Fact Sheets:

Contents of the License Application

The U.S. Department of Energy’s Role in the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's Licensing Process for a Repository

Repository Licensing Overview

Licensing a Nuclear Waste Repository

Before the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) can construct and operate a geologic repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, it must first obtain a license from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), an independent agency of the federal government. The license application is the formal document an applicant submits to the NRC to present proposed activities. It also documents the safety analyses. The NRC evaluates an applicant's proposed activities and safety analyses by reviewing the license application.

The license is issued in two stages. The first is a construction authorization. The second phase is a license to receive and possess waste.

The license application will address the NRC’s Yucca Mountain Review Plan, which identifies areas of review, review methods, and acceptance criteria that the NRC will use in its review and evaluation of the application. At this time, the DOE is…

• Compiling information and writing sections of the license application
• Continuing to develop the design of the repository
• Refining the performance assessment capability
• Addressing key technical issues identified by the NRC
• Identifying and preparing potentially relevant documentary material for the NRC’s Licensing Support Network
• Conducting technical exchanges with the NRC staff

When the NRC accepts the license application for technical review, the NRC's Atomic Safety and Licensing Board (Board) will initiate a proceeding that includes public hearings. During the proceeding, DOE will address contentions (points of disagreement with DOE’s license application) submitted to the Board by parties. Potential parties include the NRC, the DOE, the state of Nevada, and affected units of local government or parties whose interests may be affected by the proceeding.

If construction authorization is granted, DOE will begin initial construction of emplacement tunnels and surface facilities.

Before completing construction, DOE will update its application for a license to receive and possess waste, as required by NRC regulations.

The Department of Energy is currently preparing a license application for submittal to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The license application will be accompanied by DOE’s Final Environmental Impact Statement for a Geological Repository for the Disposal of Spent Nuclear Fuel and High-Level Radioactive Waste at Yucca Mountain, Nye County, Nevada, in support of receiving construction authorization and, ultimately, a license to receive and possess waste. In July of 2006, the Department announced plans to submit a license application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission by June 30, 2008, and to initiate repository operations in 2017. This opening date of 2017 is a "best-achievable schedule" and is predicated upon enactment of new legislation.

Licensing Support Network

The Licensing Support Network (LSN) is a web-based information system intended to facilitate the discovery process. It supports the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s (NRC) licensing process for a repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. All potential parties to the NRC's licensing proceeding, including the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and NRC, place relevant documentary material in the LSN. The LSN contains electronically retrievable documentary material relevant to the DOE’s license application. The LSN provides the public and potential parties to the NRC's licensing proceeding access to information relevant to the licensing of a repository at Yucca Mountain prior to submittal of the license application. The NRC's regulations for the LSN are found in Title 10, Code of Federal Regulations, Part 2, Subpart J. You can search the LSN document collection at this link at the NRC's website location for the LSN.

If you do not have access to the Internet, you can find public Internet access at the following locations:

• Las Vegas Yucca Mountain Information Center
• Most community libraries
• Most colleges and universities
• ROP offices in Goldfield, NV has an official reading room and access to the on-line LSN document collection.

LSN Participants
Any hearing conducted by NRC regarding any U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) request for authorization to construct a high-level radioactive waste repository is a formal, trial-type proceeding.  Some entities are identified in the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 (NWPA), amended, as having party status in the proceeding: DOE, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff, the State of Nevada, and Nye County, Nevada, which is the site of the proposed repository. Other entities identified as potential parties or interested governmental participants are granted legal standing in the proceedings upon petition. The formal definitions and criteria that govern the status of each entity are provided below and can be found in 10 C.F.R. § 2.1001. Party. . . means the DOE, the NRC staff, the host State, any affected unit of local government1 . . . , any affected Indian Tribe 2 . . . , and a person admitted under [10 C.F.R.] § 2.1014 to the proceeding on an application for a license to receive and possess high-level radioactive waste at a geologic repository operations area pursuant to [10 C.F.R. Part 60] . . . , provided that a host State, affected unit of local government, or affected Indian Tribe shall file a list of contentions in accordance with the provisions of [10 C.F.R.] § 2.1014(a)(2)(ii) and (iii). Potential party means any person who, during the period before the issuance of the first pre-hearing conference order under [10 C.F.R.] § 2.1021(d), is given access to the Licensing Support Network (LSN) and who consents to comply with the regulations set forth in [10 C.F.R. Part 2, Subpart J] . . . , including the authority of the Pre-License Application Presiding Officer designated pursuant to [10 C.F.R.] § 2.1010. [Consistent with this definition and a previously expressed interest in the LSN, potential parties could include Churchill, Clark, Esmeralda, Eureka, Lander, Lincoln, Mineral, and White Pine Counties in Nevada, Inyo County in California, the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI), and the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI).] Interested governmental participant means any person admitted under [10 C.F.R.] § 2.715(c) [(i.e., an interested State, county, municipality, Federally-recognized Indian Tribe, and/or agencies thereof] . . . to the proceeding on an application for a license to receive and possess high-level radioactive waste at a geologic repository operations area pursuant to [10 C.F.R.] Part 60 . . .
1Under the Nuclear Waste Policy Act, a "unit of local government" includes "any borough, city, county, parish, town, township, village, or other general purpose political subdivision of a State," while an "affected unit of local government" is a local government unit "with jurisdiction over the site of a repository . . . [that] may, at the discretion of the Secretary [of Energy], include units of local government that are contiguous with such unit." (42 U.S.C. § 10101(28), (31)) 2Under the NWPA, an "Indian Tribe" means "any Indian tribe, band, nation, or other organized group or community of Indians recognized as eligible for the services provided to Indians by the Secretary of the Interior because of their status as Indians," while an "affected Indian Tribe" means any Indian Tribe "within whose reservation boundaries . . . a repository for high-level radioactive waste or spent fuel is proposed to be located" or "whose federally defined possessory or usage rights to other lands outside of the reservation's boundaries arising out of congressionally ratified treaties may be substantially and adversely affected by the locating of such a facility: Provided, that the Secretary of the Interior finds, upon the petition of the appropriate governmental officials of the tribe, that such effects are both substantial and adverse to the tribe." (42 U.S.C. § 10101(2), (15))

Esmeralda County has certified their collection of documents to the Nuclear Regulatory Commissioners Pre-License Application Presiding Officer (PAPO) Board in order to be prepared should contentions be files in accordance to the above provisions. Esmeralda's collection can be found on the publications page of this website.

More Information

EPA's Laws & Regulations on Yucca Mountain

LSN Participants

Elements of the License Application

Hearings and Investigations

Nuclear Waste Policy dilemma - the first fifty years

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) issued the Yucca Mountain Final Review Plan in July of 2003 NUREG-1804, Final Rev. 2 (PDF - 1.76 MB) . This is the plan the NRC will use to guide the review of the expected DOE licenses application to construct and operate a high level nuclear waste geologic repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. A draft version of the plan was released in March 2002, and public comments were invited during a 5-month public comment period that ended August 12 of 2002. The NRC staff also held three public meetings in Nevada on the draft plan to solicit comments. Approximately 1000 comments were received. These comments were addressed and the final review plan was issued in July of 2003. The DOE has announced their licenses application submittal to NRC is expected in 2008 (schedule).

Dockets - A docket is a publicly available collection of documents that federal agencies use in making a particular regulatory decision.  Dockets typically include technical documents, letters, minutes of meetings, comments submitted during the comment period, and other materials.

Edocket at the Nuclear Regulatory Commissions website. Electronic Reading Room