ML20212C340
| ML20212C340 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Issue date: | 06/22/1999 |
| From: | Gray J NRC |
| To: | Stephen Burns, Sharon Hudson, Wastler S NRC |
| Shared Package | |
| ML20212C331 | List: |
| References | |
| NUDOCS 9909210246 | |
| Download: ML20212C340 (6) | |
Text
Keen V:ndervort - Rk: EDO. Ticket G199900300 _
Pagsil From:
Joseph Gray To:
Sandra Wastler, Sharon Hudson, Stephen Burns Date:
Tue, Jun 22,1999 8:26 AM
Subject:
Re: EDO Ticket G199900300 OGC has no legal objection to the proposal, conditioned on your obtaining OCFO approval.
J. Gray
>>> Sandra Wastler 06/214:05 PM >>>
Steve, Sharon DWM has been assigneo a respond to a letter from K. Crowley of the National Research Council to Chairman Jackson. The one paragraph letter simply states that the NRC agrees to support an NRC project entitled " Disposition of High-Level Radioactive Waste Through Geological isolation:
Development, Current Status, and Technical and Policy Challenges" with a committment for $35,000. The package made it to the EDO's office and I was just informed by Dan Martin, EDO that OGC and CFO need to concur on the package. The turnaround time is short, the ticket is due to the Office of the Secretary by 6/24. Therefore, I am concurrently sending an electronic copy of the package to both OGC and CFO for review and concurrence. You can either e-mail your concurrence, call me directly with your concurrence, or I can bring the original package to you when you are ready to concur. Please let me know your preference.
Thanks for your assistance Sandi CC:
C.W. (Bill) Reamer, Carl Paperiello, Dan Martin,..
l l
s 9909210246 990709 PDR COP 916 65tCC CORRESPONDENCE PDR
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Mr. Kevin D. Crowley
}
l Director I
l Board on Radioactive Waste Management l
National Research Council i
2101 Constitution Avenue Washington, DC 20418
Dear Mr. Crowley:
I am responding to your letter of June 1,1999, requesting partial financial support from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) for a project entitled " Disposition of High-Level Radioactive Waste Through Geological isolation: Development, Current Status, and Technical and Policy Challenges." The NRC would like to support your project with a contribution of l
$35,000. Upon completion of the project report, the NRC would appreciate 15 copies for internal distribution. Thank you for the opportunity to participate in this worthwhile endeavor.
Sincerely, Shirley Ann Jackson TICKET: EDO G19990300 DISTRIBUTION: Central File NMSS r/f PAHLr/f PAHLt/f JGreeves JHolonich EDO r/f j
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l Mr. Kevin D. Crowley t
Director 1
Board on Radioactive Waste Management National Research Council 2101 Constitution Avenue Washington, DC 20418
Dear Mr. Crowley:
)
I am responding to your letter of June 1,1999, requesting parti ' financial support from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) for a project entitle ' Disposition of High-Level Radioactive Waste Through Geological isolation: Development, rrent Status, and Technical and Policy Challenges." The NRC would like to support your p ject with a contribution of
$25,000. Thank you for the opportunity to participate in this orthwhile endeavor.
Sincere!,
TICKET: EDO G19990300 DISTRIBUTION: Central File NMSS r/f PAHL r/f PAHL t/f JGreeves JHolonich EDO r/f CPol:nd PUBLIC DWM r/f JHickey JBlaha NMSS Dir. Off. r/f ffsler OCA OPA-WTraver MKnapp FMiraglia PNorry SBurns AThidani Dunn Lee JFunch-DOCUMENT NAME: S:\\DWM\\HL B\\SLW\\G1990300.EDO
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UNITED STATES NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Distribution'-
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AThadani, RES Mr. Kevin D. Crowley JDunnLee, 0IP l
Director JFunches, CF0 l
Board on Radioactive Waste Management G19990300 National Research Council EDO r/f 2101 Constitution Avenue Washington, D.C. 20418 l
Dear Mr. Crowley:
I am responding to your letter of June 1,1999, requesting partial financial support from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) for a project entitled " Disposition of High-Level Radioactive Waste Through Geological isolation: Development, Current Status, and Technical l
and Policy Challenges." The NRC would like to support your project with a contribution of
$35,000. Upon completion of the project report, the NRC would appreciate 15 copies for 1
intemal distribution. Thank you for the opportunity to participate in this wof.hwhile endeavor.
