Going the Distance? The Safe Transport of Spent Nuclear Fuel and High-Level Radioactive Waste in the United States (2006) / Chapter Skim
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1 Introduction
1 Introduction
Pages 25-54
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were to identify key current and future technical and societal concerns about the transportation of spent fuel and high-level waste in the United States and technical and policy options for addressing those concerns and managing transportation risks. This study also examined the selection of highway and rail routes for shipping research reactor spent fuel between U.S.
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3. What are likely to be the key principal technical and societal concerns for radioactive waste transportation in the future, especially over the next two de cades?
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: (i) Proximity of routes to major population centers and the risks associated with shipments of spent nuclear fuel from research nuclear reactors through dense ly populated areas.
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The committee also visited Yucca Mountain and some of the potential highway and rail routes within Nevada. Subgroups of the committee visited a spent fuel storage facility at an operating nuclear power plant (Exelon Nuclear Corporation's Dresden Plant in Chicago)
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It was presented with a range of views about the safety and security5 of spent fuel transportation in the United States and -- although it was not within the purview of the study -- about the desirability of a federal repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, or a centralized interim storage facility in Utah. It quickly became clear to the committee that there are many individuals and groups with strongly held "pro" and "anti" positions on issues related to nuclear technology, and that some of these positions are expressed in terms of support for or opposition to the transport of spent fuel and high-level waste.
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Programs for transporting spent fuel and high-level waste for interim storage or permanent disposal represent the "back ends" of much larger technological systems: Commercial spent fuel transport represents the back end of the nuclear electric power generation system of the United States, whose needs, benefits, and risks are the subject of controversy for some members of the public; research reactor spent fuel transport represents the back end of systems that generate scientific and medical benefits for U.S. society; and defense spent fuel and high-level waste transport represents the back end of systems that generated plutonium for national defense.
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The committee concluded that while such an analysis would be a useful contribution to the policy process, it could not be carried out in the abstract but would have to examine real scenarios. Instead, the committee operated within the constraints of federal policy decisions, beginning with the Nuclear Waste Policy Act as described in Section 1.3.2, which set the nation on a clear path to transport spent fuel and high-level waste for permanent disposal.
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. current plans, high-level waste will be transported to the federal repository in the same types of packages used to transport commercial spent fuel, but high-level waste shipments will comprise fewer than 20 percent of the total planned number of shipments to the federal repository at Yucca Mountain under the "mostly rail" option now favored by DOE (see Table 3.8)
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Hanford WA Site ME ND Idaho National West Valley MN Laboratory Demonstration OR MT VT NH WI Project NY ID SD MA WY MI RI NJ CT PA Private Fuel IA NE Storage NV MD OH DE Yucca IN UT Moutain WV CO IL KS VA KY MO CA NC TN OK AZ NM AR SC GA MS AL Savannah LA River Site TX FL FIGURE 1.1 Continues 33
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34 Yucca Moutain Private Fuel Storage
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Private Fuel Storage Yucca Moutain FIGURE 1.1 Top: Locations of current spent fuel and high-level waste storage sites, Yucca Mountain, and Private Fuel Storage. 35 Middle: National railroad transportation grid.
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High-level radioactive waste is the liquid by-product of the first stage of chemical reprocessing of spent fuel. Civilian reprocessing of commercial spent fuel is used to recover the uranium and plutonium in the spent fuel for recycling into fresh fuel.a Repro cessing of fuel from defense production reactors was used to recover plutonium for use in nuclear weapons.
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in diameter, 10 feet (3 meters) long, and weighs about 2 metric tons.
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While the committee could not examine transportation security in this report, it judged that this issue could be addressed in a substantive fashion by a future committee if it is given unrestricted access to the classified literature on this topic. 1.3 BACKGROUND ON SPENT FUEL AND HIGH-LEVEL WASTE Spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste (Sidebar 1.3)
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. Current national policy, which is embodied in the Nuclear Waste Policy Act (NWPA; see Section 1.3.2)
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Commercial power reactors were designed to meet stringent siting criteria that permitted their construction near power consumers, an important requirement in the 1960s and 1970s because of technology limitations on electric power transmission distances.10 Metropolitan sprawl over the past four decades has greatly increased population densities around many commercial nuclear power plants, especially in the eastern and midwestern United States. It has also increased population densities along highways and rail routes, many of which are linked through major cities.
