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Safeguards for long-term management of radioactive waste

Conference · · Nuclear Materials Management. Annual Meeting Proceedings; (United States)
OSTI ID:5649253
 [1]
  1. Los Alamos National Lab., NM (United States)
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.
OSTI ID:
5649253
Report Number(s):
CONF-910774--
Conference Information:
Journal Name: Nuclear Materials Management. Annual Meeting Proceedings; (United States) Journal Volume: 20
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English