On April 29, 1986, Ben C. Rusche, Director of the Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management, appeared before the Energy and Natural Resources Subcommittee on Energy Research and Development to discuss the FY 1987 budget authorization for civilian radioactive waste management.

Following that hearing, you submitted written questions for our response to supplement the record. Enclosed are the answers to those questions, which also have been sent directly to the Committee staff.

If you have any questions, please have your staff call Mike
Gilmore or Cathy Hamilton on 252-4277.

to assist.

Enclosure

(523)

They will be happy

Sincerely,

Robert G. Rabben

Assistant General Counsel
for Legislation

POST-HEARING QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

RELATING TO THE

APRIL 29, 1986 HEARING

BEFORE THE

SENATE COMMITTEE ON ENERGY AND NATURAL RESOURCES

SUBCOMMITTEE ON ENERGY RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT

WITNESS: BEN C. RUSCHE

DIRECTOR, OFFICE OF CIVILIAN RADIOACTIVE WASTE MANAGEMENT

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

QUESTIONS FROM SENATOR MCCLURE

MRS

QUESTION 1:

ANSWER:

What is the status of the MRS proposal?

The proposal and supporting documentation were
completed in early February 1986, and were ready to
be transmitted to the Congress. On February 7, 1986,
the State of Tennessee's Attorney General successfully
obtained an injunction from the Federal District
Court for the Middle District of Tennessee which
enjoined the Department from submitting the MRS
proposal to the Congress. The injunction has been
appealed by the Department.

QUESTION 2:

ANSWER:

The December review copy of the DOE proposal claimed the MRS would provide several substantial benefits to the overall waste system. Please explain.

How an MRS would help implement the overall system?

- How would it help utilities?

How would it help the first repository?

How would it help the operations of the system?

How would it help the transportation system?

An MRS would help implement the overall waste system

by allowing earlier implementation of the waste
receipt and preparation functions which are
distinctly separate from repository siting and
geologic considerations (i.e., implementing the
system in a two-step process and starting sooner
with the first step).

- The waste system with an MRS would help the
utilities by allowing the Federal waste system to
receive significant quantities of spent fuel from
the utilities on an earlier schedule, thus providing
a firm planning basis. As currently planned, the
waste system with an MRS could receive 3,000 metric
tons of spent fuel per year in 1998, whereas the
repository-only system would only emplace 400
metric tons per year during Phase I operation from
1998 thru 2001. This will also significantly
reduce the extent to which utilities will need to
add new, temporary at-reactor storage capacity.

The MRS would help the first repository by performing many of the spent fuel pre-emplacement preparation activities, e.g., initial fuel receipt and inspection, consolidation and placement in canisters, etc., at a facility centrally located to reactor population instead of at the repository. The repository would then receive uniform canisters of pre-packaged wastes from the MRS by regularlyscheduled dedicated train shipments from the MRS. Because the MRS would be licensed and operated before the first repository, issues related to the waste receipt and handling would be addressed earlier and the technology demonstrated prior to repository licensing. This would allow the

repository licensing to focus more narrowly on the important geologic issues.

The operations of the waste management system would be enhanced with an MRS by adding flexibility to accommodate changes in the repository emplacement schedule without affecting waste-acceptance operations from the reactors. In addition, decoupling of the geologic emplacement functions from the waste preparation functions brought