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

5.97
TABLE 5.6.2. Decommissioning Costs for Spent Fuel
and Reprocessing-Waste Repositories
millions of dollars
Repository Spent Fuel Reprocessing-Waste
Media Repository Repository
Salt 50 55
Granite 50 54
Shale 50 54
Basalt 50 55
5.6.4 Unit Costs
Levelized unit costs are calculated charges per unit of production sufficient to
recover all construction costs, including interest, and to pay all operating and decommis-
sioning costs. For this study, the weighted cost of capital for the Federal government is
assumed to be 7% but a range of 0 to 10% was utilized to develop uncertainty estimates.
Additional information on the calculation of unit costs can be found in DOE/ET-0028, Vol. 1,
Section 3.8.5.
The levelized unit costs for waste isolation in geologic repositories, based on the
conceptual repositories used in this Statement, are shown in the last column of Table 5.6.1.
These costs are expressed in dollars per kilogram of heavy metal of isolated spent fuel for
spent fuel repositories or in dollars per kilogram of heavy metal reprocessed for
reprocessing-waste repositories. Isolation in salt repositories costs significantly less
than isolation in any other medium for either waste type with the exception of isolating
spent fuel in shale. Shale is the next least expensive medium for disposing of either spent
fuel or reprocessing cycle wastes. Granite is the next least expensive and basalt is the
most expensive medium for isolating wastes. Unit cost differences between repositories
storing spent fuel and repositories storing reprocessing waste (in the same geologic medium)
do not appear to be significant, with the possible exception of repositories in shale.
Because of the preliminary nature of the conceptual designs, uncertainty in the mining pro-
cedures and in the cost of money, the overall uncertainty in the total unit cost estimates
is estimated to be +50%.
A breakdown of the unit costs for waste disposal by waste type for the reprocessing
cycle wastes is shown in Table 5.6.3 for each of the four geologic media considered here.
TABLE 5.6.3. Unit Costs by Waste Type and Geologic Media
$/kgHM
Waste Type Salt Granite Shale Basalt
HLW 24 39 41 51
RH-TRU Canisters 3 5 4 5
RH-TRU Drums 18 29 24 32
CH TRU 2 4 4 5
Total 47 77 73 93