DOE Has Not Delivered Yucca Technical Report to NRC Yet

The Department of Energy still has not delivered to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission its updated technical report needed for the Yucca Mountain supplemental environment impact statement. DOE had said earlier this year it would not complete the supplemental EIS, but it would complete an update to its 2009 technical review that is basis of the EIS. In April, William Boyle, DOE’s director of the Office of Used Nuclear Fuel Disposition R&D, said that not much information needed updating and that the report could be delivered to the NRC “as early as the end of April,” he said during a public meeting with the NRC. However, according to NRC Chair Allison Macfarlane’s latest report to Congress on Yucca Mountain licensing review expenditures, the NRC has still not received the technical report. “On April 7, 2014, NRC staff met with DOE staff in a public meeting to discuss DOE’s revision of this report, titled, Analysis of Post-closure Groundwater Impacts for a Geologic Repository for the Disposal of Spent Nuclear Fuel and High-Level Radioactive Waste at Yucca Mountain, Nye County, Nevada,” Macfarlane wrote. “The NRC is awaiting receipt of the update to the 2009 technical report. Staff sent a letter to DOE on August 21, 2014, requesting an estimated delivery date for the NRC to receive this report.” According to NRC spokesman David McIntyre, the NRC still does not have the report and has no indication from DOE when it will be delivered.