Repository planning for spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste: insights from U.S.. and international programs - 15638

Conference · Wed Jul 01 00:00:00 EDT 2015

OSTI ID:22824484

MacDonell, Margaret; Saraeva, Natalia; Raymond, Michelle; Chang, Young-Soo; Stohr, Rebecca ^[1]

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1. Argonne National Laboratory, 9700 S. Cass Ave., Argonne, IL 60439 (United States)

For decades, the United States and other nations with nuclear programs have been planning for permanent disposition of spent nuclear fuel and high-level waste, to address the increasingly difficult problem of storing these materials for the long term. These plans are complicated by issues ranging from technological factors to regulatory approaches and public concerns about health and environmental protection. In its 2012 report, the Blue Ribbon Commission (BRC) on America's Nuclear Future identified a number of recommendations for creating a safe, long-term solution to the nation's problem of managing and disposing of its spent fuel and high-level radioactive waste. These include a recommendation that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) revise its standards for a high-level waste repository. The EPA is currently reviewing and synthesizing literature relevant to such standards, including: (1) existing national and international standards and guidelines for repositories; and (2) benefits and barriers to such standards, including limitations related to current technologies, as well as siting, licensing, and construction processes. This paper highlights findings of this literature review and synthesis. More than 90 countries, from Albania to Vietnam and Yemen, were identified as potential sources of relevant information based on existing nuclear programs or consideration of such programs to address future energy needs. Pursuant to the BRC recommendations, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has compiled extensive information resources relevant to spent fuel and radioactive waste repositories in the Centralized Used Fuel Resource and Information Exchange (CURIE) database developed by Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Further valuable sources of information include annual proceedings of recent Waste Management Symposia, which provide insights into recent trends and progress across various national and international programs. Recent literature from a number of countries, including the United States and Canada, and the United Kingdom, Finland, Sweden, France, Germany, and other countries in Western Europe, as well as other regions including Australia, indicates that consent-based siting has emerged as a dominant theme. In addition to effective siting processes, key program needs identified in the literature include regulatory standards and performance context, as well as reliable technologies and engineered systems, such as for deep drilling and assured safe containment of these radioactive materials extending into the very long term. (authors)

• Research Organization: WM Symposia, Inc., PO Box 27646, 85285-7646 Tempe, AZ (United States)
• OSTI ID: 22824484
• Report Number(s): INIS-US-19-WM-15638; TRN: US19V1056069530
• Resource Relation: Conference: WM2015: Annual Waste Management Symposium, Phoenix, AZ (United States), 15-19 Mar 2015; Other Information: Country of input: France; 17 refs.; available online at: http://archive.wmsym.org/2015/index.html
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE WASTES, AND NON-RADIOACTIVE WASTES FROM NUCLEAR FACILITIES
ALBANIA
AUSTRALIA
CANADA
CONTAINMENT
DATA BASE MANAGEMENT
ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION
FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF GERMANY
FINLAND
FRANCE
HIGH-LEVEL RADIOACTIVE WASTES
LICENSING
MEETINGS
ORNL
PLANNING
PROCEEDINGS
RADIOACTIVE WASTE DISPOSAL
RECOMMENDATIONS
SITE SELECTION
SPENT FUELS
SWEDEN
UNITED KINGDOM
US EPA
VIET NAM
WASTE STORAGE
YEMEN