Enclosure 

Monthly Status Report to Congress 

Activities Related to the Yucca Mountain Licensing Action 

Report for December 2013 

Background 

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

issued its decision 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 high-level 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 decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in In re Aiken 

County, and with the resources available. The Commission also issued a related Staff 

Requirements Memorandum (SRM) on November 18, 2013.

Accomplishments 

In response to the Commission’s November 18, 2013, Memorandum and Order and SRM, the 

NRC staff has completed a high-level project plan (attached) that outlines the process, path 

forward, and schedule to issue the remaining Safety Evaluation Report (SER) volumes for the 

DOE’s construction authorization application for the Yucca Mountain geologic repository, and to 

address initial activities related to the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) supplement. The 

agency also plans to load the Licensing Support Network (LSN) documents into the NRC’s 

Agencywide Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS) as nonpublic documents. 

The NRC staff has also completed a division realignment within the Office of Nuclear Material 

Safety and Safeguards to implement these actions. Many staff have been reassigned and 

review of previously SER material has started. Additional staff reassignment and efforts to 

rehire certain retired annuitants continue. Additionally, a Statement of Work was developed for 

technical support from the Center for Nuclear Waste Regulatory Analyses. 

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 either representing the staff in connection with motions for reconsideration and 

clarification of the Commission’s order of November 18, 2013, or advising the Commission 

concerning the disposition of these motions.

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 nonpublic ADAMS is scheduled to be completed in May 

2014, barring any unforeseen technical or process issues. 
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In its Memorandum and Order, 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 best estimate for the cost of the remaining activities continues to be the information 

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 DOE was 

$625,000. In addition, the agency estimated that $700,000 is needed to complete the uploading 

of documents into ADAMS. Therefore, the total estimated cost for these remaining activities is 

approximately $9.6 million. 

Nuclear Waste Fund Obligations 

During the month of December, the NRC incurred additional obligations of $79,142 of Nuclear 

Waste Fund (NWF) funds on its actions in direct response to the Court’s decision. Cumulative 

obligations since the August 13, 2013, U.S. Court of Appeals decision are $230,368. Total 

unobligated NWF funds remaining as of December 31, 2013, are $13,025,657. The table below 

provides further details regarding NRC’s obligation of NWF funds since August 13, 2013. 

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

Yucca Mountain Licensing Activities 

December 

Obligations 

Cumulative 

Obligations

Completion of the Safety Evaluation Report $5,886 $5,886

Loading of Licensing Support Network Documents into ADAMS $7,586 $7,586

Adoption of the Environmental Impact Statement Supplement $0 $0

Program Planning and Support $10,995 $10,995

Response to the August 30, 2013 Commission Order $12,099 $137,519

Federal Court Litigation $25,212 $51,018

Support/Advice in NRC Proceedings $17,364 $17,364

Total $79,142 $230,368

In December 2013, a total of $2.2 million of previously appropriated NWF funds were 

deobligated from contracts with the NRC-sponsored Center for Nuclear Waste Regulatory 

Analyses (CNWRA). The Commission is providing staff with additional instructions to ensure 

the best use of these funds. Previously appropriated NWF funds in the amount of $293,290 

remain unexpended but obligated on contracts with the CNWRA. 

Stakeholder Communications and Interactions 

The NRC staff has initiated outreach activities with the DOE and is planning for a public meeting 

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. 
Attachment 

PROJECT PLAN 

YUCCA MOUNTAIN REVIEW ACTIVITIES 

December 11, 2013 

Purpose 

This project plan outlines how the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) staff will conduct 

and manage the completion of the NRC Safety Evaluation Report (SER) for the 

U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) license application (LA) for authorization to construct a 

geologic repository for high-level waste at Yucca Mountain, NV (i.e., NUREG publication). 

