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

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The potential hazard from the isolated nuclear waste to persons on future space missions
traversing the region about 0.85 A.U. is not known, but is believed to be extremely small and
would be zero unless a manned trip by or to Venus were undertaken. Nuclear waste launched
into an 0.85 A.U. orbit would not be recoverable for all practical purposes and the 0.85 A.U.
solar orbit is far enough from the Earth and sufficiently stable that future Earth encounters
would be effectively precluded (Friedlander et al. 1977).
Potential Impacts
With space disposal, waste would be isolated from the Earth for geologic time periods, in
effect, permanently. Consequently, no long-term radiological or nonradiological health im-
pacts are expected. The terrestrial component, storing only non-HLW, would therefore be
minimized.
With regard to natural systems, upon retirement of waste processing fabrication and/or
storage facilities (including the payload preparation facility), the land areas could be re-
turned to other productive uses. Although details of decommissioning are not available, the
various alternatives should not have a significant effect on the program. Beneficial uses of
the sites by future generations would not be hindered.
6.1.8.6 Cost Analysis
Space disposal costs can be identified as follows (Bechtel 1979a):
* Waste processing/encapsulation (this may be incremental for comparisons with other
alternatives)
* Ground transportation
* Launch facilities and space hardware (reusable and expendable)
* Launch operations and decommissioning
* Geologic disposal of residual nuclear wastes.
Although many of the basic space and waste technologies are understood, extrapolation to meet
the requirements of the space disposal mission does not permit a valid cost estimate at this
conceptual stage of the program. Initial scoping studies indicate that costs for many of
these portions of the space disposal system would be similar to costs for other alternatives.
The major cost difference for the space disposal alternative is attributable to the Space
Shuttle operations. Capital, operating, and decommissioning costs for this incremental por-
tion of the program are discussed briefly below.
Capital Costs
Capital costs would be incurred at Kennedy Space Center for construction of equipment de-
dicated to the waste disposal mission. This would include the special purpose transporter,
launch pad, launch platform, and firing room. If these capital costs were recovered as