Nuclear Waste

So that it can start removing radioactive wastes from the nation's nuclear plants in 1998, the Department of Energy (DOE) is developing two kinds of high-capacity casks for shipping spent fuel by truck or by rail and barge. The pace and direction of DOE's cask development program are based on the agency's conviction that a storage facility can be developed in time to receive and store the spent fuel by 1998. GAO doubts that DOE will have a facility up and running by then. Despite grant applications from possible host jurisdictions, the likelihood that a volunteer site will be found remains uncertain. This situation affords DOE an opportunity over the next several years to reevaluate the course and direction of the cask development program while conserving funds until there is a clear need to produce casks. With more time available, DOE can address whether possible technical and operational concerns might affect cask designs.

GAO found that: (1) in 1988, a utility association concluded that DOE was moving too fast with its Cask Development Program, since the spent-fuel storage conditions that DOE was designing the casks for might materially change by the time DOE was able to begin shipping utilities' spent fuel; (2) the utility industry recommended that DOE reassess the scope and timing of its Cask Development Program and, at most, design a truck cask only, due to uncertainty regarding the development of a Monitored Retrievable Storage (MRS) facility, uncertainty over the length of time needed before a repository will be completed, and concerns about the proposed casks and how the transportation system would interface with nuclear power plants; (3) DOE intends to resolve technical and operational concerns regarding its preliminary cask designs during the final design phase; (4) due to concerns that the combined weight of the truck cask and the truck that would haul the cask might exceed the weight limit for highways, DOE is considering hardware and operational options to reduce total transporter system weight; (5) it is unlikely that DOE will be able to develop a MRS facility by 1998 because states and Indian tribes are reluctant to host facilities for storing or disposing of highly radioactive wastes; and (6) the uncertainty regarding MRS facility development and the current extended repository schedule gives DOE ample time to address unresolved technical and operational cask development issues before committing to specific cask designs.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

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