Nuclear Waste Disposal

While the way in which nuclear waste should be disposed is a volatile issue, one issue that has not been adequately considered is the separation of the spent fuel rods from the commercial reactors from the high-level weapons production-related nuclear waste with respect to disposal of the materials. Currently, policy calls for all nuclear waste to be placed in long-term storage at a geologic storage site.

This research is directed at policy makers in the United States Congress. The thesis of this research is that much of the high-level nuclear waste should converted into plutonium oxide and then fabricated into mixed oxide fuel that can be used in the operation of commercial nuclear reactors. This approach would provide an economic use for the high-level nuclear waste, which would eventually be placed in long-term storage in the form of the less troublesome spent nuclear fuel rods.

In this research, nuclear waste issues related to the operation of both the Hanford Nuclear Reservation and the Savannah River Nuclear Site provide a focus for the investigation. These sit

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r the years, other materials, including flammable and explosive chemicals, were dumped into the tanks. Today, several dozen tanks at Hanford (as well as some at Savannah River) are at some risk of explosion (Schwartz, 1995, pp. 32-51). More than two-thirds of all of the nuclear waste generated by United States Atomic Energy Commission and Department of Energy operations was generated at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation. The chemical process required to extract plutonium from irradiated uranium fuel at Hanford generated millions of gallons of radioactive chemical wastes. Initially, the wastes were simply dumped into natural depressions in the ground or into specially dug trenches. Later, most high-level radioactive wastes were discharged into underground storage tanks, which sit six-to-10 feet below ground near the center of the site, which now spreads over 560 square miles. A total of 149 single-shell, carbon-steel tanks, ranging in capacity from 50,000 to one million gallons, were constructed at Hanford between 1943 and 1964. Twenty-eight double walled tanks, each holding up to a million gallons, were added later (Salveson, 1994, pp. 8-12). The designers of the single-shell tanks gave little thought to future waste manage
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Department Energy, Nuclear Reservation, Nuclear Site, Kramer Barber, Wicks Bickford, Yucca Mountain, Temperatures Tank, United Congress, DISPOSAL Introduction, Policy Act, nuclear waste, spent fuel, fuel rods, department energy, salveson 1994, savannah river, 1993 pp, nuclear weapons, waste disposal, radioactive waste, spent fuel rods, nuclear waste disposal, hanford nuclear reservation, river nuclear site, 1993 pp 73-79,
Approximate Word count = 3820
Approximate Pages = 15 (250 words per page)

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