Nuclear Back End And Transmutation Technology For Waste Disposal

This book covers essential aspects of transmutation technologies, highlighting especially the advances in Japan. The accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) has caused us to focus attention on a large amount of spent nuclear fuels stored in NPPs. In addition, public anxiety regarding the treatment and disposal of high-level radioactive wastes that require long-term control is growing. The Japanese policy on the back-end of the nuclear fuel cycle is still unpredictable in the aftermath of the accident. Therefore, research and development for enhancing the safety of various processes involved in nuclear energy production are being actively pursued worldwide. In particular, nuclear transmutation technology has been drawing significant attention after the accident. This publication is timely with the following highlights: 1) Development of accelerator-driven systems (ADSs), which is a brand-new reactor concept for transmutation of highly radioactive wastes; 2) Nuclear reactor systems from the point of view of the nuclear fuel cycle. How to reduce nuclear wastes or how to treat them including the debris from TEPCO’s Fukushima nuclear power stations is discussed; and 3) Environmental radioactivity, radioactive waste treatment and geological disposal policy. State-of-the-art technologies for overall back-end issues of the nuclear fuel cycle as well as the technologies of transmutation are presented here. The chapter authors are actively involved in the development of ADSs and transmutation-related technologies. The future of the back-end issues in Japan is very uncertain after the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi NPP and this book provides an opportunity for readers to consider the future direction of those issues.

Disposal of radioactive waste from nuclear weapons production and power generation has caused public outcry and political consternation. Nuclear Wastes presents a critical review of some waste management and disposal alternatives to the current national policy of direct disposal of light water reactor spent fuel. The book offers clearcut conclusions for what the nation should do today and what solutions should be explored for tomorrow. The committee examines the currently used "once-through" fuel cycle versus different alternatives of separations and transmutation technology systems, by which hazardous radionuclides are converted to nuclides that are either stable or radioactive with short half-lives. The volume provides detailed findings and conclusions about the status and feasibility of plutonium extraction and more advanced separations technologies, as well as three principal transmutation concepts for commercial reactor spent fuel. The book discusses nuclear proliferation; the U.S. nuclear regulatory structure; issues of health, safety and transportation; the proposed sale of electrical energy as a means of paying for the transmutation system; and other key issues.

Waste management at the back end of the nuclear fuel cycle comprises the various activities involved in the handling of the spent fuel once it has left the reactor. The purpose of the minimization of radioactive waste is threefold: (a) to reduce the risks of radiation exposure of technical personnel as well as of the public; (b) to reduce contamination of the environment; and (c) to reduce overall costs by reducing the repository space required for final waste disposal. Waste minimization has become a major part of waste management policies.

This volume carefully describes the nature of radioactivity and of nuclear power and discusses in detail the management of radioactive waste by the multi-barrier system, but also takes an unusual approach to assessing the risks. Using knowledge of the chemical properties of the various radionuclides in spent fuel, this book follows each of the important radionuclides as it travels through the many barriers placed in its path. It turns out that only two radionuclides are able to reach the biosphere, and they arrive at the earth's surface only after many thousands of years. A careful analysis of the critical points of the disposal plant emphasizes site rejection criteria and other stages at which particular care must be taken, demonstrating how dangers can be anticipated and putting to rest the fear of nuclear fuel waste and its geological burial.

The separation of radioactive waste materials into their chemical components is at the heart of all efforts to reduce the volume of nuclear waste. In Chemical Separations in Nuclear Waste Management: The State of the Art and a Look to the Future, the authors discuss the present state and possible future directions of separations science and technology. The book presents an overview of the environmental legacy from nuclear weapons production in the United States and the former Soviet Union, the magnitude of the cleanup efforts that are underway in both countries, and the pivotal role played in these efforts by separations science. Needs that are specific to the future development of separations science and technology are emphasized. Contents:1. Overview of Chemical Separation Methods. II. The Environmental Legacy of the Cold War: Site Cleanup in the United States. III. Environmental Impacts of Separation Technologies in Russia. IV. Non-Aqueous Separation Methods. V. U.S.-Russian Cooperative Program in Research and Development of Chemical Separation Technologies. VI. Radiation Protection Aspects of Nuclear Waste Separations. VII. Accelerator-Driven Transmutation Technologies for Nuclear Waste Treatment.