End Points for Spent Nuclear Fuel and High-Level Radioactive Waste in Russia and the United States

by National Research Council, Policy and Global Affairs, Development, Security, and Cooperation, Office for Central Europe and Eurasia, Division on Earth and Life Studies

Overview

End Points for spent Nuclear Fuel and High-Level Radioactive Waste in Russian and the United States provides an analysis of the management of spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste in Russia and the United States, describing inventories, comparing approaches, and assessing the end-point options for storage and disposal of materials and wastes. The authoring committee finds that despite differences in philosophy about nuclear fuel cycles, Russia and the United States need similar kinds of facilities and face similar challenges, although in Russia many of the problems are worse and funding is less available. This book contains recommendations for immediate and near-term actions, for example, protecting and stabilizing materials that are security and safety hazards, actions for the longer term, such as developing more interim storage capacity and studying effects of deep injection, and areas for collaboration.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780309087247
Publisher:	National Academies Press
Publication date:	06/12/2003
Pages:	153
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.50(d)

Table of Contents

	Summary	1
1	Introduction	13
1.1	Definition of Terms	14
1.2	Background and Overview of the Challenges	20
1.3	Nuclear Fuel Cycles	25
2	Spent Nuclear Fuel and End Points	31
2.1	Spent Nuclear Fuel in the Russian Federation	31
2.2	Spent Nuclear Fuel in the United States	38
2.3	Disposition of Excess Weapons Plutonium	48
2.4	End Points	50
2.5	Fuel-Cycle Steps and End Points for Spent Nuclear Fuel	52
3	High-Level Radioactive Waste	65
3.1	High-Level Radioactive Waste in the Russian Federation	65
3.2	High-Level Radioactive Waste in the United States	75
3.3	End Points for High-Level Radioactive Waste That Is Not Spent Nuclear Fuel	80
4	Conclusions and Recommendations	88
4.1	Problems that Require Immediate Attention and Prompt Action	92
4.2	Longer-Term Research, Development, and Implementation	96
4.3	Areas for Collaboration	102
	References	108
Appendixes
A	Statement of Task	117
B	Acronyms and Abbreviations	119
C	Committee Member Biographies	121
D	Presentations and Site Visits	125
E	Laws Governing Radioactive Waste of the United States and Russia	128