the Committee. The Department
has made significant progress toward a permanent solution for spent nuclear fuel
and high-level radioactive waste. We are on schedule to make a decision in 2001
on whether or not to recommend the Yucca Mountain site as a
repository. With sufficient appropriations, and if the site is suitable for
recommendation and is designated by Congress, our current schedule is to submit
the license application for repository construction to the Nuclear Regulatory
Commission in 2002. If the site is successfully licensed, our current schedule
calls for initiating construction in 2005 upon receipt of construction
authorization, and beginning acceptance 6f waste in the repository by 2010.
BACKGROUND The overriding goal of the Federal Government's high-level
radioactive waste management policy is the establishment of a permanent geologic
repository. Permanent geologic disposal addresses the management of spent
nuclear fuel from commercial electric power generation and from past Government
defense activities, and it is essential to advancing our non- proliferation
goals. A permanent disposal solution will also secure highly enriched spent
nuclear fuel from foreign and domestic research reactors. It will also provide
for the disposition of surplus plutonium from dismantled nuclear weapons. A
repository is necessary for the disposition of spent nuclear fuel from our
nuclear-powered naval vessels. Finally, a permanent geologic repository is vital
for cleaning up the legacy of. our past nuclear weapons production at sites
throughout the country. PROGRAM STATUS The Department intends to fulfill its
obligation to accept spent fuel. The issue of waste acceptance is clearly one
that is high on our agenda. Last year, we proposed to take title to utilities'
spent fuel at reactor sites as a practical near-term solution to address our
contractual obligation to utilities. The Department is in litigation over the
delay in meeting our contractual obligation to begin accepting spent fuel from
the nuclear utility companies by January 31, 1998. We are actively working with
utilities in an effort to resolve this issue and the ongoing litigation, and we
reached a settlement with PECO Energy Company this July. The Department is
negotiating with a number of utilities. We have agreed to keep their identities
and the nature of the discussions confidential. Let me address the progress we
have made toward the long-term solution for managing our nation's spent nuclear
fuel and high- level waste. We are nearing completion of the scientific and
engineering work that will be the foundation for a Secretarial decision on
whether or not to recommend the Yucca Mountain site to the
President. We are conducting a world-class scientific and technical program at
Yucca Mountain. Through the Exploratory Studies Facility, we
have had almost five years of direct examination of the geology 'underneath
Yucca Mountain. From this study, our scientists and engineers,
including experts from our nation's universities and our National Laboratories,
have advanced our understanding of a potential repository system and enabled us
to further focus our investigations. Let me highlight some progress to date. We
completed a 2000-meter cross-drift tunnel in December 1999. This year, we will
complete niches and alcoves in the cross-drift tunnel that will assist us in
developing a more complete three- dimensional model of that geologic formation.
For nearly two years, we have gathered and integrated into our performance
models data from the cross-drift tunnel inside the mountain to refine our
predictions of repository performance. Within the Exploratory Studies Facility,
we continue to conduct the largest thermal test of a geologic formation in the
world. This test, commonly known as the drift-scale test, assesses how long-term
exposures to heat from waste packages might affect the hydrology and near-field
environment within tunnels that may be constructed within Yucca
Mountain. This work will help determine the effects of heat on waste
package performance and assist in the further refinement of repository design as
we move forward toward licensing a repository, if the site is deemed suitable.
