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Suggested Citation:"A STATEMENT OF WORK." National Research Council. 1996. Nuclear Wastes: Technologies for Separations and Transmutation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/4912.
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APPENDIX A
STATEMENT OF WORK

The National Research Council Board on Radioactive Waste Management, in conjunction with the Board on Chemical Science and Technology and the Energy and Engineering Board, will arrange for the nomination of a multidisciplinary committee of approximately 18 experts in appropriate fields such as nuclear chemical and fuel-cycle engineering, nuclear engineering, separations science, accelerator physics, waste (radioactive and hazardous) disposal technologies, exposure assessment, economics, public policy, regulatory policy/procedures, nuclear reactor safety, and plant operations. The committee will meet approximately four times per year. Meetings will be conducted in accordance with National Research Council meeting procedures.

The committee will initiate its activities by conducting an issue-oriented workshop and will then broadly review the applications of separations and subsequent processing system technologies to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) waste management programs in the context of the National Energy Strategy. Mature technologies will be considered and, in addition, those developed sufficiently to be technically credible. Benefits and detriments to disposal of wastes will be evaluated. The review will emphasize:

  • The extent to which the technologies have been demonstrated and on what scale.

  • The potential benefits and detriments to disposal of high-level radioactive wastes in geologic repositories.

  • The technical, scientific, economic, and regulatory uncertainties associated with those technologies, of foreign and/or domestic origin, that may have been demonstrated to only a limited degree.

  • The time required for technology demonstration and its relationship to repository program timing.

  • The impacts, positive and negative, of technologies on waste arisings over the entire fuel cycle.

The preceding evaluations will involve identification and discussion of the amount and chemical characteristics of the products, including secondary waste streams, of the facilities constructed to enable the technologies to be effectively applied to the waste management system. Mass balances will be developed for all significant materials entering into or deriving from the affected facilities.

The committee will evaluate the probable costs associated with the development of the various technologies through their demonstration stages, and the probable costs of the facilities and operations that would apply the technologies to the waste management system. The

Suggested Citation:"A STATEMENT OF WORK." National Research Council. 1996. Nuclear Wastes: Technologies for Separations and Transmutation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/4912.
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committee will also address other factors that might affect whether facilities applying the technologies reviewed will be constructed and operated.

A final report summarizing the committee's findings in areas reviewed will be prepared 36 months after task approval. Interim reports will be provided as appropriate. All reports will be reviewed and distributed in accordance with standing procedures and policies of the National Research Council. DOE will receive 150 copies of each report; additional copies will be provided to the National Research Council committee members and other parties in accordance with National Research Council policy. Committee reports will be made available to the public without restriction.

June 27, 1991

Suggested Citation:"A STATEMENT OF WORK." National Research Council. 1996. Nuclear Wastes: Technologies for Separations and Transmutation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/4912.
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Page 131
Suggested Citation:"A STATEMENT OF WORK." National Research Council. 1996. Nuclear Wastes: Technologies for Separations and Transmutation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/4912.
×
Page 132
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Nuclear Wastes: Technologies for Separations and Transmutation Get This Book
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Disposal of radioactive waste from nuclear weapons production and power generation has caused public outcry and political consternation. Nuclear Wastes presents a critical review of some waste management and disposal alternatives to the current national policy of direct disposal of light water reactor spent fuel. The book offers clearcut conclusions for what the nation should do today and what solutions should be explored for tomorrow.

The committee examines the currently used "once-through" fuel cycle versus different alternatives of separations and transmutation technology systems, by which hazardous radionuclides are converted to nuclides that are either stable or radioactive with short half-lives. The volume provides detailed findings and conclusions about the status and feasibility of plutonium extraction and more advanced separations technologies, as well as three principal transmutation concepts for commercial reactor spent fuel.

The book discusses nuclear proliferation; the U.S. nuclear regulatory structure; issues of health, safety and transportation; the proposed sale of electrical energy as a means of paying for the transmutation system; and other key issues.

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