On November 29, 1989, the Secretary of Energy published his ''Report to Congress on the Reassessment of the Civilian Radioactive Waste Management Program'' (Report), and sent copies to numerous interested parties for their review and comment. This document summarizes comments received on the Report and presents the DOE's current responses to those comments as a basis for further discussions. Included as appendixes are a list of commenters, a crosswalk showing where each comment is addressed, the comment letters themselves with specific comments delineated, and the DOE's response to those letters. Twenty-five individuals or organizations submitted comments on the Report. The DOE identified 130 individual comments and classified them into the following seven categories: Management, Institutional, Regulatory, Transportation, Monitored Retrievable Storage, Scheduling, and Yucca Mountain. For the responses, comments were than grouped into more specific topics under each of the major headings. The DOE attempted to respond to all comments.

The Department of Energy`s Office Civilian Radioactive Waste Management has prepared this document to report plans for the Civilian Radioactive Waste Management Program, whose mission is to manage and dispose of the nation`s spent fuel and high-level radioactive waste in a manner that protects the health and safety of the public and of workers and the quality of the environment. The Congress established this program through the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982. Specifically, the Congress directed us to isolate these wastes in geologic repositories constructed in suitable rock formations deep beneath the surface of the earth. In the Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act of 1987, the Congress mandated that only one repository was to be developed at present and that only the Yucca Mountain candidate site in Nevada was to be characterized at this time. The Amendments Act also authorized the construction of a facility for monitored retrievable storage (MRS) and established the Office of the Nuclear Waste Negotiator and the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board. After a reassessment in 1989, the Secretary of Energy restructured the program, focusing the repository effort scientific evaluations of the Yucca Mountain candidate site, deciding to proceed with the development of an MRS facility, and strengthening the management of the program. 48 refs., 32 figs.