Long-term retrievability and safeguards for immobilized weapons plutonium in geologic storage
- Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States)
If plutonium is not ultimately used as an energy source, the quantity of excess weapons plutonium (w-Pu) that would go into a US repository will be small compared to the quantity of plutonium contained in the commercial spent fuel in the repository, and the US repository(ies) will likely be only one (or two) locations out of many around the world where commercial spent fuel will be stored. Therefore excess weapons plutonium creates a small perturbation to the long-term (over 200,000 yr) global safeguard requirements for spent fuel. There are details in the differences between spent fuel and immobilized w-Pu waste forms (i.e. chemical separation methods, utility for weapons, nuclear testing requirements), but these are sufficiently small to be unlikely to play a significant role in any US political decision to rebuild weapons inventories, or to change the long-term risks of theft by subnational groups.
- Research Organization:
- US Department of Energy (USDOE), Washington DC (United States)
- OSTI ID:
- 420667
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-951259-; ON: DE96011798; TRN: 97:002150
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: Plutonium stabilization and immobilization workshop, Washington, DC (United States), 12-14 Dec 1995; Other Information: PBD: May 1996; Related Information: Is Part Of US Department of Energy Plutonium Stabilization and Immobilization Workshop, December 12-14, 1995: Final proceedings; PB: 474 p.
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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