Disposition of Excess Fissile Materials in Deep Boreholes

Conference · Sun Sep 03 00:00:00 EDT 1995

OSTI ID:78579

Halsey, William G. ^[1]; Danker, William ^[2]; Morley, Richard ^[1]

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1. Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
2. US Department of Energy (USDOE), Washington DC (United States)

As a result of recent changes throughout the world, a substantial inventory of excess separated plutonium is expected to result from dismantlement of US nuclear weapons. The safe and secure management and eventual disposition of this plutonium, and of a similar inventory in Russia, is a high priority. A variety of options (both interim and permanent) are under consideration to manage this material. The permanent solutions can be categorized into two broad groups: direct disposal and utilization. Plutonium utilization options have in common the generation of high-level radioactive waste which will be disposed of in a mined geologic disposal system to be developed for spent reactor fuel and defense high level waste. Other final disposition forms, such as plutonium metal, plutonium oxide and plutonium immobilized without high-level radiation sources may be better suited to placement in a custom facility. This paper discusses a leading candidate for such a facility; deep (several kilometer) borehole disposition. The deep borehole disposition concept involves placing excess plutonium deep into old stable rock formations with little free water present. The safety argument centers around ancient groundwater indicating lack of migration, and thus no expected communication with the accessible environment until the plutonium has decayed.

• Research Organization: Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States); US Department of Energy (USDOE), Washington DC (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), Nuclear Criticality Safety Program (NCSP)
• DOE Contract Number: W-7405-ENG-48
• OSTI ID: 78579
• Report Number(s): UCRL-JC-120053; CONF-9509161-1; ON: DE95011692; TRN: 95:016236
• Resource Relation: Conference: International Surplus Fissile Materials Conference, Berlin (Germany), 3-9 Sep 1995; Other Information: PBD: Sep 1995
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE WASTES FROM NUCLEAR FACILITIES
FISSILE MATERIALS
RADIOACTIVE WASTE DISPOSAL
BOREHOLES
PLUTONIUM
HIGH-LEVEL RADIOACTIVE WASTES
Nuclear Criticality Safety Program (NCSP)
Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS)
Plutonium Utilization
High-Level Radiation Sources
Defense High Level Waste
Spent Nuclear Reactor Fuel (SNF)
High-Level Radioactive Waste (HLW)
Weapons-Usable Fissile Materials