Role of the MRS - An overview

The Nuclear Waste Policy Act (NWPA) as amended authorized the US Department of Energy (DOE) to site, construct, and operate a monitored retrievable storage (MRS) facility as an integral component of the federal waste management system, subject to specific conditions limiting storage capacity and linking the schedule of the MRS facility to the schedule for a geologic repository. This paper examines the role of the MRS facility as an integral part of the waste management system and, as such, how it would contribute to acceptance of waste as early as 1998. However, in order to do so and as evidenced by the comments above, the existing statutory linkages would need to be waived or otherwise changed. The paper discusses the DOE's siting strategy; MRS design and development; finances.