Sincerely, b
o Greta Joy Dieus i
i Originated by:
[SWastler,NMSS]
y i
1 '. :
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NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL BOARD ON RADIOACTIVE WASTE MANAGEMENT 2101 Constitution Avenue Washington. D.C. 20418 Mem Office Phone:
Office Locanon i
202r3n3066 Fan 343077 Milian Hams Baldmg Roarn 456 2001 Wisconsm Ave..N W 20007 June 1,1999 -
The Honorable Shidey Ann Jackson Chairman Nuclear Regulatory Commission One White Flint North Building 11555 Rockville Pike Rockville, MD 20852
Dear Dr. Jackson:
Following informal discussions with Jchn Greeves of your staff, I am writing to request partial financial support from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission for a National Research Council project entitled ' Disposition of High-Level Radioactive Waste Through Geological isolation: Development, Current Status, and Technical and Policy Challenges."
The objective of this project is to prepare a National Research Council report on the development, current status, ano technical and policy challenges for implementing the geological disposition option for radioactive waste. The report will be written for policymakers in countries with radioactive waste management programs, and it will be prepared by a National Research Council committee based on information obtained at an intemational workshop to be convened at the Academies' Beckman Center in Irvine, Califomia on November 4-5,1999. A copy of the project prospectus is attached for your information.
The project is planned to be 15 months in duration with a total cost of about $600,000, which we hope to obtain from several U.S. and intemational sources. On the U.S. side, we have obtained funding from the U.S. Department of Energy and the National Academy of Sciences. On the intemational side, we have received funding commitments from the British l
(Nirex), Germans (BfS), Japanese (JNC), Swedes (SKB), and Swiss (NAGRA), and we are in l
discussions with several other organizations for additional support.
l In discussions with other national radwaste programs, we are asking for contributions of between $25,000 and $75,000. We can accept these contributions at any time during the project, but our desire is to receive contributions as soon as possible to assure the timely completion of the final report.
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The Honorable Shirley Jackson June 1,1999 l
Page 2 i
Please feel free to contact me (phone: 202-334-3066; fax: 202-334-3077; e-mail:
l kerowley@nas.edu) if you have questions or need additional information.
l Sincerely yours, N
l Kevin D. Crowley l
Director Board on Radioactive ' Waste Management l
l cc:
John Greeves, USNRC John Wiley, BRWM i
l l
l I
i l
l l
l l
l 1
O NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES NATIONAL ACADEMY OF ENGINEERING NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL COMMISSION ON GEOSCIENCES, ENVIRONMENT, AND RESOURCES BOARD ON RADIOACTIVE WASTE MANAGEMENT PROJECT TITLE Disposition of High-Level Radioactive Waste Through Geological isolation: Development, Current Status, and Technical and Policy Challenges PURPOSE The National Research Council (NRC) has provided scientific and technical analyses to inform policy decisions related to the disposal of nuclear waste since the 1950t. One of the NRC's ear 1iest reports on this subject, The Disposal of Radioactive Waste on Land (1957), was among the first technical analyses of the geological disposal option, and it marked the beginning of a four-decade effort by the U.S. govemment to identify a disposal site for commercial spent fuel and defense waste (collectively referred to here as high-level waste
[HLW]), including the effort that is now underway a: Yucca Mountain, Nevada. Repository research and (or) development programs are underway or planned in several other countries as well, most notably Belgium, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Japan, Sweden, Switzeriand, and, until recently, the United Kingdom.
In 1988, the Board on Radioactive Waste Management (BRWM) convened a study session with experts from the United States and abroad to discuss U.S. policies and programs for managing the nation's spent fuel and high-level waste. The board's follow-up report, Rethinking High-LevelRadioactive Waste Disposal (NRC,1990), provided a broad assessment of the technical and policy challenges for developing a repository for the disposition of HLW.
The board noted in the report (p. 2 ) that
... [t]here is a strong worldwide consensus that the best, safest long-term option for dealing with HLW is geologicalisolation... Although the scientific community has a high confidence that the general strategy of geological isolation is the best one to pursue, the challenges are formidable.
In the decade since this study session was held, national programs in several countries have grappled with a number of technical challenges. These include understanding the nature and rates of geological processes, predicting long-term environmental change, predicting repository and waste package performance, and predicting long-term human behavior for the purposes of risk estimation. Those national programs that have made or are in the transition from research to repository development also are facing a challenge that has both technical t
and sociological overtones: Simply put, many members of the public do not believe that geological isolation can be " proven" to be a safe, long-term waste-disposal solution. They doubt the ability of experts to predict future changes or to make the right decisions to protect Page1
+w s.
public health and are therefore reluctant to relinquish control of the waste, even though the continued management of this waste may be a burden on future generations.
