IMPACTS OF INDEFINITELY DEFERRING A PERMANENT DISPOSAL DECISION FOR TRANSURANIC AND HIGH-LEVEL WASTES

摘要

There is general consensus in the scientific community that transuranic (TRU) and high-level wastes (HLW), with high activity and long-lived radionuclides, can be safely disposed of in deep geologic repositories. Yet, very few countries at this time have an established repository program for managing these wastes, with temporary storage at generating facilities (including nuclear power plants) being the default and preferred management path. With the suspicion, fear, and complexity associated with anything "nuclear," stakeholder consensus in any given country has been difficult to achieve even as technical progress is being made at different levels. In the U.S., after navigating decades of political, scientific, legal, and administrative hurdles, the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant repository opened for the permanent disposal of TRU waste in 1999. Yucca Mountain in Nevada was designated as the site for the disposal of spent fuel and HLW in 2003, with a license application expected to be submitted to the regulators in the near future. In other countries, disposal decisions have ranged from cautious site selection with a staged disposal approach requiring waste retrievability over a period of time to outright deferment of any permanent disposal solution. Some countries have had false starts with repository projects that have had technical merit and a reasonable chance of being successful in the long run and have gone back to the drawing board in favor of developing a path forward for a solution that is accepted by all stakeholders. One of the key impacts of not defining a solution to the nuclear waste issue is the perception that the nuclear waste disposal issue is a quagmire with no path forward, which in turn may negatively impact further exploration of nuclear power as a future energy option. Several recent studies, including findings from the International Atomic Energy Agency, have identified the need for countries to develop focused and realistic programs for addressing the nuclear waste issue. Based on the repository program experience from the U.S., this paper discusses the impacts of deferring the search for a solution for the nuclear waste issue. A finite temporal window currently exists for any given country to address this issue. The activities and progress made within this timeframe will impact the ultimate options for nuclear waste disposition as well as nuclear power.