Bush's return to Reprocessing spent nuclear reactor fuel.

I think the plan that replaced the previously discounted plan is all but shot now too. They tried to put that nuclear waste in those "deep underground geologic repositories" and the people in AZ fought it and seem to have won. I don't beleive there is a repository right now.

This is the first I've seen on anything about going back to reprocessing though.

Current Storage Methods

Currently, only temporary storage areas exist for the disposal of radioactive waste. The U.S. government is working to devise a plan for the safe storage and permanent disposal of nuclear wastes. Plutonium waste from nuclear fuel used in nuclear power plants and similar reactors is highly radioactive and needs to be shielded and handled very carefully at remote distances. At this time the waste from these spent fuel rods is stored in specially-designed, water-filled basins or dry casks at commercial power reactor sites or at one away-from-reactor storage facility. Most of the weapons grade plutonium pits (pits are the nuclear triggers for a hydrogen bomb) from the dismantlement of nuclear weapons are being dry-stored in casks at a facility outside of Amarillo, Texas (Bullen and McCormick 683). But as the plutonium is broken down, plutonium dust is created which presents a relevant safety concern. If this dust were dispersed into the atmosphere, radioactive plutonium could spread quickly and easily through the environment, creating a very dangerous hazard to humans and the environment.


Projected Disposal Methods

A few options are being considered for the permanent disposal of nuclear waste, including: the mixed oxide (MOX) fuel burning method, the vitrification method and the subductive waste disposal method.

The MOX fuel burning option is carried out by mixing plutonium with uranium and producing a slightly different fuel than is now used for civilian reactors. The object of this is to burn up the plutonium by nuclear fission (the splitting of atomic nuclei which releases large amounts of energy). This means more of the plutonium can be used as an energy source in a relatively quick fashion. The burning of the fuel does produce a product of excess plutonium, but this product is far less dangerous to the environment and the global community than the initial plutonium is. So the amount of plutonium is actually reduced as well as leaving the remaining plutonium much less usable for weapons and easier to dispose of (Bullen and McCormick 692). However, the product would still need to be disposed of in some effective manner in order protect the environment and to keep the excess plutonium safeguarded from use in nuclear weapons manufacturing.

The vitrification method involves the mixing of weapons-grade plutonium with radioactive waste from civilian reactors and placing this mixture in borosilicate glass logs. The logs would then be buried in a deep borehole that is at least 4 kilometers deep (Bullen and McCormick 690). The idea here is that the plutonium could be suitably encased and isolated to the extent that its decay process may occur without polluting the environment, or being utilized in the manufacture of nuclear weapons. But unfortunately, the only way to know for sure if the encasement will not leak is to try it. This means that it is possible for leakage to pollute the water table also the plutonium could still be mined in the future and used for the manufacture of nuclear weapons.

The Subductive Waste Disposal Method is the most viable means of disposing of radioactive waste. The idea is that the waste is removed from the biosphere faster than it can return. Subduction refers to a process in which one tectonic plate slides beneath another at rate of about 6 cm annually, while being reabsorbed into the Earth's mantle.

The Subductive Waste Disposal Method involves the formation of a radioactive waste repository in a subducting plate. As the plate is reabsorbed, the waste will be absorbed along with the plate where it will be dispersed through the mantle. Subducting plates are naturally structured for absorption in the Earth's mantle. And the plate is constantly renewed at its originating oceanic ridge. The plate moves slowly so that any fractures over a repository would be sealed at the contact point between the overriding plate and the subducting plate. Therefore, this method would obviously need to be implemented in a geographically active region. The most accessible site would then be on the ocean floor at a point above where subducting plates meet several thousand feet below the water's surface and then another 2,000 meters beneath ocean sediment. The repositories would be virtually inaccessible once filled and sealed. Once the waste is carried into the interior of the Earth, it would take many millions of years "for the waste to circulate through the Earth's mantle before it could re-emerge in a diluted, chemically and physically altered form at an oceanic ridge (Baird)." The Subductive Waste Disposal Method would prevent radioactive waste from mixing with the water table, provide inaccessibility to eliminated weapons material, remove radioactive waste completely from its threatening position, and be completely safe for marine life.

fishin' wrote:

I think the plan that replaced the previously discounted plan is all but shot now too. They tried to put that nuclear waste in those "deep underground geologic repositories" and the people in AZ fought it and seem to have won. I don't beleive there is a repository right now.

This is the first I've seen on anything about going back to reprocessing though.

Isn't there a huge facility that was built in Nevada??

Anon

"Its [the Bush administration] latest scheme is reprocessing of irradiated commercial fuel, one of the dirtiest and most proliferation-vulnerable processes in the nuclear fuel chain. Abandoned in this country for more than 30 years, countries where it has been done - including Britain, France and Russia - are now reaping its hideous environmental legacy of contamination and disease.

"The price tag in dollars - as well as in health impacts - will be enormous if this country is allowed to venture back down the reprocessing road. The only U.S. commercial reprocessing site ever to operate - in West Valley, New York - is projected to cost more than $5 billion to clean up despite reprocessing only a fraction of the waste sent there between 1966 and 1972. Now Congress has awarded the U.S. Department of Energy $50 million of our money to set this debacle in motion once again although the totals are likely to reach the hundreds of billions of dollars.