Management of Commercially Generated Radioactive Waste - U.S. ...

2.1
CHAPTER 2
INTRODUCTION
The United States Department of Energy (DOE) has the responsibility to develop technolo-
gies for management and disposal of certain classes of commercially generated radioactive
wastes (namely high-level and transuranic). To provide input to the decision on a planning
strategy for disposal of these radioactive wastes, this Statement presents an analysis of
environmental impacts that could occur if various technologies for management and disposal
of such wastes were to be developed and implemented.
In this Statement, which often has been referred to as a generic environmental impact
statement (GEIS), the various options for permanent waste isolation are examined in a
generic or general sense rather than in a site-specific sense. Various concepts are exam-
ined for the environmental impacts that their implementation might cause at any non-specific
or generic locations. Upon selection of specific locations for waste disposal using the
proposed approach, future site-specific environmental analyses will be prepared.
Section 2.1 describes the relationship of this environmental impact statement to other
waste management decisions and associated environmental impact statements. This section
also outlines the relationship of the President's recent message on disposal of radioactive
wastes to the forthcoming National Plan for Nuclear Waste Management.
Section 2.2 describes the structure and content of this Statement. This section also
describes the relationship of this Statement's format to those decisions that are to be made
(for which this EIS will serve as the environmental input).
Section 2.3 discusses future decisions related to the disposal of commercial radioac-
tive waste.
2.1 RELATIONSHIP TO OTHER WASTE MANAGEMENT DECISIONS
This Statement, Management of Commercially Generated Radioactive Waste, analyzes
impacts of high-level and transuranic waste management following removal of spent light
water reactor fuel(a) from nuclear power plants (reactors). The responsibility for develop-
ing technology for disposal of radioactive wastes has been assigned to the DOE by the U.S.
Congress. The primary emphasis of this Statement is on the safe, permanent isolation of
radioactive wastes. Also discussed are interim waste storage, treatment, transportation and
facility decommissioning as they relate to a decision on the proposed method of waste
disposal.
The basic waste management steps-in the commercial LWR nuclear fuel cycle are shown in
Figure 2.1.1. The heavy solid lines show waste streams covered in this Statement. Airborne
(a) All but one of the large commercial power reactors operating in the U.S. today are of
the light water reactor (LWR) type.