Spent fuel and high-level waste management in selected countries: Trends and issues

Conference · Sun Apr 01 04:00:00 EDT 1990

OSTI ID:6978023

Cooley, C R ^[1]; Schneider, K J ^[2]

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1. USDOE, Washington, DC (USA)
2. Pacific Northwest Lab., Richland, WA (USA)

This paper contains descriptions of the major parameters and plans for management of spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive wastes in Belgium, Canada, France, the Federal Republic of Germany, Japan, Sweden Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States. All nine countries are planning on disposal of spent fuel and/or high-level wastes in deep geologic repositories, although some have indicated an interest in alternatives such as seabed disposal and partitioning/transmutation. Most countries are planning on decades of interim waste storage, and are not planning to implement disposal until the year 2020 or later. Most countries plan to reprocess their spent fuel and vitrify the resulting high-level waste for disposal. Most disposal concepts utilize numerous engineered barriers that include overpacks and buffer materials. No country has finalized its repository site or concept, and only two have selected a candidate site for detailed evaluation. 7 tabs.

• Research Organization: Pacific Northwest Lab., Richland, WA (USA)
• Sponsoring Organization: DOE/RW
• DOE Contract Number: AC06-76RL01830
• OSTI ID: 6978023
• Report Number(s): PNL-SA-17770; CONF-900406--65; ON: DE90009455
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

052000* -- Nuclear Fuels-- Waste Management
052001 -- Nuclear Fuels-- Waste Processing
052002 -- Nuclear Fuels-- Waste Disposal & Storage
12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE WASTES FROM NUCLEAR FACILITIES
BELGIUM
CANADA
COOPERATION
ENERGY SOURCES
EUROPE
FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF GERMANY
FUELS
HIGH-LEVEL RADIOACTIVE WASTES
INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION
MANAGEMENT
MATERIALS
NORTH AMERICA
NUCLEAR FUELS
PLANNING
RADIOACTIVE MATERIALS
RADIOACTIVE WASTE MANAGEMENT
RADIOACTIVE WASTE STORAGE
RADIOACTIVE WASTES
REACTOR MATERIALS
REGULATIONS
REPROCESSING
SCANDINAVIA
SEPARATION PROCESSES
SPENT FUELS
STORAGE
SWEDEN
SWITZERLAND
UNDERGROUND DISPOSAL
UNITED KINGDOM
USA
VITRIFICATION
WASTE DISPOSAL
WASTE MANAGEMENT
WASTE STORAGE
WASTES
WESTERN EUROPE