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

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6.1.7.4 Impacts of Construction and Operation (Preemplacement)
As described in Section 6.1.7.1, the transmutation option would include elimination of
certain long-lived radioactive wastes and the disposal of the remaining waste material in a
mined geologic repository. The potential benefits of transmutation that would be realized
for the lower levels of long-lived hazardous material are discussed in Section 6.1.7.5, while
short-term impacts of construction and operation are discussed here. Because these short-
term impacts include those of a mined geologic repository, impacts identified in Section 5.6
must be considered a part of this option. In addition, impacts associated with reprocessing
and discussed in Section 4.7 would occur.
Because transmutation is a waste processing option involving extra waste treatment steps,
a meaningful impact analysis is possible only when a transmutation system is compared with a
reference processing and disposal system. In the following analysis, the reference system
includes waste reprocessing and final disposal in a mined geologic repository.
Another important factor in this discussion is that impacts attributed to one plant
generally relate to a reprocessing plant handling 2000 MTHM per year and a fuel fabrication
plant handling 660 MTHM per year. Such a hypothetical plant provides the basis of much of
the information used in this analysis (Blomeke et al. 1980, Fullwood and Jackson 1980, Logan
et al. 1980). Depending on the actual amount of nuclear wastes generated, several of these
plants could be constructed.
Health Impacts
Radiological Impacts. The increased frequency of waste handling and transportation
activities associated with the transmutation option suggests that it would result in in-
creased radiation exposures compared with the mined geologic repository option.
ORNL estimated the radiological occupational impact of the reference concept based on
routine exposure, maintenance exposure, and anticipated abnormal occurrences (Fullwood and
Jackson 1980). Table 6.1.21 presents the collective dose rates calculated for the four facil-
ities included in the study. The values range from a low of 3 man-rem/plant-year for an
abnormal occurrence in the FFP-WTF to a high of 230 man-rem/plant-year for routine and
maintenance exposure in the FFP.
The radiological exposure to the general public arising from routine operations is a con-
sequence of the fact that the facilities would have to provide fresh air for the workers and
vent gases to the atmosphere. In spite of elaborate air-cleaning practices and equipment,
small amounts of radioactive materials would be discharged into the atmosphere; the amount
varying with the chemical species. Estimates have been made for the amounts of radioactive
materials that are expected to be discharged from each plant (Fullwood and Jackson 1980).
The resulting exposures, based on these estimates, are presented in Table 6.1.22. The values
range from 680 to 736 man-rem/plant-year for the Reference Facility and the P-T respectively.