High-level waste, disposal

More than 6 billion has been spent on high-level waste disposal. Spent fuel can be deadly for tens of thousands of years. In order to isolate it from the environment, nuclear waste is to be buried deep underground. Nevada s Yucca Mountain has been under consideration for decades and many in the nuclear industry believe that the Clinton administration blocked action on this site to gain support in this area. 

Esh, D. W., Goff, K. M., Hirsche, K. T., Battisti, T. J., Simpson, M. F., Johnson, S. G. Bateman, K. J. 1999. Development of a ceramic waste form for high level waste disposal. Materials Research Society Symposium Proceedings, 556, 107-113. 

Oklo and Bangombe shows that the geological location, the mineralogy of the hosted rocks, and the chemistry of the fluids are important parameters for the preservation of the uranium deposits and of the natural nuclear reactors and that this information could be used to design and select materials for high-level waste disposal. 

Forsberg, C.W. 2000. Rethinking high-level waste disposal Separate disposal of high-heat radionuclides (90Sr and 137Cs).Nucl. Technol. 131 252-268. 

Buffer material for high-level waste disposal is expected as a barrier with groundwater preventive ability, self-sealing ability, adsorption ability, etc. As a buffer material, bentonite has attracted attention because its swelling characteristics are useful for sealing the initial cracks within the buffer material or the initial gaps between the buffer material and the surrounding rock. 

Manowitz, B., and L. P. Hatch Processes for High Level Waste Disposal, Chem. Eng. Progr. Symposium Series, 60(12) 144 (1954). 

There are some such matters, not explicitly mentioned in this Session s programme, which mar the public discussions. It is indispensable to assess their influence on the perspectives of high level waste disposal. 

In democratic societies, public acceptance is a prerequisite for realizing high level waste disposal repositories. Perspectives are accordingly dependent on the outcome of the related public discussions in which anti-nuclear movements play an important role. Sometimes in combination with political parties, such movements have become today a political force which can not be neglected. What they have to say has to be seriously analyzed and it is important to establish a proper dialogue Even with the understandable intention to avoid unnecessary confix ntation, one must not avoid controversial and emotional debates involved. 

OECD/NEA (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development/Nuclear Energy Agency), The cost of high-level waste disposal in geological repositories An analysis of factors affecting cost estimates, Paris (1993). 

The Chairman, in summing up, said that exclusion, exen tion and clearance are concepts on the "easy side" (that is predisposal) of waste management, the difficult side being high level waste disposal. He was therefore surprised that this panel session had attracted so much interest and discussion. 

Section 3). The second group covers some basic technical criteria related to the waste, the repository and the environment (Section 4). Two further criteria are concerned with assurance of compliance of the disposal systems with the safety objectives (Section S). The final sections contain a discussion of the long time-scale aspects of high level waste disposal (Section 6) and a bibliography of important reports in the subject area. The order of presentation of the principles and criteria within the text does not indicate their relative importance. 

Where high level waste disposal could give rise to radiation exposures beyond the frontiers of the country where the disposal takes place, this safety principle has to be applied. 

It has become clear during the development of safety assessments for high level waste disposal that unlikely events described as disruptive processes earlier in this section, and their consequences, should be considered. 

A high level waste disposal system shall be designed in a way that aims at substantially complete isolation of radionuclides for an initial period of time. 

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