Fuel loaded in the casks will be selected in accordance with the cask license and cask system Final Safety Analysis Report. An IPEC procedure is being developed to select which fuel assemblies will be loaded into the casks. This procedure includes all regulations and requirements. In general, the most important factors involved in fuel selection include the amount of time the fuel has been decaying in the spent fuel pool and the degree of its utilization in the reactor. The cask system FSAR is a very lengthy document and can be found in the NRC on-line public reading room.

Entergy plans to place only that spent fuel in casks which is needed to maintain sufficient room in the spent fuel pools to conduct reactor refueling, and only until the spent fuel can be transported to the national spent fuel repository.

In 2002 the President and Congress approved the Yucca Mountain site in Nevada for development as a national repository. DOE is expected to begin storing fuel at Yucca Mountain by 2010-2015. IPEC will begin shipping fuel as soon as DOE begins this process. Depending on the pace at which this is done, it may be necessary to store fuel on-site for 30-40 years.

The capacity of the repository at Yucca Mountain has been determined politically, not scientifically. Congress limited the capacity of the Yucca Mountain repository to 70,000 metric tons of heavy metal or equivalent, in the 1982 Nuclear Waste Policy Act. As of 2002, there were about 44,000 metric tons of commercial used nuclear fuel and about 12,000 metric tons of defense high-level radioactive waste awaiting disposal at Yucca Mountain. An additional 2,000 metric tons is generated each year. Given that DOE expects to begin receiving up to 3,000 metric tons a year of used fuel beginning in 2010, the 70,000 metric ton political limit will not be reached until at least 2036.

Scientific analysis demonstrates that the Yucca Mountain site is physically capable of holding much more used fuel. DOE's Environmental Impact Statement showed that the site could safely dispose of 120,000 metric tons. Some scientists believe that repository capacity could be as high as 200,000 metric tons.

Eventually the federal government will have to meet its obligations to store the fuel, however in the event of further delay, the casks are designed to hold the spent fuel for extended periods of time.