Closing-up the fuel cycle of Czechoslovak nuclear power plants. I

The problem of closing up the fuel cycle arose in Czechoslovakia after the former Soviet Union stopped taking spent nuclear fuel from Czechoslovakia and made further taking of spent fuel conditional on the fulfillment of enormous economic demands. For reasons of time and finance, this situation cannot be managed by the country's own potential; it is necessary do adopt proven technologies, policies and legislation from abroad. The strategic decision aimed at closing up the fuel cycle must be acceptable from many aspects and must respect the physical composition of the spent fuel, chemical properties of the fission products and the associated retention properties, the technological design of the fuel cycle back end, etc. For this multi-criterion assessment, the characteristics of spent fuel and of radioactive wastes associated with reprocessing are summarized, and the conceptions and technologies used or envisaged for solving the fuel cycle back end are surveyed. (Z.S.). 7 tabs., 4 figs., 3 refs