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RADIOACTIVE WASTE MANAGEMENT POLICY IN GERMANY AND THE USA

Germany
USA
Conclusion

reprocessing of spent fuel

In the past nearly all the spent fuel in Germany went to the reprocessing plants in France (La Hague, approximately 80%) and Sellafield (approximately 20%). The waste from reprocessing was supposed to be transported back to Germany and put into interim storages, awaiting its final disposal. A salt dome near Gorleben is under investigation for a final disposal site. 

The current policy of reprocessing will be phased out by 2005, because:

• reprocessing is not economically viable;
• it does not decrease the level of radioactivity of the waste;
• the volume of waste for later disposal becomes even greater after the reprocessing;
• the stockpiles of already extracted and unused Plutonium would increase.

Long-term dry storages at each reactor site are under licensing procedure. The dry storage containers allow for a unmaintained storage time of some decades and are protected against external events such as airplane crashes etc. Long-term storage at the reactor site does not require any transporting of the fuel except for its final conditioning and disposal.  It is expected that these dry storages will require up to five years to begin operating. 
 

final disposal of  high-level radioactive waste

The only site under investigation was the salt dome of Gorleben. The site assessment started in 1978 and was planned to end in 2003.  The aim was to licence that site as a final disposal site for spent fuel and high-level waste.  There has been  much opposition against Gorleben due to its unfavourable geological conditions.  The current position policy is to freeze the site characterisation of that salt dome at least until 2010 and to investigate a number of unresolved issues in final disposal instead.  It is clear that a final disposal site in every case will be necessary, but it requires about 30 years of investigation and should reside in the geologically most favourable site and host rock. 
 

Plutonium disposal

Approximately 40 tons of civil plutonium were separated by reprocessing the german spent fuel and most of it is stored at La Hague and Sellafield. It is clear that this Plutonium has to be treated later for final disposal, because there is no economic incentive to reuse this as a reactor fuel. A new method of treatment has been proposed by ?ko-Institut and is currently favoured by the German government, the so-called storage-rod method. The plutonium is fabricated into fuel rods that will not be used in reactors, but mixed in interim and final storage together with regular spent fuel. The method allows a quicker, cheaper, safer and less waste-producing treatment of the German plutonium than with other methods.
 

General trends in waste management in Germany

- Putting an end to reprocessing;
- Reducing the unnecessary transport of waste;
- Developing of solutions for less dangerous ways for handling the remaining legacy of the slowly dying nuclear industry.
 
 

United States of America

final disposal of  high-level radioactive waste

The proposed final disposal site for high-level radioactive waste in the US is situated in Yucca Mountain, southern Nevada, about 160 km northwest of Las Vegas. It is adjacent to the southwest corner of the Nevada Test Site. The  proposed Yucca Mountain repository site is about 20 km north of U.S. Highway 95, the major north-south highway for western Nevada. 

The latest geological researches of the site at Yucca Mountain reveal that the site is situated in a geologically unstable formation. The earth’s crust at Yucca is less stable than scientists previously had believed and is stretching some ten times faster than expected.  In addition the groundwater there moves faster than previously realized, thus ensuring faster migration of radioactive materials.

If a repository were to be built at Yucca Mountain in Nevada, the earliest date that waste could be accepted is the year 2010.  If an interim storage facility is built at the Nevada test site, as is proposed in current legislation, thousands of truck and train shipments would move dangerous radioactive waste across the country.

Transportation routes would go through as many as 43 states.  There is considerable pressure in Nevada to prohibit transportation of irradiated fuel through the Las Vegas Valley, with a current population of about 1.3 million people, and is the fastest growing population center in the U.S.  Las Vegas is also the center of Nevada’s tourism industry, with more than 40 million visitors each year.  This could force transportation into rural areas of Nevada where the highways generally run through the center of small cities and towns, very close to schools, hospitals, businesses, and homes.  The rural highways also cross steep mountain passes that are particularly dangerous during winter snowstorms.

Various estimates are available for the costs of cleaning up accidents when irradiated fuel escapes damaged transport casks.  In rural areas the costs are on the order of tens of millions of dollars.  In Las Vegas it would be in the tens of billions of dollars.
 

Conclusion

Nuclear power was a technology borne out of the cold war.  Machines designed to build bombs and propel submarines were converted to produce electricity.  As we leave the 20th century and the second millennium, nuclear power is slowly but surely dying out.  The inability of nuclear power to survive the market test has become, along with its environmental and social impacts, another reason for its global rejection. However, there are regions in the world where nuclear power plants are still being built, regions where democratic structures are weaker and ideology still takes precedence over the rights of citizens and the market.  In these regions, like Central an Eastern Europe and the Newly Independent States, the Western industry is desperate to sell its technologies, knowing that these orders may offer a lifeline in an otherwise bleak future.  The public and the politicians in these regions would be well advised to take note of the nuclear industry’s failures in their home markets, reject this third rate technology and concentrate their efforts and investments on energy efficiency and renewable energy sources.