The Secretary shall identify the States with one or more potentially acceptable sites for a repository within 90 days after January 7, 1983. Within 90 days of such identification, the Secretary shall notify the Governor, the State legislature, and the tribal council of any affected Indian tribe in any State of the potentially acceptable sites within such State. For the purposes of this subchapter, the term "potentially acceptable site" means any site at which, after geologic studies and field mapping but before detailed geologic data gathering, the Department undertakes preliminary drilling and geophysical testing for the definition of site location.
whichever occurs first.
Whenever the Secretary is required under any provision of this chapter to notify or consult with the governing body of an affected Indian tribe where a site is located, the Secretary shall also notify or consult with, as the case may be, the Governor of the State in which such reservation is located.
42 U.S.C. § 10136
EDITORIAL NOTES
AMENDMENTS1987-Subsec. (c). Pub. L. 100-202 and Pub. L. 100-203 generally amended subsec. (c) identically, substituting provisions consisting of pars. (1) to (6) for former provisions consisting of pars. (1) to (5).
- Commission
- The term "Commission" means the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
- Department
- The term "Department" means the Department of Energy.
- Governor
- The term "Governor" means the chief executive officer of a State.
- Secretary
- The term "Secretary" means the Secretary of Energy.
- State
- The term "State" means each of the several States, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, the Northern Mariana Islands, the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, and any other territory or possession of the United States.
- Waste Fund
- The term "Waste Fund" means the Nuclear Waste Fund established in section 10222(c) of this title.
- Yucca Mountain site
- The term "Yucca Mountain site" means the candidate site in the State of Nevada recommended by the Secretary to the President under section 10132(b)(1)(B) of this title on May 27, 1986.
- affected Indian tribe
- The term "affected Indian tribe" means any Indian tribe-(A) within whose reservation boundaries a monitored retrievable storage facility, test and evaluation facility, or a repository for high-level radioactive waste or spent fuel is proposed to be located;(B) 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;1
- affected unit of local government
- The term "affected unit of local government" means the unit of local government with jurisdiction over the site of a repository or a monitored retrievable storage facility. Such term may, at the discretion of the Secretary, include units of local government that are contiguous with such unit.
- repository
- The term "repository" means any system licensed by the Commission that is intended to be used for, or may be used for, the permanent deep geologic disposal of high-level radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel, whether or not such system is designed to permit the recovery, for a limited period during initial operation, of any materials placed in such system. Such term includes both surface and subsurface areas at which high-level radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel handling activities are conducted.
- reservation
- The term "reservation" means-(A) any Indian reservation or dependent Indian community referred to in clause (a) or (b) of section 1151 of title 18; or(B) any land selected by an Alaska Native village or regional corporation under the provisions of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (43 U.S.C. 1601 et seq.).
- site characterization
- The term "site characterization" means-(A) siting research activities with respect to a test and evaluation facility at a candidate site; and(B) activities, whether in the laboratory or in the field, undertaken to establish the geologic condition and the ranges of the parameters of a candidate site relevant to the location of a repository, including borings, surface excavations, excavations of exploratory shafts, limited subsurface lateral excavations and borings, and in situ testing needed to evaluate the suitability of a candidate site for the location of a repository, but not including preliminary borings and geophysical testing needed to assess whether site characterization should be undertaken.