Summary

Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO assessed the Department of Energy's (DOE) efforts to implement the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982, focusing on the: (1) implications of declining nuclear waste quantities; (2) increased program costs; and (3) effects of the 1987 revisions to the act on the DOE plan for a facility to receive and store nuclear wastes.

GAO found that: (1) waste disposal projections have declined because utilities have not ordered new nuclear power plants since 1978; (2) despite this decline, estimates of waste program costs increased from $23 billion in 1983 to $33 billion in 1987; (3) DOE estimated that it would cost $23 billion to implement the revised program, with Yucca Mountain in Nevada as the sole repository, and about $31 billion if it constructed a second repository; (4) DOE expected the Yucca Mountain site to hold 70,000 metric tons of wastes, but was uncertain about the site's potential for expansion; and (5) the act's revisions limited DOE authority to construct and operate a monitored retrievable storage (MRS) facility in advance of a repository.