NRC STILL CONSIDERING OPTIONS FOR YUCCA EIS

NRC Chair Allison Macfarlane reiterated yesterday that the Commission is still considering its options on how to move forward with the supplemental environmental impact statement required for the Yucca Mountain licensing review after the Department of Energy said it would not complete it two weeks ago. “We’re still considering what our options are,” Macfarlane said during a press conference at the NRC Regulatory Information Conference. “We’ve just heard about this from the DOE, and we will get back to you on that.” DOE is arguing that since it submitted a groundwater EIS in 2008, it does not have to update the EIS to fulfill its Nuclear Waste Policy Act legal obligations. The NRC issued an Order in November setting forth a pathway to re-start the Yucca Mountain licensing review, including the request for a supplemental EIS from DOE on groundwater issues to satisfy requirements set forth in the National Environmental Policy Act. DOE had initially planned to move forward with the NRC’s request for the study, and Assistant Energy Secretary for Nuclear Energy Peter Lyons told House lawmakers in January that the Department had taken steps to prepare the EIS.