Enclosure 

Monthly Status Report 

Activities Related to the Yucca Mountain Licensing Action 

Report for January 2014 

Background 

On August 13, 2013, a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit 

issued its decision in the case In re Aiken County directing the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory 

Commission (NRC) to “promptly continue with the legally mandated licensing process” for the 

U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) application to construct a geologic repository for highlevel waste at Yucca Mountain. The NRC promptly began taking steps to comply with the 

court’s direction following the issuance of the decision. On November 18, 2013, the 

Commission approved a Memorandum and Order, which set a course of action for the Yucca 

Mountain licensing process consistent with the Appeals Court decision, and with the resources 

available. The Commission also issued a related Staff Requirements Memorandum (SRM) on 

November 18, 2013. 

Accomplishments and Ongoing Work 

The NRC staff completed a division reorganization within its Office of Nuclear Material Safety 

and Safeguards and commenced development of the Safety Evaluation Report (SER). Under a 

contract with the Center for Nuclear Waste Regulatory Analyses (CNWRA), NRC staff 

requested technical assistance to develop the SER and to support NRC review activities related 

to the DOE’s supplement of its Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). 

The agency continues to load the Licensing Support Network (LSN) documents into the NRC’s 

non-public Agencywide Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS) and is 

progressing ahead of schedule. As of the end of January, over 3.6 million documents have 

been loaded into non-public ADAMS. Indexing of the loaded document collection is over 75 

percent complete. 

Agency attorneys have continued their work on Federal court litigation related to the license 

application, including the petition for review before the District of Columbia Circuit seeking the 

recusal of Chairman Macfarlane from the licensing process. In addition, agency attorneys have 

performed work advising the Commission concerning the disposition of motions for 

reconsideration and clarification of the Commission’s order of November 18, 2013. These 

motions were denied in the Commission’s order of January 24, 2014. In that order, the 

Commission also announced that an additional $2.2 million in Nuclear Waste Fund (NWF) funds 

had been deobligated and were now available. In an accompanying SRM, the Commission 

issued a directive governing the potential use of these funds to place the LSN document 

collection into public ADAMS. Staff is working to develop a cost estimate to convert the LSN 

documents from non-public ADAMS to public ADAMS. The cost will be reflected in future 

reports. 

Agency attorneys also provided support to staff on program planning and startup activities. 

Agency attorneys advised staff on issues to help with commencement of SER development and 

have started reviewing draft chapters of the SER. 
2 

Schedule and Cost for Remaining Activities 

Completion of the SER is scheduled to take approximately 12 months, ending in January 2015. 

This schedule assumes that no unforeseen technical or process issues arise. The effort to load 

the LSN document collections into non-public ADAMS is scheduled to be completed in May 

2014, barring any unforeseen technical or process issues. Consistent with the January 24, 

2014 SRM, over the next three months staff will collect additional data on actual project 

expenditures, and if the actual costs are consistent with estimates in the initial months, staff will 

notify the Commission and allocate appropriate funds to activities necessary for making LSN 

documents available in public ADAMS. 

In its Memorandum and Order dated November 18, 2013, the Commission requested that the 

DOE complete the EIS supplement. The NRC staff understands that the DOE intends to 

complete the supplement. The NRC staff’s approach and schedule for its potential adoption 

determination of the supplement is being developed, and is contingent upon the DOE’s 

schedule for completing the supplement. 

The projected cost of the remaining activities continues to be the estimate provided by the staff 

to the Commission in September 2013. At that time, the staff estimated the cost of completing 

the remaining SER volumes to be approximately $8.3 million. The staff’s estimate for the review 

and adoption determination of an EIS supplement issued by the DOE is $625,000. In addition, 

the agency estimates that $700,000 is needed to complete the uploading of documents into 

non-public ADAMS. Therefore, the total estimated cost for these remaining activities is 

approximately $9.6 million. 

The NRC staff is considering methods to track accomplishments, expenditures, and identify 

potential challenges. 

Nuclear Waste Fund Expenditures 

 

During the month of January, the NRC expended $286,399 of NWF funds on its actions in direct 

response to the Court’s decision. Cumulative expenditures since the August 13, 2013, U.S. 

Court of Appeals decision are $516,767. Total unobligated NWF funds remaining as of 

January 31, 2014, are $11,489,257. The following table provides further details regarding 

NRC’s expenditure of NWF funds since August 13, 2013. 

Status of NRC NWF Funds Since the August 13, 2013, Court Decision

Yucca Mountain Licensing Activities Cost 

Estimate 

January 

Expenditures 

Cumulative 

Expenditures 

Completion of the Safety Evaluation Report $8,310,000 $215,729 $221,615

Loading of Licensing Support Network Documents into 

non-public ADAMS 

$700,000 $6,969 $14,556

Adoption of the Environmental Impact Statement 

Supplement 

$625,000 $186 $186

Program Planning and Support1 $51,249 $62,244

Response to the August 30, 2013, Commission Order1 $0 $137,518

Federal Court Litigation1 $1,487 $52,505

Support/Advice in NRC Proceedings1 $10,779 $28,143

Total $286,399 $516,767

1 Unbudgeted costs chargeable to NWF funds 

Previously appropriated NWF funds in the amount of $257,739 remain unexpended but 

obligated on contracts with the CNWRA. 
3 

Stakeholder Communications and Interactions 

The NRC staff has initiated outreach activities with the DOE. The staff has requested a public 

meeting with DOE to be held in the second quarter of fiscal year 2014 to discuss the DOE’s plan 

for moving forward with development of the EIS supplement and the NRC staff’s engagement 

during this process.