Nuclear Regulatory Commission says transuranic wastes take much longer to decay and are the most radioactive hazard in
high-level waste after 1,000 years.
But construction stopped on the Pretreatment Facility in 2012 until technical issues related to the
high-level waste can be addressed.
The repository, which will not be used for storing
high-level waste or used nuclear fuel, will have a capacity of 138,200 cubic meters of waste.
Despite what supporters said, opponents pointed to research showing enough risks (from water leakage to limited transportation infrastructure) to believe that Yucca Mountain should never be used to store
high-level waste.
This is especially so as alternatives to storing
high-level waste are hard to find.aDetlef Appel, from PanGeo, also highlighted the benefits of geological disposal, namely the distance between waste and the biosphere as well as the capacity to contain waste.
But the politically critical nexus between reactors and spent fuel disposal has been evident since 1976, when California's approved a referendum that declared that no more nuclear plants could be built in the state until a means for permanent disposal of spent reactor fuel and
high-level waste was achieved.
"This uncertainty in the storage time for canisters presents the potential for significant safety and environmental issues if a system fails to receive relicensing for decommissioned reactor sites that no longer have the ability to move spent nuclear furl and
high-level waste between canisters," the governors write in the letter.
Nine research and review papers consider such aspects as a role for nuclear methods in analyzing ceramic from ancient societies, rapid and automated analytical technologies for radiological and nuclear emergency preparedness, applying centrifugal contactors to partition
high-level waste in China, and binding and structure properties in Monte Carlo simulation for non-isosymmetric nuclei.
Indeed, we know that for any new reactors built, interim stores at the reactor sites will have to contain the
high-level waste arising from nuclear plants for up to 160 years, according to the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, which is responsible for managing the programme to establish the long-term management and disposal of nuclear waste.
For example, DOE has not included some actual expenditures to date or storage costs for
high-level waste canisters.