Any hearing conducted by NRC regarding any U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)
request for authorization to construct a high-level radioactive waste repository is a formal,
trial-type proceeding. Some entities are identified in the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 (NWPA),
amended, as having party status in the proceeding: DOE, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission
staff, the State of Nevada, and Nye County, Nevada, which is the site of the proposed
repository.
Other entities identified as potential parties or interested governmental participants
are granted legal standing in the proceedings upon petition.
The formal definitions and criteria that govern the status of each entity are
provided below and can be found in 10 C.F.R. § 2.1001.
Party. . . means the DOE, the NRC staff, the host State,
any affected unit of local government1 . . . , any affected
Indian Tribe 2 . . . ,
and a person admitted under [10 C.F.R.] ยง 2.1014 to the proceeding on an application for a license
to receive and possess high-level radioactive waste at a geologic repository operations area pursuant
to [10 C.F.R. Part 60] . . . ,
provided that a host State, affected unit of local government, or affected Indian Tribe
shall file a list of contentions in accordance with the provisions of [10 C.F.R.] §
2.1014(a)(2)(ii) and (iii).
Potential party means any person who, during the period before the issuance
of the first pre-hearing conference order under [10 C.F.R.] § 2.1021(d), is given access
to the Licensing Support Network (LSN) and who consents to comply with the regulations set
forth in [10 C.F.R. Part 2, Subpart J] . . . , including the authority of the Pre-License
Application Presiding Officer designated pursuant to [10 C.F.R.] § 2.1010. [Consistent with this definition
and a previously expressed interest in the LSN, potential parties could include
Churchill, Clark, Esmeralda, Eureka, Lander, Lincoln, Mineral,
and White Pine Counties in Nevada, Inyo County in California, the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI),
and the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI).]
Interested governmental participant means any person
admitted under [10 C.F.R.] § 2.715(c) [(i.e., an interested State, county, municipality, Federally-recognized Indian Tribe,
and/or agencies thereof] . . . to the proceeding on an application for a license to
receive and possess high-level radioactive waste at a geologic repository operations area
pursuant to [10 C.F.R.] Part 60 . . .
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1Under the Nuclear Waste Policy Act, a "unit of local government"
includes "any borough, city, county, parish, town, township, village, or other
general purpose political subdivision of a State," while an "affected
unit of local government" is a local government unit
"with jurisdiction over the site of a repository . . . [that] may, at the discretion of the Secretary [of Energy], include units of local government that are contiguous with such unit."
(42 U.S.C. § 10101(28), (31))
2Under the NWPA, an "Indian Tribe" means "any Indian tribe, band, nation, or
other organized group or community of Indians recognized as eligible for the services provided
to Indians by the Secretary of the Interior because of their status as Indians,"
while an "affected Indian Tribe" means any Indian Tribe
"within whose reservation boundaries . . . a repository for high-level radioactive waste or
spent fuel is proposed to be located" or "whose federally defined possessory or usage
rights to other lands outside of the reservation's boundaries arising out of congressionally
ratified treaties may be substantially and adversely affected by the locating of
such a facility: Provided, that the Secretary of the Interior finds, upon the petition of the
appropriate governmental officials of the tribe, that such effects are both substantial and
adverse to the tribe." (42 U.S.C. § 10101(2), (15))
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