Washington (Platts)--8Sep2008

The US Department of Energy's plan for a spent nuclear fuel repository at
Yucca Mountain, Nevada, advanced Monday with the US Nuclear Regulatory
Commission's docketing of its license application, making it the first
repository program internationally to enter the licensing phase.

NRC's docketing of the document means the agency's staff has found the
application sufficiently complete to undergo a technical, or licensing,
review.

NRC had expected it would take 90 days from DOE's June 3 submittal of the
application to review it and determine whether it should be docketed.

The public will have 90 days to file contentions, or arguments, with the
NRC once the agency files notice of the docketing decision in the Federal
Register. NRC will have up to four years to determine whether it should
license construction of a repository at the site.

The Nuclear Waste Policy Act gives NRC three to four years to make a
licensing determination, but says the agency can have an additional year, if
needed.

Both the state of Nevada, which has spent decades trying to shut down the
Yucca Mountain project, and the Nuclear Energy Institute, which supports the
repository program, are expected to file arguments, which, if accepted, would
make them parties to the licensing proceeding.

If the NRC authorizes the repository, DOE will build a network of tunnels
deep within Yucca Mountain that will be used to dispose of 70,000 metric tons
of utility spent fuel and defense high-level waste. The limit could be raised
or eliminated, if DOE and/or the nuclear industry are successful in getting
Congress to lift the 70,000 mt cap, which is considered too small to
accommodate all of the spent fuel the country's existing power reactors are
expected to generate.

Also, a second repository would be needed, even though DOE and industry
officials say studies have shown the site could safely house more spent fuel.

--Elaine Hiruo, elaine_hiruo@platts.com
--Tom Harrison, tom_harrison@platts.com