Andy Imboden
Chief of the Communications, Planning, and Rulemaking Branch
Waste Confidence Directorate
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Tomorrow, from 2 to 3 p.m. EDT, I’ll respond to your questions during a Chat
about NRC’s ongoing efforts to develop an updated Waste Confidence
Rule. As you can imagine, many policy, legal, and technical issues will
affect the rule.
On
June 8, 2012, a U.S. Court of Appeals struck down the NRC’s Waste
Confidence Rule. That rule contained the NRC’s determination that the
environmental impacts of storing spent nuclear fuel after the end of a
nuclear power plant’s license are not significant. The Waste Confidence
ruling affected commercial nuclear power plant license reviews and
spent-fuel storage reviews.
By way of background, the Department of Energy is
the federal agency with responsibility for the final disposal of the
spent fuel in a deep geologic repository; the NRC’s role is to evaluate
the application submitted to license the construction and operation of a
repository. What the NRC is addressing currently (and in the Chat tomorrow)
is how we’ll address the environmental impacts of the spent fuel after
the nuclear power plant that generated it has stopped operating, but
before it’s moved to permanent disposal elsewhere.
In
the coming months, the NRC will release both a proposed new Waste
Confidence rule and a draft generic environmental impact statement for
public review and comment. But before we have that official comment
period, I’m looking forward to answering your questions about proposed
Waste Confidence Rule and the draft generic environmental impact
statement. We want you to have as much ![chatdropquote]()
information as possible so you can fully participate in the official comment process.
Prior to our Chat, you can visit NRC’s Waste Confidence website for more information.
If you have any questions before tomorrow’s Chat, you can submit them to OPA.Resource@nrc.gov.
I’m looking forward to your questions and comments. Just one note,
though, this Chat is informal and your comments will not be included in
our official comment process.
I look forward to hearing from you on July 23d.
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