Health and safety impacts related to the management of spent nuclear fuels
Under the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982, as amended, the U.S. Department of Energy is responsible for managing the disposal of spent nuclear fuel from civilian nuclear power plants. Deployment of a multipurpose canister (MPC) system for dry storage of commercial spent nuclear fuel at reactor sites was determined to be an option for managing spent nuclear fuel until either a permanent repository or interim central storage facility (commonly called a Monitored Retrievable Storage Facility, or MRS) becomes available. Routine health and safety impacts to workers from handling and storage operations at nuclear facilities for four separate scenarios were evaluated for the MPC system: an on-time repository with an MRS; an on-time repository with no MRS; a delayed repository with an MRS; and a delayed repository with no MRS. In addition to evaluating the MPC system, five alternatives were analyzed. These included the No Action Alternative (NAA), Current Technology (CTr), the Transposable Storage Cask (TSC), the Dual-Purpose Canister (DPC), and the Small MPC (SmMPC). Health effects are expressed as collective doses in person- rem per year and risks as latent cancer fatalities per year for incident-free operations for each alternative and scenario. Results show that both dose and risks to workers vary as much as 68{percent} among scenarios and alternatives. Although dose estimates and risks fall below limits for radiation dose to workers as specified in Title 10, Part 20, of the Code of Federal Regulations, additional measures could be applied to reduce potential doses and resultant health risk. 5 refs., 2 tabs.
- Research Organization:
- Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- W-31-109-ENG-38
- OSTI ID:
- 245066
- Report Number(s):
- ANL/EA/CP-88600; CONF-9604136-19; ON: DE96011111; TRN: 96:014595
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: 2. Argonne National Laboratory technical women`s symposium, Argonne, IL (United States), 29-30 Apr 1996; Other Information: PBD: [1996]
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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