Safeguards for long-term management of radioactive waste

Conference · Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 1991

OSTI ID:5654435

Pillay, K K.S.

In nuclear material safeguards parlance radioactive wastes are measured discards.'' However, the accumulation of large amounts of fissile materials in wastes over a period of time can be a safeguards concern like waste inventories in the US, which may contain more than 10 Mt of fissile materials. In addition to conventional radioactive waste forms, such as high-level wastes, transuranic wastes, and low-level wastes, spent nuclear fuel from commercial fuel cycles is now considered a radioactive waste form in the US. Spent nuclear fuels, placed in underground repositories, have the potential to become plutonium mines of the future and attractive targets for diversion or theft because of their valuable material content and decreasing radioactivity. In the context of present strategies for the disposal of these radioactive waste forms, this paper identifies some of the domestic and international safeguards issues relevant to the various proposed scenarios for the long-term management and permanent disposal of radioactive wastes in geologic repositories. Present knowledge of inventories is presented to illustrate the enormity of the problem of verifying special nuclear material contents of waste inventories in the US. Good materials management practices during the disposal phase of nuclear wastes should have elements to address issues that are identified here. 12 refs., 2 tabs.

• Research Organization: Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE; USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
• DOE Contract Number: W-7405-ENG-36
• OSTI ID: 5654435
• Report Number(s): LA-UR-91-2546; CONF-910774-42; ON: DE91016306
• Resource Relation: Conference: 32. Institute of Nuclear Materials Management (INMM) annual meeting, New Orleans, LA (United States), 28-31 Jul 1991
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE WASTES FROM NUCLEAR FACILITIES
RADIOACTIVE WASTE DISPOSAL
SAFEGUARDS
INVENTORIES
RADIOACTIVE WASTE MANAGEMENT
SECURITY
SPENT FUELS
SURVEILLANCE
ENERGY SOURCES
FUELS
MANAGEMENT
MATERIALS
NUCLEAR FUELS
REACTOR MATERIALS
WASTE DISPOSAL
WASTE MANAGEMENT
052002* - Nuclear Fuels- Waste Disposal & Storage