DOE holds hearing on nuclear waste management report

The Department of Energy (DOE) held its first public hearing to discuss its report, due to Congress in October, on the adequacy of the current high-level nuclear waste management system, and projections for its ability to cope with future waste generation. DOE officials presented an annotated outline of the report and invited comment from the public as well as officials of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The scope of the DOE report, mandated by Section 803 of the Energy Policy Act of 1992, limits the source of future waste generation to new nuclear power plants built and licensed after the Act was enacted. DOE announced, however, that it intends for the report to examine possible future waste generation both by new nuclear power plants and defense facilities. Among the topics DOE said it will examine are: the anticipated increased volumes of spent nuclear fuel or high-level waste; the need for additional interim storage capacity prior to final disposal; transportation of additional volumes of waste, and; the need for additional repositories for deep geologic disposal.