Waist-Deep in Nuclear Waste: How the NRC Can Rebuild Confidence in a Stalled Waste Management Program

This comment will explain why the federal nuclear waste management program is at a standstill and will suggest a course of action for the NRC to help revive the program. Part II describes the environmental hazards of spent nuclear fuel and the federal government’s effort to site and build a geologic repository for this nuclear waste. Part III explains the role of the NRC in the nuclear regulatory scheme and how safety and environmental regulations are promulgated and enforced. Part IV narrows in on the NRC rulemakings called the “Waste Confidence Decision” and “Temporary Storage Rule,” and the reasons why they were defeated in New York v. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. In Part V, I propose that the NRC make significant changes to these “waste confidence” rulings to ensure compliance with NEPA