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

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143<br />

WASTE MANAGEMENT OPERATIONS<br />

combination with Table A.16 and similar tables account for all <strong>of</strong> the radionuclides in the<br />

waste that have half-lives longer than a few weeks. While there are many more radionuclides<br />

that are initially present in spent fuel, many <strong>of</strong> those that are initially present have very<br />

short half-lives (measured in seconds and minutes) and are not important in terms <strong>of</strong> long-<br />

term waste disposal. The calculations carried out in support <strong>of</strong> this Statement considered<br />

175 separate radionuclides. Not all <strong>of</strong> these were found to be significant in regard to dis-<br />

posal requirements. The tables in Appendix A identify quantities <strong>of</strong> 55 fission and activa-<br />

tion products and 65 actinides and daughter actinides which for practical purposes are<br />

believed to account for all <strong>of</strong> the radioactivity in the disposal repositories. The detailed<br />

radioactivity Tables for the final Statement can be found in Appendix Tables A.2.1a-A.3.9b.<br />

Draft p. A.17<br />

Issue<br />

Although not implicitly stated, it appears that the inventory values in Table A.14 were<br />

based on a charge <strong>of</strong> 3.8 x 105 MTHM. However, the mass associated with the 23 2 Th (+2 daugh-<br />

ters) given in the 1,000,000 year column is 5.8 x 106 MT. There is an obvious error in the<br />

program used to generate this table. This single, obvious error brings into question all<br />

output generated by the computer program which was used to generate Table A.14. (208-NRC)<br />

Response<br />

The value for 232Th is 1.91 x 10 Ci for t = 106 years. This error was not due<br />

to computer error but was a typographical error.<br />

Issue<br />

It would be helpful to summarize the important general characteristics <strong>of</strong> nuclear<br />

wastes. (6)<br />

Response<br />

The characteristics <strong>of</strong> nuclear wastes <strong>of</strong> concern to this Statement are now summarized<br />

in Table 4.2.1.<br />

Issue<br />

Popular misconceptions combine the short-term heat and high-level radiation properties<br />

<strong>of</strong> short half-life fission products with the long half-life <strong>of</strong> TRU wastes. Correct the mis-<br />

understanding by providing in the Summary a graphic representation <strong>of</strong> the decay <strong>of</strong> these<br />

properties with time. (13)

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