A state viewpoint on waste repository siting

There is continually growing concern over the DOE's implementation of the Nuclear Waste Policy Act, both from the institutional and technical standpoint. Not all parties are dissatisfied for the same reasons, yet there seems to be an increasing level of pessimism regarding the potential to develop a high-level nuclear waste disposal facility under the current confidence and credibility crisis that is being continually described to Congressional oversight committees. And the crisis appears to be just beginning with the prospect of major legal challenges to DOE's site selection activities and decisions only awaiting the release of the final Environmental Assessments. Already the site recommendation guidelines are the subject of a suit joined by nearly all affected interests in the first repository selection process, and some in the second. The site screening process, in advance of site nominations has been challenged and currently stand dismissed on the basis of a finding that the review was not timely. This decision is subject to appeal. It is our view that the intent and letter of the Nuclear Waste Policy Act demand technical excellence, which has yet to be exhibited relative to the nine sites now being narrowed for a selection of three to be recommended for site characterization. The Act also correctly recognized that without a public process involving, in a meaningful and substantive manner, all the affected parties, the essential element of public confidence is missing from the equation for success. Again, it is our view that the public process has been unacceptably compromised, to the point that public confidence has been severely wounded, maybe to an unrecoverable extent for the next few decades