The Nuclear Waste Policy Act (NWPA) of 1983 directed the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to develop a geologic repository to dispose of the nation’s spent nuclear fuel and high-level waste. Soon after the NWPA was passed into law, DOE identified nine sites as potentially suitable for the repository. One of these sites was Yucca Mountain, located in south-central Nye County, Nevada. In 1987, Congress amended the NWPA and designated Yucca Mountain as the only site to be considered for the nation’s first high-level waste repository.
The NWPA authorizes Nye County as the "site" jurisdiction and host county, to conduct on-site representation at Yucca Mountain. As a result, in the summer of 1983, the Nye County Board of Commissioners established a program to monitor and assess the federal effort to find a repository site. The program gained formal status in 1987 when the County created the Nye County Nuclear Waste Repository Project Office. The manager of the Nye County Department of Natural Resources and Federal Facilities reports directly to the County Manager and supervises the NWRPO for the County Commissioners.
As DOE’s site characterization activities moved forward, Nye County broadened its’ technical oversight of the Yucca Mountain Project. In 1993, the County hired a full-time on-site representative and established the Independent Scientific Investigations Program (ISIP). The County’s objective is to ensure the on-site representative has the necessary technical resources to effectively oversee Yucca Mountain activities on NWRPO’s behalf.
Congress has, over time, made dramatic changes to the nation's nuclear waste management policy. Given this fact, the Nye County Board of Commissioners must operate under certain assumptions to reach the goals of its Yucca Mountain oversight program. Nye County anticipates making continuing and significant adjustments to its oversight program to meet the challenges posed by these assumptions and ongoing changes in national waste management policy.
NWRPO Operating Assumptions
An Interim storage facility will be established at the Nevada Test Site;The repository opening date may be later than 2010;
A rail spur will be built to the Nevada Test Site;HLW and spent nuclear reactor fuel will be shipped to an interim storage facility before 2003;
"Lag" or "early receipt" storage may be approved in lieu of interim storage;
In any case, the cumulative effects of HLW and LLW disposition, transport and storage must be considered as part of Nye County’s planning activities.
