Nuclear fuel reprocessing units

As of 1995, there were no nuclear fuel reprocessing plants operating in the United States. Other nuclear nations have constmcted second- or third-generation reprocessing faciUties. These nations have signed the nuclear nonproliferation treaty, and the faciUties are under the purview of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). 

Environmental Fate. The environmental fate of americium has been extensively studied in relation to its introduction into the Irish Sea from the BNFL nuclear fuel reprocessing plant at Sellafield, United Kingdom (Belot et al. 1982 Bennett 1976 Bunzl et al. 1994, 1995 Malcolm et al. 1990 McCartney et al. 1994 McKay et al. 1994a Murray et al. 1978, 1979 Pattenden and McKay 1994 Walker et al. 1986). 

Although this has been shown to occur in experimental animals after exposure of males to foreign compounds such as cyclophosphamide, there is only inconclusive evidence that this occurs in humans. Thus, studies of exposure of human males to vinyl chloride, dibromo-chloropropane, and anesthetic gases, for example, have revealed only equivocal evidence of developmental toxicity in the offspring. There now seems to be some evidence that the leukemia occurring in children, which appears to be clustered around nuclear fuel-reprocessing plants such as Sellafield in the United Kingdom, may be due to paternal exposure to radiation. 

There now seems to be some evidence that the leukaemia occurring in children, which appears to be clustered around nuclear fuel reprocessing plants such as Sellafield in the United Kingdom, may be due to paternal exposure to radiation. 

In most of the literature concerning nuclear fuel reprocessing releases, amounts (both releases and ensuing environmental concentrations) are expressed in activity units. The SI unit for activity is the becquerel (Bq), which replaced the previously common curie... 

The second section is devoted to the nuclear fuel cycle and also facilities processes related to the lifecycle of nuclear systems. The fuel cycle begins with the extraction or mining of uranium ores and follows the material through the various processing steps before it enters the reactor and after it is removed from the reactor core. This section includes nuclear fuel reprocessing, even though it is not currently practiced in the United States, and also describes the decommissioning process that comes at the end of life for nuclear facilities. A separate chapter discusses the fuel cycles that can be used when the reactor fuel is reprocessed. 

A lthough the levels of plutonium in environmental waters are generally - low, there is the possibility of plutonium contamination from weapons testing, nuclear reactor operations, laundry and decontamination wastes, fuel reprocessing, and accidental release during transportation. It has been estimated that by 1980 the United States will be producing 15,000-20,000 kg. of plutonium per year (12). Its growing use will increase the probability of environmental contamination. 

The classification system for nuclear fuel-cycle wastes in the United States can be characterized in the following way. First, as a consequence of the definition of high-level waste as waste from fuel reprocessing, all waste classes, including mill tailings, are defined based essentially on the source of the waste, rather than its radiological properties, and most of the definitions are not explicit in regard... 

Deficiencies in the Radioactive Waste Classification System. The classification system for radioactive waste in the United States summarized in Table 1.1 is based primarily on the earliest descriptions of different classes of waste that arises from chemical reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel and subsequent processing of nuclear materials that were developed beginning in the late 1950s. These wastes were considered to be the most important in regard to potential radiological impacts on workers. 

Second, high-level waste as defined in the United States includes only the primary waste from reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel. In IAEA s classification system, any waste from sources other than fuel reprocessing with similar radiological properties would be included in high-level waste. 

Nuclear power plants in the United States use light water moderated nuclear reactors (LWR) that produce the steam to generate electricity. The fuel elements for boiling water reactors and pressurized water reactors (PWR) are nearly the same. The fuel is uranium dioxide enriched with 3 % and this produces a nearly uniform spent fuel, which would be the feed for domestic fuel reprocessing. 

---