Repository development: Status and schedule

The primary objective of the geologic repository program is safe and environmentally acceptable disposal of high-level radioactive wastes. It must be accomplished in a manner which is credible and responsible to the States, Indian tribes and the public; cost effective with the costs fully recoverable from the nuclear utility industry and the defense program; and in accordance with the process and schedule mandated by Congress in the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 (the Act). The selected method of disposal consists of deep, mined geologic repositories wherein a defense-in-depth approach, relying upon a series of multiple engineered and natural barriers, can be demonstrated with reasonable assurance to provide isolation of the radioactive wastes from the accessible environment for thousands of years. Within that timeframe, the radioactive wastes will have decayed to a level comparable with the naturally-occurring uranium ore from which the radioactive waste originated