End Points for Spent Nuclear Fuel and High-Level Radioactive Waste in Russia and the United States (2003) / Chapter Skim
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1. Introduction
1. Introduction
Pages 13-30
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, furthers these goals by describing the management of spent nuclear fuel (SNF) and high-level radioactive waste (HLW)
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1.1 DEFINITION OF TERMS For the purposes of this committee, an end point for spent nuclear fuel or high-level radioactive waste is a stable, safe, and secure disposition of the material that can be sustained. (See Sidebar 1.1 for definitions of high-level radioactive waste and other materials discussed in this report.)
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Introduction t:~1.
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2The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, in 1990, issued a finding called the Waste Confidence Decision, which concerns storage of spent nuclear fuel and the future availability of a high-level waste repository in the United States.
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Many radioactive wastes contain chemically hazardous materials (toxic, caustic, at its spent fuel storage basin or at either onsite or offsite independent spent fuel storage installations" (lJ.S.
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Radiological weapons cause radiation exposures by dispersing radioactive material or by locating a large radiation source where it will expose people directly. Dispersal can be achieved by attacking a nuclear facility, such as a nuclear reactor, a SNFstorage facility, a HLW tank, or radioactive waste in transit, or by constructing a radiological dispersion device, sometimes called a "dirty bomb," in which the radioactive material is incorporated into the device prior to the attack.3 Casks for storage and transport of SNF are generally very robust and it would be extremely difficult 3HLW and SNF are not the only radioactive materials that can be used for radiological weapons.
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Nuclear weapons use fission and sometimes fusion reactions to achieve large explosive yields and, in so doing, release a large burst of radiation and disperse the radioactive products of fission and neutron-activation reactions. Achieving a nuclear yield requires fissile material,4 knowledge of how to design a weapon, and some additional equipment.
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Similar measures to those recommended for fissile materials—consolidation of strong radiation sources, reductions in inventories, conversion to unattractive forms also reduce risks of radiological attacks. 1.2 BACKGROUND AND OVERVIEW OF THE CHALLENGES During the last three years of World War 11 the United States initiated, pursued, and succeeded in an effort to develop nuclear bombs.
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The facility's first plutonium-production reactor began full-power operations in June 1948 and the reprocessing plant received irradiated metal for separations in December of that year. Finished, separated plutonium was produced in February 1949, and on August 29, 1949, the Soviet Union detonated a nuclear bomb similar in design to the U.S.
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Russia now has 30 operating power reactors at 10 different sites within its borders.9 All but one of Russia's nuclear power plants are run by the Russian State Concern for Generation of Electric and Thermal Power at Nuclear Power Plants ("Rosenergoatom"~.'° The amounts of SNF currently stored in the Russian Federation and the United States are presented in Table 1.1, along with the rate at which the inventory is increasing. These data are presented by the type of reactor fuel, and are taken from various sources that are referenced elsewhere in this report.
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Most of the power reactors are not owned by the government,'2 but the federal government has a legal obligation to take ownership of the SNF and ultimately to dispose of it. In the same year that the Soviet AM-1 reactor came online, the United States launched the first nuclear-powered submarine, the Nautilus.
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, liquid radioactive wastes were dumped into the Techa River. Later, intermediate-level liquid radioactive wastes were dumped into Karachai Lake, and low-level wastes were piped into the Techa Ponds Cascade.
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The most radioactive constituents of the plutonium-production process and the nuclear fuel cycle are spent nuclear fuel (SNF) and high-level radioactive waste (HLW)
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. President Carter indicated that no federal government funding would be provided for reprocessing of commercial SNF.44 Although President Reagan endorsed commercial reproc44The President does not have authority to prevent licensing of a reprocessing facility proposed by a private entity under the Atomic Energy Act, but the company seeking to build a reprocessing plant in Barnwell, South Carolina, Allied General Nuclear Services, needed federal government funds to complete the plant.
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(However, the current Administration is examining other paths in the new Nuclear Fuel Cycle Initiative, linked to the National Energy Policy statement in Footnote 15.) clear fuel cycles could be Completed.
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Russia currently separates the lowenrichment uranium from its VVER-400 reactors and mixes that uranium with more highly enriched uranium from its naval reactor SNF, BN-600 SNF, and research reactor SNF. The resulting uranium is used in fresh fuel for RBMK reactors.
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