Correlation of radioactive waste treatment costs and the environmental impact of waste effluents in the nuclear fuel cycle for use in establishing ''as low as practicable'' guides: fabrication of light-water reactor fuel from enriched uranium dioxide

A cost-benefit study was made to determine the cost and effectiveness of radioactive waste (radwaste) treatment systems for decreasing the release of radioactive materials from a model enriched-uranium, light-water reactor (LWR) fuel fabrication plant, and to determine the radiological impact (dose commitment) of the released materials on the environment. The study is designed to assist in defining the term ''as low as practicable'' in relation to limiting the release of radioactive materials from nuclear facilities. The base case model plant is representative of current plant technology and has an annual capacity of 1500 metric tons of LWR fuel. Additional radwaste treatment equipment is added to the base case plants in a series of case studies to decrease the amounts of radioactive materials released and to reduce the radiological dose commitment to the population in the surrounding area. The cost for the added waste treatment operations and the corresponding dose commitment are calculated for each case. In the final analysis, radiological dose is plotted vs the annual cost for treatment of the radwastes. The status of the radwaste treatment methods used in the case studies is discussed. Some of the technology used in the advanced cases is in an early stage of development and is not suitable for immediate use. The methodology used in estimating the costs and the radiological doses, detailed calculations, and tabulations are presented in Appendix A and ORNL-4992. (U.S.)