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

Response
169
WASTE MANAGEMENT OPERATIONS
The decommissioning information presented in Section 8.0 of the back-up document
(DOE/ET-0028) and summarized in Appendix 0 of the draft Statement, was based on detailed
studies of decommissioning methods, costs and safety performed at PNL for NRC. The informa-
tion presented is in substantial agreement with studies that have been published by NRC (NRC
1978b and NRC 1978c) since the draft Statement was issued. Information from these studies
was modified as required to account for differences between the reference facility descrip-
tions used in the NRC studies and those used in the present Statement and to account for
other differences in study assumptions. It should also be noted that information such as
estimated decommissioning waste volumes are presented in different ways in the NRC studies
than they are in this Statement. For example, waste volumes presented in the Statement
back-up document DOE/ET-00028, Vol 4., Section 8, are volumes prior to treatment and packag-
ing. Both before and after treatment volumes are presented on pages 10.A.71 and 10.A.72 of
Vol. 5. Waste volumes presented in the NRC studies are volumes of packaged waste requir-
ing disposal. These differences make direct comparisons between the NRC studies and this
Statement somewhat confusing but they are not inconsistent.
Draft pp. 1.1, 1.5, 2.1.26
Issue
Repository Construction and Operation
One commenter pointed out that the draft Statement indicates that the quantity of waste
can be directly scaled to the total energy generated during the operating reactor life
cycles. Thus, the 250 GWe case generated 0.64 times as much waste as the 400 GWe case.
From this a reader can conclude that the number of repositories required for the alternative
growth scenarios would be 1/3 less than those required for the 400 GWe scenario. However,
the draft Statement does not provide information on the specific number of repositories
required for the alternative scenario and this is cited as a serious ommission since envi-
ronmental effects vary according to the number of repositories. (43)
Response
The intent of the information presented in the draft Statement was to show that the
number of waste management facilities inculding repositories for the alternative scenario
would be 0.64 times as many as those for the 400 GWe scenario. In the final Statement, the
number of repositories required for 5 different energy scenarios is presented in
Table 7.3.10.