Project Scope 

Safety Evaluation: The SER includes a detailed technical review of the general information and 

the safety analysis report provided by DOE in its LA. The completion of the SER will serve as a 

basis for the final licensing decision. The current effort to complete the SER builds upon all 

previously completed technical analyses and modeling, requests for additional information 

(RAIs) and DOE’s responses, published documents, and preparation of internal draft 

documents. Activities under this scope will end with completion and issuance of the final four 

remaining SER volumes (i.e., Volumes 2, 3, 4, 5). The duration of this activity is scheduled for 

approximately 12 months. Note that SER Volume 1 has already been published, and the staff 

does not foresee a need to revisit, edit, or supplement Volume 1. 

Adjudicatory hearings/LSN: The adjudicatory hearings are not being restarted at this time. In 

addition, the Licensing Support Network (LSN) is also not being reconstituted at this time, but all 

documents will be promptly loaded as non-public documents into the Agencywide Documents 

Access and Management System (ADAMS), and all references used in the SER will be publicly 

available in ADAMS. 

EIS supplement: The Commission has requested that DOE complete the Environmental Impact 

Statement (EIS) supplement. In response to the Commission’s request, the NRC staff 

understands that DOE plans to prepare the EIS supplement, although the detailed approach 

and schedule need to be developed. Some NRC staff will be required to provide limited 

coordination and review of DOE’s efforts for the EIS supplement and potential adoption 

determination. The staff has initiated outreach activities with DOE and is planning for a public 

meeting in the 2nd quarter of fiscal year (FY) 2014, to discuss DOE’s plan for moving forward 

with development of the EIS supplement and the NRC staff’s engagement during this 

development process. 
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Organization 

The primary organization within NRC that supports the completion of the SER is the Office of 

Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards (NMSS), Division of Spent Fuel Alternative Strategies 

(SFAS). SFAS is assisted by several other Offices. In addition, the Center for Nuclear Waste 

Regulatory Analyses (CNWRA), a federally funded research and development center, provides 

technical support. The Secretary of the Commission and Office of Information Services (OIS) 

have primary responsibility to ensure that the LSN documents are loaded into ADAMS. In 

addition, a Yucca Mountain Core Group consisting of the lead organization (NMSS) and other 

internal stakeholders, such as SECY, Office of Congressional Affairs, Office of Commission 

Appellate Adjudication, Office of Public Affairs, Office of the General Counsel (OGC), Office of 

the Chief Financial Officer, OIS, Office of Nuclear Security and Incident Response, and the 

Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Panel will meet periodically to review the status of the 

Yucca Mountain activities. 

Process, Roles, Responsibilities and Steps to Finalize the SER 

This section provides guidance to the NRC and CNWRA staff to complete the review of the 

DOE LA for authorization to construct a repository at Yucca Mountain. 

The roles, responsibilities, and process to complete SER Volume finalization are defined in the 

following steps: 

1. Using previously completed work, the Yucca Mountain Team (YMT) will evaluate a 

document comparison between published Technical Evaluation Reports (TERs) and 

the last draft versions of each SER Volume. The YMT will decide whether to revise 

the TER into an SER or whether it is more efficient to incorporate the TER 

information into the existing draft SER Volume. For instance, the staff’s last draft 

version of SER Volume 3 contains preliminary regulatory findings that were not 

included in the Postclosure TER. This draft SER Volume may not include all the 

technical support from the Postclosure TER. It may make more sense to incorporate 

the updated technical support information from the Postclosure TER into the draft 

SER Volume 3 rather than inserting all the findings from the SER back into the TER. 

