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Reprocessing and Recycling Nuclear Waste, by Gus Merwin
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Reprocessing and Recycling Nuclear Waste
Gus MerwinPsc 403 B
There is NO Nuclear “Waste”
In chemical reactions waste is a product that is in the lowest energy state so it offers no further use.
Used Nuclear Fuel Anatomy
The Nuclear Fuel Cycle Dr. Tsoulfanidis’
What is Reprocessing / Recycling
• Reprocessing is the process of removing useful material from used nuclear fuel.
• Recycling is the process of re-burning the “waste” in a reactor.
REPROCESSING/RECYCLING (R&R)
• Electro-refining facilities. ($5 billion??)• MOX fuel fabrication facility ($5 billion or
nothing if we utilize Savannah River, SC)• Vitrification plant ($2 billion??)• Fast neutron reactor
– $15 billion(??) for Pebble Bed with R&Dor
– $10 billion(??) for LMFBRPrices are extremely approximate ± $2-5 billion
Benefits of Reprocessing1. Get the waste out of here
The San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station is 60 miles from down town LA. If its spent fuel pools were attacked death tolls could be in the hundreds of thousands.
2. Don’t pay billions to put it hereBenefits of Reprocessing
By operating the Yucca Mountain repository the government would be paying billions of dollars, to store billions of dollars worth of energy.
http://www.world-nuclear-news.org/newsarticle.aspx?id=24418
8
3. Don’t build more repositoriesNuclear Futures Existing
License Completion
ExtendedLicense
Completion
Continuing Level Energy Generation
Continuing Market Share Generation
Growing Market Share Generation
Cumulative Used Fuel in 2100 (MTHM)
90,000 120,000 250,000 600,000 1,500,000
Existing Reactor Only Existing and New Reactors
Fuel Management Approach Number of Repositories Needed (at 70,000 MT each)Direct Disposal(current policy)
2 2 4 9 22
Direct Disposal withExpanded
Repository Capacity
1 1 2 5 13
Limited Thermal recycle
With Expanded Repository Capacity
1 1 1 3 7
Repeated Combined Thermal and Fast
Recycle
(Requires new reactors)
1 1 1
E. Gonzalez-Romero, Euradwaste’08, Luxembourg, 20-22 OCT 08
Benefits of Reprocessing
4. Burn it!Benefits of Reprocessing
There is more than 57,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel in the Untied States. 97% of that can be used to release enormous amounts of energy in the above, or similar, reactions.
http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/fact-sheets/fs-yucca-license-review.html
Benefits of Reprocessing5. Make the waste not last for 1,000,000 years
With transmutation, an offshoot of reprocessing, the radioactive half-life of the waste can be dropped to less than a few hundred years vs. one million.
J. Bouchard, IEA, Paris 2008
Drawbacks
• PUREX (Plutonium Uranium Extraction) isolates Plutonium. Carter ends reprocessing 1977
• In the United States Reprocessing is not cost effective… unless….
Proliferation
Cost
Flaws in the so called drawbacks“The misuse of civilian nuclear facilities for the production of weapons, although possible, is neither the easiest nor the most efficient way to achieve such an objective.”
-International Nuclear Fuel Cycle Evaluation (INFCE) 1980
Thirty years containment … Failure
India, Pakistan, North Korea,…South Africa, Israel, Iran?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/world/03/nuclear_powers/html/uk.stm, CIEP
• There are also pilot plants in China, Pakistan, and Germany.• China has stated publicly that they will reprocess on an industrial scale by
2025• Every one of these plants operates on the PUREX process which was
invented in the United States in 1947.
Reprocessing across the globe
Raymond G. Wymer, Vanderbilt University, https://smr.inl.gov/Document.ashx?
Private conversation with reprocessing specialist at INL
• Yucca Mountain has already cost $10 billion. $30 billion for completion • The Nuclear Waste Fund ($.001/kWh surcharge on nuclear power) has
accumulated $35.7 billion.
• The cost of catastrophe due to a natural disaster, or terrorist attacks on nuclear fuel storage is a cost that should never have to be calculated.
• We should not be sacrificing national security for economics.
Flaws in the so called drawbacksCost
With these costs factored in, several full scale fuel reprocessing plants could easily be constructed.
NIE “Nuclear Waste Fund Payment Information by State” / DOEhttp://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/fact-sheets/fs-yucca-license-review.html
Pyroprocessing
QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
http://www.anl.gov/Media_Center/Frontiers/2002/d1ee4.html
Pyroprocessing
• Does not isolate Plutonium• Less costly• Higher efficiency than
PUREX, theoretically >99%
• Uses no water
• PUREX proven technology• So far only proven on
engineering scale• Can not be scaled up, many
smaller batches must be employed
• Most suitable for metal fuel• Issues with safeguards
Pros Cons
Recommended next steps
• More funding for R&D of cost effective, proliferation resistant processes for the next 10 years
• Begin construction of reprocessing facility in 10 years
– Pyroprocesing facility
– MOX fabrication facility (Savannah River SC)
– Pebble Bed Fast Neutron Reactor
PBR
• Passive safety features• 15% greater efficiency than water cooled reactor• Requires less water than a standard reactor• Burns actinides (the 3% that last for thousands of years)
Summary• R&R is cost effective
• R&R is safer than long term storage
• R&R Extends fuel supplies ~10,000 years
• R&R Reduces volume of waste
• R&R Reduces lifetime of waste
• R&R Reduces the overall cost
POLICY RECOMENDATION
Reprocess, Recycle and store nuclear waste in Nevada.
Benefits for Nevadans -Massive construction employment 15 years -Continuous operational employment -Surge in technical industries and academic funding for
Nevada universities
As history progresses Uranium prices will go up. Unless we start working towards reprocessing now, our experienced scientists will die out. We will be forced to pay for French or Chinese facilities, or have to store waste for several millennia.
Any Questions?