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

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Draft pp. 1.7 and 2.1.2<br />

Issue<br />

139.<br />

WASTE MANAGEMENT OPERATIONS<br />

Reactor Operations<br />

Several commenters noted that the assumed reactor performance characteristics assumed<br />

(40 year life and installed generating capacity) are difficult to justify in view <strong>of</strong> exper-<br />

ience to date. (2, 40, 62, 181)<br />

Response<br />

With regard to reactor performance, DOE agrees that the operating experience with nuc-<br />

lear plants is not yet sufficient to predict their life-time performance characteristics<br />

with great accuracy. However, for purposes <strong>of</strong> the analysis <strong>of</strong> waste management, present<br />

assumptions are representative and considered adequate to predict potential effects.<br />

Draft p. 2.1.2<br />

Issue<br />

The impacts <strong>of</strong> an incorrect assumption regarding nuclear power plant performance<br />

degradation should be assessed in terms <strong>of</strong> how much less waste would be generated. (147)<br />

Response<br />

An analysis <strong>of</strong> five different nuclear power growth scenarios is provided in Chap-<br />

ter 7.0 <strong>of</strong> the final Statement. This chapter provides information on total energy generated<br />

for each growth scenario in terms <strong>of</strong> GWe-years and also the total quantities <strong>of</strong> waste gener-<br />

ated. If plant performance is or is not degraded, the amount <strong>of</strong> waste generated will be<br />

proportional to the reduced or increased energy generation in each case.<br />

Draft p. 2.1.10<br />

Issue<br />

A burnup <strong>of</strong> 29,000 MWD/MTHM is low given that utilities are being given permission to<br />

use burnup to 58,000 MWD/MTHM. (55)<br />

Response<br />

If an average burnup higher than 29,000 MWD/MTHM is achieved, it will reduce the quan-<br />

tity <strong>of</strong> spent fuel. However, the total fission product activity would change very little<br />

while the actinide activity would increase as in the fuel recycle cases considered in this<br />

Statement. Thus, the waste disposal requirements arising from using fuel to higher burnup<br />

levels are within the envelope <strong>of</strong> the analyses presented in this Statement.

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