An International Spent Nuclear Fuel Storage Facility Exploring a Russian Site as a Prototype: Proceedings of an International Workshop (2005) / Chapter Skim
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Problems of Spent Nuclear Fuel Management and Storage Site Selection
Problems of Spent Nuclear Fuel Management and Storage Site Selection
Pages 20-29
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From page 20... ...
I Solonin Russian Ministry of Atomic Energy In this report I will cover the complex fate of the products of existing nuclear technologies, including spent nuclear fuel and radioactive wastes, as well as the degree to which they affect prospects for the development of the international atomic energy sector.
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From page 21... ...
Russia has created its Strategy for the Development of Nuclear Power in the First Half of the Twenty-First Century, the basic elements of which include the doubling of energy output and the formation of a closed nuclear fuel cycle. As a result, we must ensure fuller utilization of natural fissionable materials as well as those created during reactor operations, minimize the volume of radioactive wastes, and promote nuclear and radiation nonproliferation.
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From page 22... ...
The various concepts involved in the management of spent nuclear fuel depend on the strategies adopted by each nation regarding development of the nuclear power industry, the role of this industry in the country's future energy supply, and the capacities of its natural resource base. Russia signed the Joint Convention on the Safety of Spent Fuel Management and on the Safety of Radioactive Waste Management in 1997, but the final
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From page 23... ...
to the producing state of the radioactive wastes and other products created during reprocessing operations In analyzing international law on this topic, one may conclude that there is an internationally recognized right of each state to set its own policy on managing spent nuclear fuel and radioactive wastes and, while observing international norms for ensuring security, to create its own legal and regulatory base. The question of legislative regulation of the conditions for managing spent fuel and radioactive wastes has special characteristics in each country depending on the concept selected there for spent fuel management.
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From page 24... ...
· enhance the regime for nonproliferation of nuclear weapons · strengthen the future raw material base for the power industry through the use of regenerated uranium and plutonium · help to attract financial resources for the resolution of Russian environmental problems that built up during the creation of nuclear weapons in the country · facilitate the development of the national infrastructure for spent fuel management in accordance with current international requirements · encourage the development of international cooperation on spent fuel management in the scientific-technical and industrial spheres Now is an appropriate time to discuss our practical experience in the management of spent nuclear fuel. In Russia at present spent nuclear fuel from water-moderated water-cooled power reactors and fast neutron reactors (VVER440, BN-600, and BN-350)
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From page 25... ...
Chemical Complex for spent fuel from VVER-1000 and RBMK reactors are now being developed and subjected to expert review. Tables 1 and 2 present information on the current capacities of existing industrial facilities to manage spent nuclear fuel, as well as plans for their modernization.
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From page 26... ...
Anticipated results of the targeted program include the development and use of modern technologies for ensuring safe operations with radioactive wastes, the recycling and reliable isolation of wastes, and the creation of radioactive waste burial sites and repositories. Planned activities include the following: · improvement of technologies for managing radioactive wastes at enterprises involved in the nuclear fuel cycle · improvement of technologies for managing radioactive wastes at nuclear power plants · improvement of technologies for managing radioactive wastes accumulated during the production of nuclear materials for weapons purposes · management of radioactive wastes in scientific organizations
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From page 27... ...
With these enterprises, the problems of managing radioactive wastes accumulated during the production of weapons-grade nuclear materials have come to the forefront, including · mothballing and elimination of pulp storage tanks, specialized reservoirs, and test sites for the underground storage of liquid radioactive wastes · cleanup of radiation-contaminated land sites and bodies of water · decontamination of structures, buildings, and equipment The saddest thing here is that these problems, which arose from the military sphere, are viewed by the public as being purely problems of the nuclear power industry and not as a national inheritance created by the well-known conflict that occurred in an ideologically bipolar world. As a result, Minatom truly has already become an environmental agency with its own environmental doctrine.
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From page 28... ...
These conditions must promote · the environmental security of existing production facilities as well as those under construction or being planned and those removed from operation · the resolution of previously accumulated environmental problems · the development and implementation of new economically efficient and environmentally safe technologies in the nuclear power industry and other sectors where nuclear energy is used To provide an example of how the previously listed conditions are being put into practice, I will discuss the existing and potential future technologies for spent fuel reprocessing at Mayak's RT-1 plant. Besides transforming high-level wastes into aluminum-phosphate glass, the plant also carries out the fractionation of nuclides (cesium, strontium, transplutonium elements, and rare earth elements)
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From page 29... ...
Let us act together! I would like to note the need to expand scientific-technical and commercial cooperation among nuclear countries with regard to the management of spent nuclear fuel and radioactive wastes.
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