Waste management: licensing and criteria

Waste management is a topic of great importance to industry and the general public, and one that receives a great deal of attention within the regulatory organization. The regulated fuel cycle includes uranium milling, UF6 conversion, fuel fabrication, chemical reprocessing of spent reactor fuel, transportation of nuclear materials, and waste disposal. Management of radioactive waste generated in the nuclear fuel cycle is of particular interest now. A number of policy decisions must be made in the near future and then implemented as regulatory requirements. These decisions must receive public acceptance for safety and protection of environmental values. The main issues pertain to management of high-level waste, management of plutonium bearing waste (including the fuel cladding hulls from reprocessed fuel), stabilization and long-term control of mill tailings, and the application of the "as low as practicable" concept of fuel cycle effluents in light of the current status of technology. Two important studies are presently being carried out by the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission. The first involves the assessment of the environmental effects of utilizing plutonium fuel in light-water reactors; the second is an environmental analysis of the nuclear fuel cycle associated with high-temperature gas-cooled reactor operations. Waste management is significantly represented and evaluated in each of these studies.