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Lacking a near-term disposal option, power plant operators were forced to make provisions for interim storage of spent fuel at plant sites. By the late 1970s, spent fuel pools at the oldest operating commercial nuclear power plants were approaching their design storage capacities.
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When a spent fuel pool reaches its storage capacity, the older fuel in the pool may be moved to other pools or placed into dry casks, as shown in the figure. These casks are typically constructed of steel and concrete and are designed to be placed outdoors on reinforced concrete storage pads at reactor sites.
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If constructed, this facility could store up to 40,000 metric tons of commercial spent fuel from multiple power plants. A license application for this facility was submitted to the USNRC in 1997.
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Under current U.S. policy, all of this spent fuel will continue to be stored at power plant sites or at a centralized storage facility such as Private Fuel Storage, LLC, until it can be transported to a federal repository for permanent disposal.
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Domestic research reactor spent fuel is being shipped to Savannah River and Idaho by reactor operators. Additional details on this program are provided in Chapter 4.
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In 1987, Congress amended the Nuclear Waste Policy Act. This amended act directed DOE to terminate its characterization activities at all sites except Yucca Mountain.
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The President forwarded the recommendation to Congress, which in July 2002 -- and over the objections of Nevada -- authorized DOE to submit an application to the USNRC for a license to construct and TABLE 1.2 Spent Fuel and High-Level Waste Disposal at Yucca Mountain Quantitya Material Number of Shipping Sites Commercial spent fuel 29,000 cubic meters 73 (72 commercial power 63,000 MTHM b plant sites and one commercial storage facility) Defense spent fuel and 7000 MTHM From sites shown below high-level waste Naval spent fuel 900 cubic meters 1 (INL)
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Settlement costs for the entire nuclear industry could cost taxpayers27 billions of dollars. DOE is under pressure from the nuclear industry and Congress to move forward with Yucca Mountain or establish one or more centralized interim storage sites to reduce the growing spent fuel inventories at commercial power plant sites as well as the federal government's future monetary liabilities.
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This agency has transported foreign research reactor spent fuel, DOE research reactor spent fuel, naval spent fuel, and commercial spent fuel from some shut-down power reactors (e.g., Three Mile Island Unit 2) to centralized interim storage sites in South Carolina and Idaho.
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This MOU gives USNRC the primary responsibility, in consultation with DOT, for the development of standards and regulations for the design, performance, and inspection of transportation packages for fissile materials, which include spent fuel and high-level waste. USNRC also has the primary responsibility for approval of domestic and foreign package designs used to transport spent fuel solely within the United States.31 The MOU recognizes the USNRC's responsibility for imposing DOT regulations and conducting inspection activities for shipments of spent fuel by its licensees.
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(AEA, NWPA) Foreign Commercial Research Commercial Research Naval Reactors a Reactors Reactors Reactors Reactors Package USNRC USNRC USNRC DOE and DOE and USNRCb USNRCb approvals and inspections Highway route DOT DOT DOT DOT DOT selection criteriac DOTd Carrier safety DOT, states DOT, states DOT, states DOT, states Emergency Federal, Federal, Federal, Federal, Federal, response state, tribal, state, tribal, state, tribal, state, tribal, state, tribal, and local and local and local and local and local governments governments governments governments governments Route security USNRC USNRC DOE DOE and DOE USNRCe approval Physical USNRC USNRC DOE and DOE DOE U S N R Cf protection NOTE: AEA = Atomic Energy Act; NWPA = Nuclear Waste Policy Act.
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States can also require carriers to obtain special permits to operate these vehicles and 32The Atomic Energy Act gives the USNRC the authority to issue licenses to private and government (except DOE) organizations to possess radioactive materials, conduct operations involving the emission of radiation, and dispose of radioactive waste.
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DOT has determined that state requirements for special permits for highway shipments of radioactive materials are preempted if they require documentation or prenotification in excess of federal requirements. DOT also has determined that state fees imposed on hazardous materials transport are preempted if they are excessive or if the revenue is not used for purposes related to hazardous materials transport.
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Key Terms
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