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.] § 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 . . .

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))