Evaluation of Treatment Alternatives for Wastes from Both Spent Fuel Rod Consolidation and Miscellaneous Commercial Activities

摘要

Alternative treatments were considered for both existing commercial transuranic wastes and future wastes from spent fuel rod consolidation. Waste treatment was assumed to occur at a hypothetical central treatment facility (a Monitored Retrieval Storage (MRS) facility was used as a reference). Disposal of the waste in a geologic repository was also assumed. The waste form charcteristics, process characteristics, and costs were evaluated for each waste treatment alternative. The evaluation indicated that selection of a high volume reduction alternative can save almost $1 billion in life-cycle costs for the management of transuranic and high-activity wastes from 70,000 MTU of spent fuel compared to the reference MRS waste treatment processes. The supercompaction, arc pyrolysis and melting, and maximum volume reduction alternatives are recommended for further consideration; the latter two are recommended for further testing and demonstration. (ERA citation 11:053590)