GEOLOGY AND SOCIETY: THE ROLE AND LIMITATIONS OF GEOLOGY IN EPA SAFETY STANDARDS FOR DISPOSAL OF SPENT NUCLEAR FUEL

The pursuit of a deep geologic repository lies at the heart of the U.S. national strategy to manage high-level waste and spent nuclear fuel (SNF). The Blue Ribbon Commission (BRC) on America’s Nuclear Future endorsed development of a geological repository for ultimate disposal of HLW and SNF.[i] The BRC recommended that future disposal systems be subject to continued regulation by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). To build public confidence, the BRC encouraged generic regulations – applying equally to all sites and geologic settings under consideration–be issued early in the siting process to set clear common performance expectations.

Generic EPA disposal standards already exist.[ii] They would apply to all other sites except for Yucca Mountain. The BRC concluded that, “because the thinking about repository regulations evolved considerably during the development of the Yucca Mountain requirements, . . . [the generic regulations] need to be revisited and revised.”[iii] The BRC proposed a number of general principles to guide the development of future regulations.

The EPA has initiated preliminary activities to support possible updated generic EPA regulations for disposal of SNF. We will discuss the BRC recommendations, key regulatory issues and guiding principles for geologic repositories, activities to date and possible paths forward for EPA actions as part of an administration-wide response to the BRC report. Attention will be given to the roles of geologic information and lines of evidence--and to the associated issues, limitations, and uncertainties that must be considered--in regulations and safety cases for geologic repositories.

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[i] Blue Ribbon Commission on American’s Nuclear Future: Report to the Secretary of Energy, January 2012.

[ii] Environmental Radiation Protection Standards For Management And Disposal Of Spent Nuclear Fuel, High-Level And Transuranic Radioactive Wastes, 40 CFR Part 191. These standards were first issued in 1985 and revised in 1993.

[iii] BRC Report, p. 90.

Session No. 83

T171. Disposal of Radioactive Waste: Promise, Progress, Pitfalls, and Path Forward

Sunday, 27 October 2013: 1:00 PM-5:00 PM

Room 303 (Colorado Convention Center)

Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 45, No. 7, p.220

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