DOE repository application likely to be delayed until Q3 '06: NRC

Washington (Platts)--5Oct2005

It could be the third quarter of 2006 before the US Dept of Energy
submits a nuclear waste storage repository license application to the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission for the proposed Yucca Mountain, Nevada facility,
according to the NRC's William Reamer.
     Speaking at a spent fuel conference Wednesday in Washington, Reamer, who
heads the NRC unit that will review a repository application, attributed the
likely delay to DOE's recent decision to hold off certifying documents it
placed on a Web-based documentation database or "licensing support network"
until a NRC licensing board makes a decision on a DOE appeal.
     DOE has asked the board to reverse an earlier decision ordering it to
release draft license applications to Nevada. The state requested the
documents so it could begin preparing licensing contentions opposing the
proposed Yucca Mountain repository.
     Reamer estimated it could be December before the appeal is decided. DOE
has said it will be at least six months after licensing support network
certification before it submits an licensing application to NRC. 
     Reamer also told industry officials at the conference that while NRC
preparation is geared at meeting the congressional mandate for a licensing
decision in three years, meeting that timetable will be difficult.
     Had it not been for the appeal, DOE told the licensing board it would
have certified the licensing support network documents by the end of October,
a move that would have put submittal of the earliest possible application on
schedule for April 2006.
     Under contracts DOE signed with nuclear utilities in 1983, the department
was supposed to begin disposing of utility spent fuel in January 1998.
                                       --Elaine Hiruo, elaine_hiruo@platts.com

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