Evaluation of Alternative Treatments for Spent Fuel Rod Consolidation Wastes and Other Miscellaneous Commercial Transuranic Wastes

摘要

Eight alternative treatments (and four subalternatives) are considered for both existing commercial transuranic wastes and future wastes from spent fuel consolidation. Waste treatment is assumed to occur at a hypothetical central treatment facility (a Monitored Retrieval Storage facility was used as a reference). Disposal in a geologic repository is also assumed. The cost, process characteristics, and waste form characteristics are evaluated for each waste treatment alternative. The evaluation indicates 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 process. 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 11:040009)