For SER Volume 2, the reverse may be true (i.e., it may be more appropriate to build 

upon the Preclosure TER, because the draft SER Volume 2 did not progress through the 

same level of review as was completed for the draft SER Volume 3). Therefore, it may 

be more efficient to move forward using a draft SER as the working file instead of a TER 

for one volume (i.e., SER Volume 3) and to use a TER as the working file instead of a 

draft SER file for a different volume. The YMT will review the documents to determine 

the most efficient and effective path forward for each volume. Furthermore, the staff will 

look for efficiencies as it works to complete the SER, such as assigning or reassigning 

the most appropriate subject matter experts to support this effort, with due consideration 

of other high-priority agency activities. 
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2. All files used to develop the draft SER Volumes and associated TER Volumes have 

been retained and will be located on the CNWRA SharePoint site. Staff will use the 

CNWRA SharePoint site as the central file management system for completion of the 

SER. Depending on which option is selected in Step 1 above (i.e., start with last 

draft version of each SER Volume as the working file or start with the published TER 

Volume as the working file), the project manager (PM) (with assistance from 

CNWRA) will deconstruct the combined SER (or TER) volume file back to chapter 

level files. This will allow multiple reviewers to work simultaneously on each SER 

volume (at the chapter level) to incorporate changes, updates, and finalize each SER 

Volume’s development. Note that staff will undertake original investigation or inquiry 

only as necessary to account or adjust for new information (specific guidance being 

developed). 

3. Staff will adhere to the project management timelines and identify any issues that may 

impact schedule and quality to the cognizant Branch Chief for resolution, such as: 

o The most appropriate subject matter experts and other sufficiently qualified staff 

are not available at the appropriate time to develop the remaining SER Volumes 

concurrently. 

o There is a delay in the availability of the DOE LSN document collection or DOE is 

unable to provide the documents to staff in a timely manner. 

o Additional technical information is required from DOE to complete the SER, and 

DOE does not provide responses to new RAIs in a timely manner to support the 

NRC’s schedule. 

o DOE is unable to complete the EIS supplement in a timely manner. 

4. A Chapter Champion will be assigned as the lead author for each of the chapters 

contained in the four remaining SER volumes. The Chapter Champion consolidates, 

coordinates, and integrates input from technical reviewers into the development of 

the SER chapter; ensures that the regulatory bases and technical content provided 

by the technical reviewers are clearly articulated; and coordinates with other Chapter 

Champions to ensure the team’s input is integrated into the SER. When the Chapter 

Champion indicates a chapter is ready for management and OGC review, the PM will 

move the designated chapter (file) into the OGC no legal objection (NLO) folder. 

Track changes will be made by both management and OGC. Staff will resolve 

comments using track changes. Once all comments are resolved, the PM will accept 

changes, and write access will be restricted to technical staff at that time. 

5. When the SER volume has been finalized (i.e. changes and updates have been made 

by staff, management and OGC review has been completed, and concurrence and 

OGC NLOs have been obtained) the NMSS Office Director will sign Form 426 
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authorizing publication of the SER Volume as a NUREG. The PM will coordinate 

with the Publication Branch, Office of Administration, to issue each SER Volume as a 

final NUREG. 

Plan for Loading LSN Collection of Documents into ADAMS 

OIS will create a new LSN library in ADAMS to house the LSN collections received by the Office 

of the Secretary on different types of media (external hard drives, compact disks, and digital 

versatile disks). During December 2013, OIS will acquire storage to house the new LSN library 

and 10 workstations to concurrently run multiple instances of a loader application being 

developed. The loader will add and profile the documents in the collections to the new LSN 

library. In early January, testing of the loading process after hours will commence and loading 

of the DOE collection will begin thereafter. The staff expects that experience in loading the 

documents during the first 2 weeks (approximately 70,000 documents per day) will be used to 

fine tune the approach and schedule. During February and March, loading of the collections 

from other parties will proceed in parallel with the DOE collection loading. In March, following 

completion of the loading of the DOE documents, OIS will begin configuration of user search 

interfaces and the building of search indexes. In late April and May, other parties’ document 

loading and final testing and delivery will be completed. In parallel, OIS will configure the 

ADAMS Record Manager to automatically assign proper disposition and retention attributes to 

the documents in the LSN collections for compliance with the recordkeeping requirements.

