UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY EXPERIENCE IN CREATING AND COMMUNICATING THE CASE FOR THE SAFETY OF A POTENTIAL YUCCA MOUNTAIN REPOSITORY

摘要

The experience gained by the United States Department of Energy (DOE) in making the recommendation for the development of the Yucca Mountain site as the United States of America's first high level waste and spent nuclear fuel repository is useful for creating documents to support the next phase in the repository programme, the licensing phase. The experience that supported the successful site recommendation process involved a three-tiered approach. The first step involved making a highly technical case for regulatory compliance; the second involved making a broader case for safety in an Environmental Impact Statement; and the third involved producing plain language brochures, made available to the public in hard copy and on the Internet, to explain the DOE's action and its legal and scientific bases. The paper reviews lessons learned from this process, and makes suggestions for the next stage of the repository programme: the licensing phase.