Quarterly Report on DOE's Nuclear Waste Program as of March 31, 1986

Pursuant to congressional requests, GAO provided its quarterly status report on the Department of Energy's (DOE) implementation of its nuclear waste program.

GAO found that, during the quarter: (1) the National Academy of Sciences completed its independent review of the methodology DOE used to evaluate and rank first-repository sites and concluded that the methodology was satisfactory and appropriate; (2) DOE completed its proposal for a monitored retrievable storage facility, but a federal court ruled that DOE could not submit the proposal to Congress, and DOE was awaiting a decision on its appeal to a higher court; (3) DOE issued a draft area recommendation report which identified 12 areas in 7 states as potentially acceptable sites for a second waste repository; (4) the Nuclear Waste Fund collected over $128 million in fees and investment income and obligated over $100 million for program activities; and (5) the Fund balance as of March 31, 1986, was about $1.6 billion.