Since the release of the Viability Assessment in December 1998, the primary
objective of the program's scientific and technical work has been reducing
uncertainty in our predictions of repository performance. Our repository design
has been refined to better manage thermal loads and reduce uncertainty. It is a
flexible and robust design that can accommodate various operational modes,
including adjusting the period of ventilation, varying fuel staging and loading
into waste packages, and adjusting waste package spacing to manage thermal
loads. A repository that is flexible to accommodate technical advances or future
changes in priority is one way to address concerns regarding the need for
additional information due to uncertainty. PLANNED ACTIVITIES Let me now turn to
the Program's current activities, and the major events on the horizon. The
culmination of the Program's site characterization efforts is to prepare the
documentation required under the Nuclear Waste Policy Act to support a decision
on whether or not to submit a site recommendation to the President. A
Presidential decision to develop a repository must be based on sound science. It
must not only be accompanied by the documentation required by law, but also
inform our policy makers, our regulatory oversight agencies, and the public
regarding the scientific basis for the decision. The Site Recommendation Report
will present background information and descriptions of the site
characterization program and the site. It will include descriptions of the
repository design, the waste form, and waste packages; a discussion of data
related to the safety of the site; and a description of the performance
assessment of the repository. It will also contain an assessment of the
suitability of the site. In support of a possible site recommendation next year,
we will issue the Site Recommendation Consideration Report by the end of this
year. This Site Recommendation Consideration Report will provide the information
to support statutory public hearings early next year. The Site Recommendation
Consideration Report and its supporting documents will be made available to the
State of Nevada, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and the public to inform
them and to facilitate public comment on a possible recommendation. The Nuclear
Waste Policy Act requires a final environmental impact statement to accompany a
site recommendation to the President, if the Secretary decides to recommend the
site for development as a repository. The Department issued the Draft
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 in July 1999. The draft environmental
impact statement provides information on potential environmental impacts that
could result from the construction, operation and monitoring, and eventual
closure of a repository at Yucca Mountain. We conducted a
public comment period on the draft environmental impact statement from the end
of July 1999 through February 28, 2000. Twenty-one hearings were held, eleven
throughout the country and ten in the State of Nevada. More than 2700
individuals attended those hearings and more than 700 provided comments. We are
presently analyzing the comments, preparing responses to be documented in the
comment response section of the final environmental impact statement, and
continuing development of the final environmental impact statement. Our plan for
Fiscal Year 2001 and beyond reflects the evolution of the project emphasis from
scientific investigations to data synthesis, model validation, repository and
waste package design, safety analysis, and documentation. The Programs near-term
priorities upon completion of site characterization will be to enhance and
refine repository design features and to develop the remaining information
required to continue to a license application if a decision to recommend the
site is made by the Secretary and approved by the President and Congress. FISCAL
YEAR 2001 BUDGET The Department has requested $437.5 million for Fiscal Year
2001 to complete the activities that are necessary for an informed policy
decision. In addition to compiling the remaining information that. is necessary
for a possible site recommendation, the full Fiscal Year 2001 request is needed
for critical work related to the preparation of a license application. This work
was deferred in past years due to funding levels below those described as
necessary when we published in the Viability Assessment. The Program has been
able to maintain its schedule for major milestones over the past years despite
significant reductions from our request level, but only by deferring critical
work that still must be completed. This past June the House Appropriations Bill
provided a $413 million mark for fiscal year 2001 funding. The Senate
Appropriations Bill provided a significantly lower appropriations level, $351
million., Let me reemphasize the impact of these lower appropriation levels as
stated in the Statement of Administration Policy on. September 15, 2000. At the
lower funding level of $351 million, we will face significant delays in
preparing a site recommendation. A decision on recommending the site could slip
for up to a year, and submittal of a license application could slip several
years. These delays would impact the 2010 date for the commencement of waste
acceptance at a repository. CONTRACT RECOMPETITION The Program's current
management and operating contract was awarded in 1991 and will expire in
February 200 1. Consistent with the Department's contracting policy regarding
management and operating contracts, and in conformance with direction provided
in the enacted Energy and Water Development appropriations, we are recompeting
our management and operating contract. The Department received three proposals
on June 8, 2000, which was the close of the bidding period. We are evaluating
submittals by the three teams, which are led by MK Nevada LLC, Bechtel SAIC
Company LLC, and TRW. Parsons Management and Operations LLC. We expect to award
a follow-on performance- based contract this fall, and we expect an orderly
transition. REGULATORY ACTIVITIES We have proposed 10 CFR 963, Yucca
Mountain Site Suitability Guidelines, for use by the Department in
evaluating site suitability. This proposal is intended to align the suitability
criteria in the Department's evaluation process with the standards being
promulgated by the Environmental Protection Agency and the licensing criteria
being promulgated by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Specifically, the
Environmental Protection Agency and Nuclear Regulatory Commission are each
revising the regulatory framework for standards involving radiation dose limits
at Yucca Mountain and for licensing this site, respectively. We
are hopeful that the Environmental Protection Agency will establish reasonable
standards that are protective of public health and safety and the environment,
and that these standards can be implemented by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission
in a rigorous licensing environment. CONCLUSION Since the enactment of the
Nuclear Waste Policy Act in 1982, our nation has made a substantial investment
in permanent geologic disposal and we have made significant progress.
Approximately four billion dollars and years of cutting-edge science and
engineering have brought us to this point. When we set out to characterize the
Yucca Mountain site through an ambitious scientific program, we
knew we would be faced with challenges. I believe by the end of next year we
will have met the most difficult of those challenges. There will likely continue
to be additional scientific and institutional issues to be addressed during any
licensing process. But, I believe the Program is well positioned to move
forward. Thank you. I would be pleased to answer any questions you may have.
LOAD-DATE: October 4, 2000, Wednesday