 

Organization Structure for NMSS SFAS 

As mentioned earlier, SFAS is the primary division within the NRC responsible for finalizing the 

Yucca Mountain SER. SFAS will be reorganized to accomplish the new work and be comprised 

of four branches. One of the four branches will continue to support existing ongoing SFAS work 

(including science technology, engineering, systems analysis, and related project management). 

The other three branches (Volume 2, Volume 3, and Volume 4/5/EIS) will be dedicated to 

supporting the finalization of the Yucca Mountain SER (Volumes 2, 3, 4, and 5) and review of 

the EIS supplement. 

There will be three primary teams matrixed among the three Yucca Mountain branches that will 

support the finalization of the SER. The teams are outlined below: 

Preclosure Team:

Primary responsibility: Finalize SER Volume 2 

The Preclosure Team will consist of a Branch Chief (BC), one or two Senior Level Advisor(s) 

(SLs), a PM, a CNWRA volume PM, a Chapter Champion for each of the 10 chapters in SER 

Volume 2, and NRC/CNWRA technical and administrative support, as needed. 

Postclosure Team:
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Primary responsibility: Finalize SER Volume 3 

The Postclosure Team will consist of a BC, an SER PM, a CNWRA Volume PM, a Chapter 

Champion for each of the 20 chapters in SER Volume 3, and NRC/CNWRA technical and 

administrative support, as needed. 

Administrative and Programmatic Team: 

Primary responsibilities: Finalize SER Volumes 4 and 5. Limited coordination and review will 

also be provided for DOE’s development of the EIS supplement and potential adoption 

determination. 

The Admin/Programmatic Team will consist of a BC, an SER PM (Volumes 4 and 5), an 

EIS PM, a CNWRA volume PM, a Chapter Champion for each of the 12 chapters in SER 

Volume 4 and one Chapter Champion for SER Volume 5, and NRC/CNWRA technical and 

administrative support, as needed. 

Schedule 

The staff estimates that with dedicated, focused effort, sufficient staff resources, and no 

unforeseen technical or process issues, all of the remaining volumes of the SER can be 

completed and issued within approximately 12 months after the staff initiates work. To complete 

and publish all remaining SER volumes within the 12-month schedule, the staff assumes that all 

volumes will be worked on concurrently and issued upon completion (i.e., if an SER Volume is 

completed earlier than the 12-month schedule, the staff will publish that volume before the other 

volumes are completed). The 12-month period includes time to establish the review teams for 

each volume, familiarize staff new to the project with the material, complete the volumes 

through concurrence, and issue them in final form. 

The staff estimates it can reach an adoption decision within 3 months following receipt of the 

Final DOE EIS supplement. The 3-month timeframe is based on an assumption that staff is 

able to review a draft supplement issued earlier by DOE. DOE is in its early stage of assessing 

and planning the development of the EIS supplement. The staff assumes that the technical 

information on the supplement topics provided by DOE to staff in July 2009 will be a principal 

input to the supplement, and, following usual National Environmental Policy Act practices, a 

draft EIS supplement would be issued for comment in advance of the final EIS supplement. 

Lastly, the staff has begun outreach activities by contacting DOE to plan for a public meeting in 

the 2nd quarter of fiscal year 2014 to understand DOE’s intentions for completing the EIS 

supplement, consistent with Commission direction. 

Below is a high-level summary representation of the interrelated schedule and approximate 

timelines to assemble the YMT, start and finish each SER Volume, load documents into 

ADAMS, and complete monthly progress reports for both the Commission and Congress. It 

also identifies a yet-to-be-determined timeline for DOE to start and finish the EIS supplement. 
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Yucca Mountain Schedule

 Monthly Progress Reports 

 

 EIS supplement subject to DOE schedule 

NOV FEB MAY AUG NOV 

2013 2014 

TIMELINE 

Load Documents in ADAMS 

SER Volume 5 

SER Volume 4 

SER Volume 3 

SER Volume 2 

Assemble YM Team