Oak Ridge Associated Universities 2006 Annual Report

ORAU Awarded $3 Million Contract to Review Yucca Mountain Work
The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of
Civilian Radioactive Waste Management (OCRWM)
awarded ORAU a $3 million contract in fiscal year
2006 to provide independent peer reviews of scientific
and technical work performed for the proposed nuclear
waste repository at Yucca Mountain.
Located about 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas,
Nevada, on land owned by the federal government,
Yucca Mountain is the proposed geological
repository for permanent disposal of spent nuclear
fuel and radioactive waste. DOE plans to submit a
license application to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory
Commission, which decides whether to grant a license
to construct the repository.
“We are excited about this opportunity, which is a
further extension of the capabilities we’ve demonstrated
in peer reviews for many state and federal agencies,
including DOE’s Office of Science, the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the U.S.
Department of Homeland Security,” said Mike Wetzel,
program director for ORAU’s Scientific and Technical
Peer Review Programs. “We have extensive experience
in designing and implementing processes that ensure
independence and support credibility through rigorous
review, and it’s fulfilling to know we can bring this
expertise to bear on national issues such as the
management and storage of nuclear energy waste.”
The decision-making process involves a multiyear
review of procedures, technical documents, and
scientific and technical assessments that have been
conducted for the site. To help ensure that evaluations
are conducted with independence, DOE will identify
the aspects of Yucca Mountain research that it wants
reviewed, and ORAU will line up the appropriate
scientific and technical experts and will coordinate
review teams.
Image Information:
OCRWM is experimenting with new robotic technologies. Here,
a robot rolls across the floor of the Exploratory Studies Facility
(the underground laboratory inside Yucca Mountain). Photo
courtesy of DOE’s OCRWM.
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