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End Points for spent Nuclear Fuel and High-Level Radioactive Waste in Russian and the United States provides an analysis of the management of spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste in Russia and the United States, describing inventories, comparing approaches, and assessing the end-point options for storage and disposal of materials and wastes. The authoring committee finds that despite differences in philosophy about nuclear fuel cycles, Russia and the United States need similar kinds of facilities and face similar challenges, although in Russia many of the problems are worse and funding is less available. This book contains recommendations for immediate and near-term actions, for example, protecting and stabilizing materials that are security and safety hazards, actions for the longer term, such as developing more interim storage capacity and studying effects of deep injection, and areas for collaboration.
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End Points for Spent Nuclear Fuel and High-Level Radioactive Waste in Russia and the United States Committee on End Points for Spent Nuclear Fuel and HighLevel Radioactive Waste in Russia and the United States Board on Radioactive Waste Management Division on Earth and Life Studies and Office for Central Europe and Eurasia Development, Security, and Cooperation Policy and Global Affairs
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NOTICE: The project that is the subject of this report was approved by the Governing Board of the National Research Council, whose members are drawn from the councils of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine. The members of the committee responsible for the report were chosen for their special competences and with regard for appropriate balance. Support for this study was provided by the U.S. Department of Energy under cooperative agreement number DE-FG28-97NV12056. All opinions, findings, conclusions, and recommendations expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Department of Energy. International Standard Book Number 0-309-08724-4 Additional copies of this report are available from: The National Academies Press 500 Fifth Street, N.W. Lockbox 285 Washington, DC 20055 800-624-6242 202-334-3313 (in the Washington Metropolitan Area) http://www.nap.edu COVER: Depicted are high-level radioactive waste at the bottom of an underground tank (upper left), an artist’s rendition of a high-level waste repository (upper right), a nuclear fuel assembly being lowered into the core of a power reactor (lower left), and a spent fuel dry-storage facility (lower right). The first appears courtesy of the U.S. Department of Energy; the last two are courtesy of the Nuclear Energy Institute. Copyright 2003 by the National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America.
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