Many national programs are seeking improved methods for addressing these public concems. In the United States, for example, the U.S. Department of Energy is considering a plan that would provide the capability to delay indefinitely the physical closure of a repository at Yucca Mountain,' leaving the final decision on closure to a future generation. In Canada, a federally appointed panel has recommended that the govemment postpone the search for a reposstory site until broad public acceptance of the geological isolation approach has been achieved. In Germany, there has been intense public opposition to moving spent fuel to an interim storage facility near Gorleben, the site of the German candidate repository, and the decision on whether to proceed with development of a repository at Gorteben has been delayed. In the United Kingdom, the House of Lords committee conducted a full-scale inquiry into the deep disposal program, which was put on hold following a govemment decision to cancel a proposed rock laboratory project at Sc!! afield.
During the next several years, decisions on the further development and implementation of the geological disposition option are expected to be made in several countries. The BRWM believes that the scientific and engineering communities can-and should-play a constructive role in the decision process by providing objective information to decision makers on relevant technical and policy issues. The study proposed here is an effort to provide such information to national policy makers both here and abroad.
PROJECT PLAN The National Research Council will prepare a report for policy makers on the development, current status, and technical and policy challenges for implementation of the geological disposition option for highly radioactive waste. The issues to be addressed in the reportinclude the following.
. Development of the Geological Disposition Option-The scientific basis for the geological disposition option, how that option is being implemented on a woridwide basis, and the potential technical suitability and institutional maturity of attematives to permanent l
geological disposition such as long-term storage.
l Scienti6c and Policy Chaloenges for Disposition of Highly Radioactive Waste Through Geologicallsolatior>-Understanding natural processes and environmental change; predicting long-term repository performance; predicting long-term human behavior; limits to technical knowability.
4 Strategies forImplementing the Geological Disposition Option-Separating the technical and policy bases for licensing decisions; phased disposition options; long-term monitoring and surveillance; addressing public concems about long-term safety; other strategies to increase technical and public confidence.
The report will be prepared by a steering committee of 12 experts operating under the auspices of the BRWM. The membership of the steering committee has been drawn from the Page 2
)
P BRWM as well as the intomational redweste technical and policymaking communities. The steering commsttEs will meet to prepare a draft of a " white paper' that will lay out the issues that will be addressed in the report. This paper will form the basis for discussions at an intomational workshop. The white paper will be distributed to participants, discussed at the workshop (the format for the discussions will be dete mined by the steering committee),
revised by the steering committee based on the workshop discussions, and issued as an NRC report.
The intamational workshop will be held in Beckman Center of the National Academies of Science and Engineering in Irvine, Califomia, on November 4 - 5,1999. The workshop will be open to the public, and a total attendance of about 200 people is expected. Participants will be invited from govemment agencies, scientific organizations, industry, other non-govemmental organizations (NGOs) involved in or concemed with radioactive waste disposal, both in the United States and abroad, and the media.
The product of the study will be a consensus report informed by the workshop discussions that addresses the issues listed at the beginning of this project plan. The report will be written for a non-technical audience and will focus on those aspects of the issues that are likely to be of interest to policy makers in the United States and abroad. The report is intended to provide, objective information on the issues to policy makers rather than specific recommendations for action on individual national programs.
Page 3
'e ACTION i
EDO Principal Correspondence Contrdi FROMs DUE: 06/22/99 EDO CONTROL: Gl9990300 DOC DT: 06/01/99 FINAL REPLY:
K0 vin D. Crowley N2tional Research Council 1
TOs Chairman Jackson FOR SIGNATURE OF :
ROUTING:
DISPOSITION OF HIGH-LEVEL RADIOACTIVE WASTE Travers THROUGH GEOLOGICAL ISOLATION: DEVELOPMENT, Knapp j
CURRENT STATUS, AND TECHNICAL AND POLICY Miraglia CHALLENGES Norry Blaha Burns DATE: 06/10[99 Thadani, RES Dunn Lee, IP ASSIGNED TO:
CONTACT:
.Paperiello SPECIAL INSTRUCTIONS OR REMARKS:
k d I'Y bl N "
Ij.
e,'
e.
OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY CORRESPONDENCE CONTROL TICKET PAPER NUMBER:
CRC-99-0530 LOGGING DATE: Jun 9 99 ACTION OFFICE:
EDO a
i AUTHOR:
KEVIN CROWLEY AFFILIATION:
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA ADDRESSEE:
CHAIRMAN JACKSON LETTER DATE:
Jun 1 99 FILE CODE:
l
SUBJECT:
REQ PARTIAL FINANCIAL SUPPORT FOR A NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL PROJECT---DISPOSITION OF HLRW THROUGH GEOLOGICAL ISOLATION: DEVELOPMENT, CURRENT STATUS, AND TECH AND POLICY CHALLENGES..
ACTION:
Signature of Chairman DISTRIBUTION:
CHAIRMAN, COMRS, CFO, OIP SPECIAL HANDLING: SECY TO ACK CONSTITUENT:
NOTES:
CHAIRMAN CORRESPONDENCE DATE DUE:
Jun 24 99 SIGNATURE:
DATE SIGNED:
AFFILIATION:
EDO --G19990300
(.
y. :5 NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL BOARD ON RADIOACTIVE WASTE MANAGEMENT 2101 Constitution Avenue Waalungsan. D C. 20418 I
MaulOtraos Phone:
Of5ce 1mcatian; I
202/3R3066 Fac 3n3077 Mahan Hams Buildag Raam 456 2001 Wasconsin Ave.. N W. 20007 l
June 1,1999 The Honorable Shirley Ann Jackson Chairman -
Nuclear Regulatory Commission l
One White Flint North Building 11555 Rockville Pike Rockville, MD 20852
Dear Dr. Jackson:
Following informal discussions with John Greeves of your staff, I am writing to request i
partial financial support from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission for a National Research Council project entitled " Disposition of High-Level Radioactive Waste Through Geological isolation: Development, Current Status, and Technical and Policy Challenges."
The objective of this project is to prepare a National Research Council report on the development, current status, and technical and policy challenges for implementing the geological disposition option for radioar'.:.c nmste. The report will be written for policymakers l
in countries with radioactive waste management programs, and it will be prepared by a l
National Research Council committee based on information obtained at an intemational workshop to be convened at the Academies' Beckman Center in Irvine, Califomia on November 4-5,1999. A copy of the project prospectus is attached for your information.
The project is planned to be 15 months in duration with a total cost of about $600,000, which we hope to obtain from several U.S. and intemational sources. On the U.S. side, we l
have obtained funding from the U.S. Department of Energy and the National Academy of Sciences. On the intemational side, we have received tunding commitments from the British (Nirex), Germans (BfS), Japanese (JNC), Swedes (SKB), and Swiss (NAGRA), and we are in discussions with several other organizations for additional support.
l l
In discussions with other national radwaste programs, we are asking for contributions of between $25,000 and $75,000. We can accept these contributions at any time during the project, but our desire is to receive contributions as soon as possible to assure the timely completion of the final report.
U N
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r-l The Honorable Shirley Jackson June 1,1999 Pa9e 2 Please feel free to contact me (phone: 202-334-3066; fax: 202-334-3077; e-mail:
kerowley@nas.edu) if you have questions or need additional information.
Sincerely yours, t%
N Kevin D. Crowley Director Board on Radioactive Waste Management cc:
John Greeves, USNRC John Wiley, BRWM 4
l l
l
., ~.
NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES NATIONAL ACADEMY OF ENGINEERING NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL COMMISSION ON GEOSCIENCES, ENVIRONMENT, AND REfSOURCES BOARD ON RADIOACTIVE WASTE MANAGEMENT MtOJECT TITLE Disposition of High-Level Radioactive Waste Through Geological isolation: Development, Current Status, and Technical and Policy Challenges PURPOSE The National Research Council (NRC) has provided scientific and technical analyses to inform policy decisions related to the disposal of nuclear waste since the 1950s. One of the NRC's ear 1iest reports on this subject, The Disposal of Radioactive Waste on Land (1957), was among the first technical analyses of the geological disposal option, and it marked the beginning of a four-decade effort by the U.S. govemment to identify a disposal site for commercial spent fuel and defense waste (collectively referred to here as high-level waste
[HLW]), including the effort that is now underway at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. Repository research and (or) development programs are underway or planned in several other countries as well, most notably Belgium, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Japan, Sweden, Switzerland, and, until recently, the United Kingdom.
