POWER April 2013 - 69

NUCLEAR WASTE POLICY
in electricity generation. HLW has both
long-lived and short-lived components, depending
on how long it will take the radioactivity
of particular radionuclides to fall
to levels considered no longer hazardous
for people and the environment.
Uranium oxide concentrate from mining,
essentially the well-known " yellowcake, "
is considered to be barely more
radioactive than granite used in buildings.
Through refinement and conversion to
uranium hexafluoride gas, it undergoes
enrichment to increase the U-235 content
from less than 1% to about 3.5%. Following
this step, it is turned into a hard ceramic
oxide for assembly as reactor fuel
elements.
The main byproduct of enrichment is
depleted uranium, principally the U-238
isotope. About 1.2 million metric tons of
depleted uranium are now stored. Some is
used in applications where its high density
makes it valuable, such as in the keels of
sailing vessels and military projectiles. It
is also used (with reprocessed plutonium)
to make mixed oxide fuel (MOX) and to
dilute highly enriched uranium from dismantled
weapons for use as reactor fuel.
Waste from Electricity Generation
Highly radioactive fission products and
transuranic elements are produced from
uranium and plutonium during reactor
operations and are contained within the
used fuel. LLW and ILW are produced during
power generation operations (such as
cleaning reactor cooling systems), in fuel
storage ponds, and during decontamination
of equipment, filters, and metal components
that have become radioactive in or
near the reactor.
Storage is handled mostly using ponds
at reactor sites or, occasionally, at a central
site. If the used fuel is reprocessed-as it is
for UK, French, Japanese, and German reactors-HLW
comprises highly radioactive
fission products and some transuranic elements
with long-lived radioactivity. These
are separated from the used fuel, enabling
the uranium and plutonium to be recycled.
The HLW also generates heat and requires
cooling. It is vitrified into borosilicate glass,
encapsulated into stainless steel cylinders
around 4.5 feet high, and stored for eventual
disposal underground. France operates two
commercial plants to vitrify HLW left over
from reprocessing oxide fuel, and there are
plants in the UK and Belgium. The capacity
of these plants is around 2,500 canisters
(about 1,000 metric tons) a year, and some
have been operating for decades.
Used reactor fuel that is not reprocessed
still contains all the highly radioactive isoApril
2013 | POWER
topes, meaning the entire fuel assembly
must be treated as HLW for direct disposal.
However, because it consists largely of uranium
(with some plutonium), it represents
a potentially valuable resource. As a result,
an increasing reluctance exists to dispose
of it permanently. Current thinking is that
after 40 to 50 years the heat and radioactivity
have fallen to around one-thousandth
the level at removal, providing a technical
incentive to delay permanent storage and
find some other use for it.
Recycling Used Fuel
Used fuel still contains some of the original
U-235 as well as plutonium isotopes
that have been formed inside the reactor
core and U-238. These account for
roughly 96% of the original uranium and
more than half of the original energy content.
Reprocessing, which is done in Europe
and Russia, separates this uranium
and plutonium from the wastes for reuse
in a reactor. Plutonium that results from
reprocessing is recycled through a MOX
fabrication plant, where it is mixed with
Fee Dispute Re-ignites
A U.S. Department of Energy review of
the fees charged to nuclear utilities and
their consumers for the nation's nuclear
waste program runs counter to judicial
and congressional intent, state utility
regulators and nuclear utilities claimed
in a filing made in late January with the
U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of
Columbia Circuit. The Nuclear Energy Institute
(NEI) and the National Association
of Regulatory Utility Commissioners
(NARUC) asked the court to temporarily
suspend the fees, calling the Energy Department's
analysis defending the fees
" fundamentally flawed. "
The case involves the 1982 Nuclear
Waste Policy Act, which required the
DOE to enter into contracts with the
nation's nuclear utilities to pay for the
transportation and eventual storage of
their nuclear waste in a central, geological
repository, which became Yucca
Mountain in the Nevada desert. The
contracts are paid for through fees assessed
by the DOE to the nuclear utilities
and their consumers. The Obama
administration in 2009 sought to suspend
the nuclear waste program and an
ongoing review of the Yucca Mountain
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license application. However, Nuclear
Waste Fund fee collection continued
without pause.
After failing to produce a required assessment
of the fees' adequacy, NARUC
and the NEI sued the DOE in 2010. The
case was dismissed after the DOE submitted
a review that said the fees remained
necessary. NARUC and the NEI
successfully challenged this review in
late 2011, and in June 2012, a federal
court ordered the DOE to perform
a thorough and exhaustive assessment
of whether the fees remain necessary.
On Jan. 18, 2013, the DOE filed its response
to the court and again determined
that the fees are necessary.
NARUC and the NEI allege in a brief filed
with the court that the DOE report does not
comply with the court's directions because
it is based on the " speculative belief " that
Congress will adopt a new nuclear waste
strategy. " Until such time as Congress acts,
the key components of DOE's assumed program
have not been approved, " the plaintiffs
said. In late February, the U.S. Court
of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit agreed to
reopen the case, with legal briefs accepted
through mid-July.
69
depleted uranium oxide to make fresh fuel.
European reactors currently use more than
5 metric tons of plutonium a year in fresh
MOX fuel.
Commercial reprocessing plants operate
in France, the UK, and Russia with
a capacity of some 5,000 metric tons a
year. A new reprocessing plant with an
800 metric ton per year capacity is being
constructed at Rokkasho in Japan. France
and the UK also reprocess used fuel for
utilities in other countries. For example,
Japan has made more than 140 shipments
of used fuel to Europe since 1979. Russia
also reprocesses spent fuel from some Soviet-designed
reactors in other countries.
Storage ponds at reactors, and those at
centralized facilities such as in Sweden,
are 20 to 40 feet deep to allow several feet
of water to cover the used fuel, which is in
the form of racked fuel assemblies 12 feet
long and standing on end. These pools are
made of reinforced concrete with steel liners
and often are designed to hold all the
used fuel for the life of a reactor.
Some storage of fuel assemblies that
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POWER April 2013

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