Siting provisions of the U.S. Nuclear Waste Policy Act vs related experience in other countries. Volume I

During the past few years a series of surveys has been conducted by International Energy Associates Limited (IEAL) for the U.S. Department of Energy, documenting the approaches and progress in other democracies in dealing with the problems of obtaining siting approvals for nuclear waste facilities. Many of these countries are further along in this process than is the U.S., and the objective of the surveys was to make available to those drafting U.S. nuclear waste policy the lessons learned by others which appeared to have potential applicability within the U.S. political system. This objective was accomplished by distribution of the survey results to members of Congress and in ensuing discussions with staff during the period when the Nuclear Waste Policy Act was being drafted. Now that the Act has been passed into law there is an opportunity to compare its provisions in their final form with the lessons learned from the surveys. It was felt that such a comparison could be useful, not only in identifying those siting provisions in the Act which were, or were not, in keeping with the lessons learned, but also by calling attention to areas which may not have been given the degree of emphasis that experience in other countries would indicate as desirable. To the extent that these findings are found to be helpful to those currently preparing the Mission Plan, it is hoped that they could contribute to effective implementation of the Act. Volume I contains the executive summary and summary of lessons learned from surveys of other countries