Management of Commercially Generated Radioactive Waste - U.S. ...

I.I
APPENDIX I
COMPARISON OF DEFENSE PROGRAM WASTE TO COMMERCIAL RADIOACTIVE WASTE
Repositories for commercial high-level and TRU wastes may also be used for disposal of
defense program wastes.(a) This appendix provides a comparison of defense program radio-
active wastes with commercial radioactive wastes. These comparisons indicate that both the
HLW and the TRU defense-program wastes could be accommodated in repositories designed for
disposal of commercial wastes with comparable environmental impact.
I.1 HIGH-LEVEL WASTE COMPARISONS
The waste quantities and radionuclide contents of defense program and commercial high-
level wastes (HLW) are compared in Table I.1.1. The estimated quantities of defense program
high-level waste are based on the assumption that waste forms having a 25% loading of waste
oxides are encapsulated in 0.6-m x 3-m (2-ft x 10-ft) canisters that are filled to 80% of
capacity. The commercial HLW is assumed to be contained in canisters that are 3 m (10 ft)
long with diameters up to 0.3 m (1 ft). The quantity of commercial HLW in individual can-
isters is adjusted, either by dilution or by varying canister diameter, to meet the allow-
able heat output imposed by the disposal syst'n. The radionuclide content and heat output
of individual defense program HLW canisters is a factor of 5 to 10 or more below that of the
commercial HLW canisters. The radionuclide content in the defense program HLW canisters
relative to the commercial HLW canisters ranges from about the same magnitude for plutonium
to orders of magnitude less for some of the other nuclides.
(a) President Carter, Feb. 12, 1980.