ASSESSING THE REVIEW PROCESS: THE ROLE AND IMPACT OF THE NUCLEAR WASTE TECHNICAL REVIEW BOARD

The U.S. Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board (Board) was created in the Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act of 1987 as an independent federal agency. The Board was charged by Congress with conducting an ongoing evaluation of the technical and scientific validity of activities of the Secretary of Energy, including characterization of the Yucca Mountain site in Nevada as the possible location of a permanent repository for spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste. Board findings and recommendations are included in reports to the Secretary of Energy and Congress. Although the Board cannot compel the Department of Energy (DOE) to accept its advice, over the past decade, Board recommendations have contributed to important changes in the DOE program.

In the early- and mid-1990's, Board recommendations dealt primarily with issues related to the characterization of Yucca Mountain. For example, the Board recommended that the DOE use horizontal tunnels rather than vertical shafts to access the proposed repository area for exploration. Another important Board recommendation was to excavate exploratory tunnels using tunnel-boring machines instead of the drill-and-blast method being considered by the DOE. The Board also recommended that the DOE excavate a "cross-drift" from the main exploratory tunnel through the rock strata in the proposed waste emplacement area.

Over the last few years, Board recommendations have focused on issues related to a site recommendation, including meaningful quantification of uncertainties and conservatisms associated with performance assessment, progress in understanding fundamental corrosion processes, evaluation and comparison of the base-case repository design with a low-temperature design, and development of multiple lines of evidence to support estimates of how well the proposed repository would perform. These recommendations were repeated and amplified in a letter sent to Congress and the Secretary on January 24, 2002, along with an assessment of the technical basis for the DOE's current performance estimates.

The presentation will consider the effects of the Board's advice over the years.