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Article

Nuclear Waste Disposal: The Technical Challenges

JUN 01, 1997
Public safety and billions of taxpayer dollars are at stake in the efforts to solve formidable technical problems associated with the disposal of spent nuclear fuel and defense waste.
Kevin D. Crowley

In this sixth decade of the nuclear age, the US and many other nations face daunting technical challenges to the disposal of nuclear waste. There are many contributing factors, not the least of which are the sheer volumes of waste and the great number of chemical and physical forms in which it exists at defense and civilian sites both here and abroad. (See figure 1, for example, and see also John Ahearne’s article on page 24.)

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References

  1. 1. Department of Energy, Office of Environmental Management, The 1996 Baseline Environmental Management Report (3 vols.), Washington, DC (1996).

  2. 2. Department of Energy, Office of Environmental Management, Closing the Circle on the Splitting of the Atom, Washington, DC (1995).

  3. 3. Department of Energy, Yucca Mountain Site Characterization Office, Highlights of the US Department of Energy’s Updated Waste Containment and Isolation Strategy for the Yucca Mountain Site (draft), Las Vegas, Nev. (1996).

  4. 4. TRW Environmental Safety Systems Inc, Total System Performance Assessment—1995: An Evaluation of the Potential Yucca Mountain Repository, Las Vegas, Nev. (1995).

  5. 5. S. S. Levy, D. S. Sweetkind, J. T. Fabryka‐Martin, P. R. Dixon, J. L. Roach, L. E. Wolfsberg, D. Elmore, P. Sharma, Investigations of Structural Controls and Mineralogic Associations of Chlorine‐36 Fast Pathways in the ESF, Milestone Report SP2301M4, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, N. Mex. (1997).

  6. 6. R. E. Gephart, R. E. Lundgren, Hanford Tank Cleanup: A Guide to Understanding the Technical Issues, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, Wash. (1997).

  7. 7. Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Integrated Data Base Report—1995: U.S. Spent Fuel and Radioactive Waste Inventories, Projections, and Characteristics, Oak Ridge, Tenn. (1996).

  8. 8. Department of Energy, Office of Environmental Management, Radioactive Tank Waste Remediation Focus Area, Technology Summary, Washington, DC (1996).

  9. 9. Department of Energy and Washington State Department of Ecology, Tank Waste Remediation System, Hanford Site, Richland, Washington—Final Environmental Impact Statement, Richland, Washington (1996).

  10. 10. Department of Energy, Office of Waste Management, High‐Level Waste Borosilicate Glass. A. Compendium of Corrosion Characteristics (3 vols.), Washington, DC (1994).

  11. 11. W. Lutze, R. C. Ewing, eds., Radioactive Waste Forms for the Future, North Holland, New York (1988).
    National Research Council, Glass as a Waste Form and Vitrification Technology, National Academy P., Washington, DC (1996).

  12. 12. Department of Energy, Office of Environmental Management, Subsurface Contaminants Focus Area, Technology Summary, Washington, DC (1996).

  13. 13. R. E. Hinchee, ed., Proceedings of the Third International in Situ and On‐Site Bioreclamation Symposium (11 vols.), Battelle P., Columbus, Ohio (1995).

  14. 14. National Research Council, Nuclear Wastes: Technologies for Separations and Transmutation, National Academy P., Washington, DC (1996).

More about the authors

Kevin D. Crowley, National Research Council, Washington, DC.

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Volume 50, Number 6

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