December 11, 2015 

The Honorable Harry Reid 

United States Senate 

Washington, DC 20510 

Dear Senator Reid: 

 On behalf of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), I am responding to your 

letter of October 29, 2015, in which you request additional information arising from recent public 

meetings seeking comment on the NRC’s draft supplement to the U.S. Department of Energy’s 

environmental impact statement (EIS) for the proposed Yucca Mountain geologic repository. 

 Following the decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in 

Aiken County, 725 F. 3d 255 (D.C. Cir. 2013), directing the agency to resume the licensing 

proceeding, the Commission directed the NRC staff to develop and issue the EIS supplement 

with the monies remaining in the Nuclear Waste Fund. The NRC staff previously reported to the 

Commission that it had determined that one aspect of its environmental review — the postclosure impacts of a repository on groundwater — required supplemental analysis. Because the 

scope of supplementation was limited to this discrete issue, the NRC staff focused the public 

meetings on the groundwater impacts of the proposed repository. 

 In your letter, you requested information on packages that the NRC has approved for 

transportation of spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste. Our responses to your 

requests 1, 2, and 4 are enclosed with this letter. Information responsive to your requests 

3, 5, and 6 will take additional time to prepare. We will provide you that additional information 

as soon as possible. 

 The NRC currently has 19 packages under review or certified for transportation of spent 

nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste. The U.S. Department of Energy has not decided 

whether any of these would be used to transport spent nuclear fuel to Yucca Mountain should 

that facility be licensed. The Department of Energy’s Division of Naval Reactors (Naval 

Reactors) designed two of the 19 packages. While Naval Reactors has the authority to approve 

packages for transport of spent nuclear fuel and does not use NRC certificates to ship spent 

nuclear fuel, it has requested that the NRC perform an independent safety review of these 

packages and issue certificates of compliance. An Executive Directive signed by President 

Kennedy (National Security Action Memorandum No. 51, dated May 8, 1961) directed Naval 

Reactors to seek an independent safety review of its activities. Naval Reactors has chosen to 

seek this safety review from the NRC. The information provided by Naval Reactors to the NRC 

for review is classified as “Confidential – Restricted Data”; therefore, at this time, the NRC is not 

including information on these two packages in our response, but the NRC staff is available to 

brief appropriately cleared individuals on your staff regarding this information. 

 You also raised the question of whether the draft EIS supplement, or any other 

environmental review, considers the impacts on public health, safety, and the environment if 
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titanium drip shields are not installed at the proposed repository. This issue is beyond the 

scope of the limited supplemental environmental review that is under way. The public has been 

afforded the opportunity to challenge the scope of the environmental review by raising 

contentions in the adjudication before the agency’s Atomic Safety and Licensing Board. Several 

contentions pertaining to the proposed drip shields have been admitted for litigation. As you 

may know, the adjudication is currently suspended. However, participants in the adjudication 

may continue to pursue those contentions before the Licensing Board, or raise new issues in 

the form of new or amended contentions, should the adjudication resume. 

 I appreciate your patience while we collect the remainder of the requested information. 

If you have any questions about the enclosed materials, please contact me or Eugene Dacus, 

Director of the Office of Congressional Affairs, at (301) 415-1776. 

 Sincerely, 

 /RA/ 

 Stephen G. Burns 

Enclosure: 

As stated 
Identical letter sent to: 

The Honorable Harry Reid 

United States Senate 

Washington, DC 20510 

The Honorable Dean Heller 

United States Senate 

Washington, DC 20510