A HOLISTIC APPROACH FOR DISPOSITION OF LONG-LIVED RADIOACTIVE MATERIALS
During the past 45 years, one of the most challenging scientific, engineering, socio-economic, and political tasks and obligations of our time has been to site and develop technical, politically acceptable, solutions to the safe disposition of long-lived radioactive materials (LLRMs). However, at the end of the year 2002, the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) site in the United States of America (USA) hosts the world's only operating LLRM-disposal system, which (1) is based on the LLRM-disposal principles recommended by the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) in 1957, i.e., deep geological disposal in a ''stable'' salt vault/repository, (2) complies with the nation's ''Environmental Radiation Protection Standards for the Management and Disposal of Spent Nuclear Fuel, High-Level and Transuranic Radioactive Wastes'', and (3) may receive 175,584 cubic meters (m3) of transuranic radioactive waste (TRUW)a. Pending the scheduled opening of repositories for once-used nuclear fuel (OUNF) in the USA, Sweden, and Finland in the years 2010, 2015, and 2017, respectively, LLRM-disposal solutions remain the missing link in all national LLRM-disposition programs. Furthermore, for a variety of reasons, many nations with nuclear programs have chosen a ''spectator'' stance in terms of enhancing the global nuclear safety culture and the nuclear renaissance, and have either ''slow-tracked'' or deferred their LLRM-disposal programs to allow time for an informed national consensus to evolve based on LLRM-disposition experiences and solutions gained elsewhere. In the meantime, LLRMs will continue to amass in different types and levels of safeguarded storage facilities around the world. In an attempt to contribute to the enhancement of the global nuclear safety culture and the nuclear renaissance, the authors developed the sample holistic approach for synergistic disposition of LLRMs comprising LLRM-disposition components considered either ''proven'' or ''promising'' by the authors. The fundamental principles of the holistic approach are: (1) Risk minimization; (2) Minimization of the LLRM volume requiring deep geological disposal; and (3) LLRM-disposition flexibility. An integral element of these principles is to allow time for LLRM-disposition solutions to evolve/mature technically, financially, and politically. Furthermore, contingent upon the desired outcome(s), available financial, scientific, and technical resources, and political will, these components may be implemented separately or in combinations by one or a group of nations.
- Research Organization:
- GRAM, Inc., 8500 Menaul Boulevard NE, Suite B-335, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87112 (US); Louisiana Energy Systems LLP, 1133 Connecticut Avenue NW, Suite 200, Washington, DC 20036 (US); Vanderbilt University, P.O. Box 1596, Station B, Nashville, Tennessee, 37235 (US)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- WM Symposia, Inc. (US)
- OSTI ID:
- 825652
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: Waste Management 2003 Symposium, Tucson, AZ (US), 02/23/2003--02/27/2003; Other Information: PBD: 27 Feb 2003
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS
FLEXIBILITY
MANAGEMENT
METERS
MINIMIZATION
NUCLEAR FUELS
OPENINGS
RADIATION PROTECTION
RADIOACTIVE MATERIALS
RADIOACTIVE WASTES
SAFETY CULTURE
STORAGE FACILITIES
WASTE MANAGEMENT
WASTES
WIPP