NUREG-2184 Supplement to the U.S. Department of Energy’s Environmental Impact Statement for a Geologic Repository for the Disposal of Spent Nuclear Fuel and High-Level Radioactive Waste at Yucca Mountain, Nye County, Nevada Draft Report for Comment Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards AVAILABILITY OF REFERENCE MATERIALS IN NRC PUBLICATIONS NRC Reference Material Non-NRC Reference Material As of November 1999, you may electronically access Documents available from public and special technical NUREG-series publications and other NRC records at libraries include all open literature items, such as books, NRC’s Library at www.nrc.gov/reading-rm.html. 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NUREG-2184 Supplement to the U.S. Department of Energy’s Environmental Impact Statement for a Geologic Repository for the Disposal of Spent Nuclear Fuel and High-Level Radioactive Waste at Yucca Mountain, Nye County, Nevada Draft Report for Comment Manuscript Completed: August 2015 Date Published: August 2015 Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards 1 COMMENTS ON DRAFT REPORT 2 Any interested party may submit comments on this report for consideration by the U.S. Nuclear 3 Regulatory Commission (NRC) staff. Comments may be accompanied by additional relevant 4 information or supporting data. Please specify the report number NUREG–2184 in your 5 comments, and send them by the end of the comment period specified in the Federal Register 6 notice announcing the availability of this report. 7 Addresses: You may submit comments by any one of the following methods. Please include 8 Docket ID NRC–2015–0051 in the subject line of your comments. 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Address questions about NRC dockets to 13 Carol Gallagher at 301-415-3463 or by e-mail at [email protected]. 14 Mail comments to: Cindy Bladey, Chief, Rules, Announcements, and Directives Branch 15 (RADB), Division of Administrative Services, Office of Administration, Mail Stop: 16 OWFN-12-H08, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001. 17 For any questions about the material in this report, please contact: Christine Pineda, EIS 18 Supplement Project Manager, 301-415-6789, or by e-mail at [email protected]. 19 Please be aware that any comments that you submit to the NRC will be considered a public 20 record and entered into the Agencywide Documents Access and Management System 21 (ADAMS). Do not provide information you would not want to be publicly available. 1 ABSTRACT 2 This “Supplement to the Department of Energy’s Environmental Impact Statement for a 3 Geologic Repository for the Disposal of Spent Nuclear Fuel and High-Level Radioactive Waste 4 at Yucca Mountain, Nye County, Nevada” (supplement) evaluates the potential environmental 5 impacts on groundwater and impacts associated with the discharge of any contaminated 6 groundwater to the ground surface due to potential releases from a geologic repository for spent 7 nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste at Yucca Mountain, Nye County, Nevada. This 8 supplements the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) 2002 “Final Environmental Impact 9 Statement for a Geologic Repository for the Disposal of Spent Nuclear Fuel and High-Level 10 Radioactive Waste at Yucca Mountain, Nye County, Nevada” and 2008 “Final Supplemental 11 Environmental Impact Statement for a Geologic Repository for the Disposal of Spent Nuclear 12 Fuel and High-Level Radioactive Waste at Yucca Mountain, Nye County, Nevada,” in 13 accordance with the findings and scope outlined in the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission 14 (NRC) staff’s 2008 “Adoption Determination Report for the U.S. Department of Energy’s 15 Environmental Impact Statements for the Proposed Geologic Repository at Yucca Mountain.” 16 This supplement describes the affected environment and assesses the potential environmental 17 impacts with respect to potential contaminant releases from the repository that could be 18 transported through the volcanic-alluvial aquifer in Fortymile Wash and the Amargosa Desert, 19 and to the Furnace Creek/Middle Basin area of Death Valley. This supplement evaluates the 20 potential radiological and nonradiological impacts—over a one million year period—on the 21 aquifer environment, soils, ecology, and public health, as well as the potential for 22 disproportionate impacts on minority or low-income populations. In addition, this supplement 23 assesses the potential for cumulative impacts associated with other past, present, or reasonably 24 foreseeable future actions. The NRC staff finds that all of the potential direct, indirect, and 25 cumulative impacts on the resources evaluated in this supplement would be SMALL. iii 1 CONTENTS 2 Section Page 3 ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................................... iii 4 FIGURES ..................................................................................................................................... vii 5 TABLES ....................................................................................................................................... ix 6 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ............................................................................................................. xi 7 ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS ......................................................................................... xiii 8 1 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................ 1-1 9 1.1 Background—License Application and EIS Adoption Review Process .............. 1-1 10 1.2 Scope and Assumptions ....................................................................................