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

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Issues<br />

19<br />

FOREIGN WASTES<br />

Several commenters stated that foreign-generated commercial waste:<br />

* Should not be transported to the U.S. (2, 98, 186)<br />

* Should not be accepted if it cannot be properly disposed <strong>of</strong>. (62, 111)<br />

Other commenters also asked who decides on shipment <strong>of</strong> foreign-generated commercial<br />

waste. (63, 186) Another commenter inquired as to whether such waste is presently being<br />

accepted into the U.S. (218-DOI)<br />

Response<br />

This Statement does not advocate a position on the receipt <strong>of</strong> foreign-generated waste.<br />

The decision to receive shipments <strong>of</strong> spent fuel from a foreign nation falls within the<br />

nation's international policy on nuclear fuels. Acceptance <strong>of</strong> foreign-spent fuels is antic-<br />

ipated to be based on one or both <strong>of</strong> the following criteria:<br />

* The country is located in a region where protracted availability <strong>of</strong> spent fuel would<br />

be ill-advised in terms <strong>of</strong> nonproliferation objectives.<br />

* Acceptance <strong>of</strong> the spent fuel would lead to significant nonproliferation gains<br />

(e.g., by encouraging alternatives to developing a national reprocessing capacity<br />

to meet spent fuel disposal needs, by stimulating implementation <strong>of</strong> desirable reg-<br />

ional or international fuel cycle approaches consistent with overall U.S. policy,<br />

or by inducing adherence to the Treaty on the Nonproliferation <strong>of</strong> Nuclear Weapons)<br />

(IRG 1979).<br />

Disposition <strong>of</strong> fuel which was supplied by the U.S. and used for power generation abroad<br />

is presently under the general direction <strong>of</strong> the Departments <strong>of</strong> State and Energy.<br />

At this time, the U.S. is preparing to accept limited quantities <strong>of</strong> spent fuel from<br />

foreign nations.<br />

Issue<br />

(22, 167)<br />

Response<br />

Several commenters suggested discussing existing storage <strong>of</strong> foreign-generated wastes.<br />

The Statement does not address the subject <strong>of</strong> receipt and storage <strong>of</strong> foreign commercial<br />

wastes in detail. The estimation <strong>of</strong> the incremental foreign waste volumes is highly specu-<br />

lative; however, the characteristics <strong>of</strong> waste transported to the U.S. from abroad would not<br />

differ appreciably from domestic wastes. As a result, technical considerations presented<br />

in the Statement would apply to receipt and storage <strong>of</strong> foreign-generated wastes. The docu-<br />

ment DOE/EIS-0015 (DOE 1980b) discusses in more detail the impacts and issues associated<br />

with the receipt <strong>of</strong> foreign spent fuel.

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