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4/26/04 1 NUCLEAR WASTE MANAGEMENT April 26, 2004 Nuclear Energy Economics and Policy Analysis 4/26/04 2 PWR Fuel Assembly Nuclear Energy Economics and Policy Analysis 14/26/04 Deep divisions of opinion about the feasibility of nuclear waste disposal . . . . • The critics: – Risks are very high – Absence of demonstrated disposal technology after 40+ years proves that nuclear power is fundamentally flawed – Irresponsible to generate more waste while the problem remains unsolved • The advocates – ‘High-level waste is a non-risk . . . .’ – ‘It is embarrassingly easy to solve the technical problems, yet impossible to solve the political problems . . .’ – Harold Lewis, Technological Risk, 1990 Nuclear Energy Economics and Policy Analysis 5 4/26/04 6 Home Page, Source: DOE Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management, Yucca Mountain Project Nuclear Energy Economics and Policy Analysis http://www.ymp.gov/timeline/index.htm 3t t t t 4/26/04 7 website Nuclear Energy Economics and Policy Analysis DOE Yucca Mountain Project the balance of authority between federal, state, and local jurisdictions and environmental -- to future generations the assessment of technical risk and the ‘verification’ possible Public management of large-scale programs 84/26/04 Key policy issues posed by nuclear waste intertemporal equity and our obligations -- economic of system performance when no true verification is Nuclear Energy Economics and Policy Analysis 44/26/04 History of nuclear waste management includes false starts and failures • 1972: U.S. Atomic Energy Commission abandons repository project at a salt mine in Lyons, KA. Promotes Retrievable Surface Storage Facility (RSSF) as 100-year interim solution. • 1975: RSSF abandoned. Geologic disposal adopted as preferred alternative. • 1977: Spent fuel reprocessing indefinitely deferred. • Complex national geologic repository site selection process initiated, then abandoned. Yucca Mountain picked instead. • DOE contracts with utilities to take possession of utility spent fuel beginning in 1998, but fails to do so. • Leaks of high-level radioactive waste from tanks at DOE sites in Washington and South Carolina. • Disclosures of contamination and excessive radiation doses to workers throughout DOE nuclear complex over a period of decades. • Continuing conflict between federal, state, and local jurisdictions over siting, regulatory issues Nuclear Energy Economics and Policy Analysis 9 Nuclear Waste Types Waste type High-level waste HLW Description a. Unreprocessed spent fuel assemblies b. Highly radioactive primary waste stream from reprocessing (containing virtually all fissionproducts and most transuranics except plutonium) Annual waste generation from a 1000 MWe LWR (m3/yr)(includes contribution from fuel cycle stages) ~ 10 Transuranic waste TRU Non-high-level waste contaminated with long-lived transuranics above 100 nanocuries per gram (10-7 curies/gm) ~ n.a. Uranium mill tailings Residues from uranium mining and milling operations containing low concentrations of naturally occurring radioactive materials ~ 100,000 Low level waste LLW All non-high-level, non-TRU wastes; wide variation in physical and chemical forms, activity levels, etc (gloves, I-X resins, etc.) ~ 20 (PWR) ~ 80 (BWR) Wastes from decontamination and decommissioning D&D Waste contaminated with small amounts or radioactivity from D&D (mostly LLW) ~ 400 (annualized) Mixed waste Contains both radioactive materials and hazardous chemicals Effluents Contaminated materials below ‘de minimus’ levels permitting direct discharge to environment 4/26/04 Nuclear Energy Economics and Policy Analysis 10 54/26/04 11 How much spent fuel? U.S. power reactor fleet: 10 (m3/reactor-year) x 40 (years) x 100 reactors ~ 40,000 m3 50m 100m 8m Nuclear Energy Economics and Policy Analysis 4/26/04 12 9 curies9 curiesRadioactivity 33Volume fuel DOE/Defense high level waste mostly stored in tanks at Hanford and Savannah River Current inventories of high-level waste Nuclear Energy Economics and Policy Analysis ~ 0.7 x 10 ~ 35 x 10 ~340,000 m ~20,000 m DOE defense high-level waste Commercial spent 64/26/04 13Nuclear Energy Economics and Policy Analysis 4/26/04 14Nuclear Energy Economics and Policy Analysis 7Economics and Policy Analysis 174/26/04 Radioactivity units: = 1 disintegration per second 1 Curie = 3.7 x 1010 Bq Spent fuel radioactivity = i Ni(t) (Becquerels/MTHM) where li -1) = § t1/2 Ni per MTHM i -lt Courtesy of Brett Mattingly. Used with permission. S lNuclear Energy Waste Decay Behavior 1 Becquerel (Bq) (t) = decay constant for isotope i (sec (ln 2) (t) = # of atoms of isotope i = N (0) e 4/26/04 18 Courtesy of Brett Mattingly. Used with permission. Decay behavior (contd.) Nuclear Energy Economics and Policy Analysis 94/26/04 Disposition alternatives for high level waste • Surface or near-surface engineered storage • Geologic repositories • Deep borehole disposal • Sub-seabed disposal • Ice-sheet disposal • Extra-terrestrial disposal • Waste partitioning – Reprocessing and recycling of economically useful species – Partitioning and transmutation of long-lived species • (Do nothing) Nuclear Energy Economics and Policy Analysis 19 4/26/04 20 Location of Yucca Mountain, Nevada Slide 17 Source: U.S. Dept of Energy, http://ocrwm.doe.gov/newsroom/photos/photos_graphics.shtml Nuclear Energy Economics and Policy Analysis 104/26/04 Yucca Mountain Site • 100 miles NW of Las Vegas • Volcanic tuff – Layers of consolidated, compacted ashfalls from volcanic eruptions occurring more than 10 million years ago – Underlying the tuff is sedimentary carbonate rock • Repository horizon in ‘unsaturated zone’, about 300 meters below the surface, and 300-500 meters above the water table • Two major aquifers in the saturated zone below Yucca Mountain, one in tuff, one in carbonate rock. Nuclear Energy Economics and Policy Analysis 21 4/26/04 22 Source: U.S. Dept of Energy, http://ocrwm.doe.gov/newsroom/photos/photos_graphics.shtml. Nuclear Energy Economics and Policy Analysis Yucca Mountain, Nevada 11 Source: U.S. Dept of Energy, http://ocrwm.doe.gov/newsroom/photos/photos_graphics.shtmlSource: DOE Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management,Yucca Mountain Project website4/26/04 23 Aerial view of the crest of Yucca Mountain, NV Source: U.S. Dept of Energy,


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