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

6.79
In each case, only those costs associated with and peculiar to subseabed disposal are ad-
dressed. Facilities common to all disposal options under consideration, such as transporta-
tion and geologic repository facilities, are not specifically addressed.
Capital Costs
The capital costs for the subseabed disposal alternative are categorized as follows.
Seaport Interim Storage Facility. This installation would provide receiving facilities
for 5,000 MTHM/yr of spent fuel assemblies in 10,200 canisters. It would also be designed to
provide interim storage for 5,000 canisters (2,500 MTHM). The same facility would receive
the HLW and hulls from a 5,000 MTHM/yr fuel recycling system. Interim storage would be pro-
vided for 3,100 of these canisters at the port facility.
The seaport interim storage facility would be similar to a packaged fuel receiving and
interim storage facility (Bechtel 1977) appropriately adjusted for size and waste form. The
capital cost estimates are $240 million for the spent fuel case and $190 million for the HLW
case.
Port Facility. The port facilities for both disposal cases are assumed to be identical
for cost estimating purposes. The capital cost estimate is based on a recent estimate of an-
other facility (Bechtel 1979a). The estimate for this port is $24 million.
Disposal Ships. The two disposal ships for the spent fuel case would have a capacity of
1,275 canisters each, while those for the HLW case would have a capacity of 775 canisters
each. Since the canister capacity difference would be offset by the heat load and cooling
requirement difference, the ships are assumed to be identical for estimating purposes.
The capital cost estimate of the ships is based on an estimate for a mining ship (Global
Marine Developnent, Inc. 1979) appropriately adjusted. The estimated capital cost of the two
disposal ships is $310 million ($155 million each). Note however that sophisticated off-
shore oil well drilling ships have been reported to cost between $50 million and $70 million
each (Compass Publications 1980) or about half the above estimate.
Monitoring Ship. The capital cost for the monitoring ship was estimated from available
data for oceanographic vessels. The estimate is $3.0 million for the ship and an additional
$0.9 million for navigation and control, special electronics, and other surveillance equip-
ment and for owner's costs. This brings the total capital cost to $3.9 million (Treadwell
and Keller 1978).
Operating Costs
Operating costs for the subseabed disposal concept are estimated on a per year basis
based on 5,000 MTHM/yr of both waste forms (spent fuel and HLW). This would result in vir-
tually the same sea transportation requirements (number of trips per year). However, dif-
ferences would occur for the HLW disposal case in years 1 through 9, when only hulls would be