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

ecommendations of the IRG Report. Environmental impacts that would be associated with
3.4
each of these differing strategies and with differences in timing of implementation (i.e.,
immediate versus delay) are well within the envelope of the analyses reported in this State-
ment. Environmental consequences associated with Strategies I through III are bounded by
the environmental analyses of the Proposed Action, while those associated with Stratety IV
are within the envelope of analyses performed for the Parallel Development Alternative
Action. This latter action also envelopes the environmental consequences associated with a
"delayed action" strategy, i.e., delaying siting of a repository until enough is known
about several technical alternatives. These analyses examine the environmental conse-
quences of constructing, operating and decomissioning waste management facilities.
3.1.1 Proposed Action
The proposed research and development program for waste management will emphasize use
of mined repositories in geologic formations capable of accepting radioactive wastes from
either the once-through or reprocessing cycles. This program will be carried forward to
identify specific locations for the construction of mined repositories. The rationale for
the selection of mined repositories as the preferred concept is presented in Section 6.2.5.
Initially, site characterization programs will be conducted to identify qualified sites
in a variety of potential host rock and geohydrologic settings. As qualified sites are
identified by the R&D program, actions will be taken to reserve the option to use the sites,
if necessary, at an appropriate time in the future. Supporting this site characterization
and qualification program will be research and development efforts to produce techniques and
equipment to support the placement of wastes in mined geologic repositories.
The Department of Energy proposes that the development of geologic repositories will
proceed in a careful step-by-step fashion. Experience and information gained in each phase
of the development program will be reviewed and evaluated to determine if there is suffi-
cient knowledge to proceed to the next stage of development and research. The Department
plans to proceed on a technically conservative basis allowing for ready retrievability of
the emplaced waste for some initial period of time.
The proposed timing for emplacement of waste into geologic repositories calls for at
least two operational facilities before the end of the century. This schedule reflects the
need to expand the technical evaluation of a broader set of geologic media and multiple
sites and to consider a possible regional approach to repository siting. Changes in timing
for emplacement of wastes in geologic repositories because of environmental or other consid-
erations is considered within the scope of the proposed action presented in this Statement.
Some support would be provided to further evaluate the alternatives of placement in
deep ocean sediments and in very deep holes. The purpose of this support is to permit
continued evaluation of these technology options as alternatives to geologic disposal.
These options are considered as backups or complements to geologic disposal and are pre-
sently not planned for full development.