NRC issues final Yucca Mountain technical report, nears closure of license review

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has issued the last of three Technical Evaluation Reports (TERs) on the Department of Energy’s license application for the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository, and is nearing the successful completion of its orderly closure of the licensing review process.
“Technical Evaluation Report on the Content of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Yucca Mountain Repository License Application; Administrative and Programmatic Volume,” contains the NRC staff’s assessment of information DOE provided about a dozen administrative and programmatic areas relating to repository operations. It does not contain any regulatory conclusions about whether DOE’s proposal would have satisfied NRC requirements.