In 1988, the Board on Radioactive Waste Management (BRWM) convened a study session with experts from the United States and abroad to discuss U.S. policies and programs o
for managing the nation's spent fuel and high-level waste. The board's follow-up report, Rethinking High-Leve/ Radioactim Mdmade Disposal (NRC,1990), provided a broad assessment of the technical and policy challenges for developing a repository for the disposition of HLW.
The board noted in the report (p. 2 ) that
.., [t]here is a strong worldwide consensus that the best, safest long-term option l
for dealing with HLW is geological isolation.... Although the scientific community has a high confidence that the general strategy of geological isolation is the best one to pursue, the challenges are formidable, j
in the decade since this study session was held, national programs in several countries have grappled with a number of technical challenges. These include understanding the nature j
. and rates of geological processes, predicting long-term environmental change, predicting repository and waste package performance, and predicting long-term human behavior for the purposes of risk estimation. Those national programs that have made or are in the transition from research to repository development also are facing a challenge that has both technical and sociological overtones: Simply put, many members of the public do not believe that geological isolation can be " proven to be a safe, long-term waste-disposal solution. They doubt the ability of experts to predict future changes or to make the right decisions to protect Page1 i-
E l
e i
a l
L'
' public health and are therefore reluctant to relinquish control of the waste, even though the i
continued management of this waste may be a burden on future generations.
Many national programs are seeking improved methods for aildressing these public concems. In the United States, for example, the U.S. Department of Energy is considering a plan that would provide the capability to delay indefinitely the physical closure of a repository at Yucca Mountain, leaving the final decia!on on closure to a future generation. In Canada, a federally appointed panel has recommended that the govemment postpone the search for a repository site until broad public acceptance of the geological isolation approach has been achieved. In Germany, there has been intense public opposition to moving spent fuel to an interim storage facility near Gorleben, the site of the German candidate repository, and the f
decision on whether to proceed with development of a repository at Gorieben has been delayed, in the United Kingdom, the House of Lords committee conducted a full-scale inquiry into the deep disposal program, which was put on hold following a govemment decision to cancel a proposed rock laboratory project at Se!! afield.
During the next several years, decisions on the further development and implementation of the geological disposition option are expected to be made in several i
countries. The BRWM believes that the scientific and engineering communities can--and should-play a constructive role in the decision process by providing objective information to decision makers on relevant technical and policy issues. The study proposed here is an effort l
to provide such information to national policy makers both here and abroad.
PROJECT PLAN l
The National Research Council will prepare a report for policy makers on the development, current status, and technical and policy challenges for implementation of the geological disposition option for highly radioactive waste. The issues to be addressed in the report include the following:
Development of the GeologicalDisposition Option--The scientific basis for the geological disposition option, how that option is being implemented on a worldwide basis, and the potential technical suitability and institutional maturity of attematives to permanent geological disposition such as long-term storage.
Scienti6c and Policy Challengres for Disposition of Highly Radioactive Waste Through Geologicallsolation-Understanding natural processes and environmental change; predicting long-term repository performance; predicting long-term human behavior; limits to technical knowability.-
Strategies tbrImplementing the Geological Disposition Option-Separating the technical and policy bases for licensing decisions; phased disposition options; long-term monitoring and surveillance; addressing public concems about long-term safety; other strategies to increase technical and public confidence.
The report will be prepared by a steering committee of 12 experts operating under the auspices of the BRWM. The membership of the steering committee has been drawn from the Page 2 l
l L
,y BRWM as well as the intomational radwaste technical and policymaking communities. The steering committee will meet to prepare a draft of a " white paper" that will lay out the issues that will be addressed in the report. This paper will form the basis for discussions at an i^
intomational workshop. The white paper will be distributed to participants, discussed at the workshop (the format for the discussions will be determined by the steering committee),
revised by the steering committee based on the workshop discussions, and issued as an NRC report.
The intomational workshop will be held in Beckman Center of the National Academies of Science and Engineering in Irvine, Califomia, on November 4 - 5,1999. The workshop will be open to the public, and a total attendance of about 200 people is expected. Participants i
will be invited from govemment agencies, scientific organizations, industry, other non-govemmental organizations (NGOs) involved in or concemed with radioactive waste disposal,
)
both in the United States and abroad, and the media.
l l
The product of the study will be a consensus report informed by the workshop t
discussions that addresses the issues listed at the beginning of this project plan. The report l
will be written for a non-technical audience and will focus on those aspects of the issues that
{
are likely to be of interest to policy makers in the United States and abroad. The report is intended to provide objective information on the issues to policy makers rather than specific recommendations for action on individual national programs.
Page 3 L