NRC Will Complete Yucca Supplemental EIS, NRC Chair Says

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission will complete the supplemental Environmental Impact Statement needed for the Yucca Mountain licensing review, NRC Chair Steven Burns said yesterday at the 11th Annual Platts Nuclear Energy Conference. The Department of Energy had said it would complete the EIS on groundwater issues early last year, but it decided against completing the report, choosing instead to give NRC all the technical information needed to complete the report. It had been unclear if the NRC would compete the EIS in DOE’s stead, but with the remaining approximate $4 million in unexpended Nuclear Waste Fund appropriations following the completion of the Yucca Safety Evaluation Report, the Commission should have enough funding to complete the report, Burns said. "The decision is we will do that since DOE told us they won’t be doing it," Burns told reporters. "We have the funds that are left over from the carryover for high-level waste that will cover the preparation of the supplemental EIS." Burns could not give a timeline to when the NRC would complete the EIS, but it is expected to take the Commission a year to finish.