What does 1 million years mean to a regulator?

Nov11NN Cover1

Abstract:

When the Obama administration withdrew the license application for the proposed geologic repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, for spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste, the United States not only ended more than 25 years of research and effort in developing a long-term solution for dealing with HLW, it also lost the regulatory framework for the same. The Environmental Protection Agency’s standards and the implementing regulations of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission are site-specific, unique to Yucca Mountain. In the absence of a repository at Yucca Mountain, a new standard and new regulations will be required. In this article, two different viewpoints are given on how to assess compliance.