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

7.1
CHAPTER 7
SYSTEM IMPACTS OF PROGRAM ALTERNATIVES
To assess and compare the impacts of implementing the three program alternatives
addressed in this Statement (see Section 3.1), an analysis was made using a computer simula-
tion of the complete waste management system functioning over the lifetime of a nuclear
power system. This analysis considers the treatment and disposal of all post-fission high-
level(a) and TRU wastes (including decommissioning wastes), as well as gaseous and air-
borne wastes. All waste management functions are accounted for and all radioactive waste
streams are tracked each year from origin through treatment, storage, transport and accumu-
lation in a disposal repository. Both the example once-through cycle and the example repro-
cessing cycle described in Section 3.2 and Chapter 4 are analyzed.
7.1 BASIS FOR SYSTEM SIMULATION
To cover the range of potential impacts of program implementation, five different
nuclear power growth cases are considered. In all cases, the nuclear capacity is assumed
to consist of one-third BWRs and two-thirds PWRs. These cases were described in Sec-
tion 3.2 and can be summarized as follows.
Case 1--Present Inventory. In this case, we consider only the amount of spent fuel
estimated to be on hand, including in-core fuel, at the end of 1980; this is approximately
10,000 MTHM.
Case 2--Present Capacity. In this case, we consider the amount of spent fuel that
would result from continued operation of the present 50 GWe of nuclear capacity over its
expected normal life cycle to retirement after 40 years operation.
Case 3--250 GWe in Year 2000. In this case, nuclear power capacity grows to 250 GWe in
the year 2000. All nuclear power plants operate for an expected normal life cycle of
40 years, and the last plant shuts down in 2040. It is intended to assess the waste manage-
ment impacts over the complete life cycle of a nuclear generating system.
Case 4--250 GWe Steady State. This case follows the same growth curve, to 250 GWe in
the year 2000, but then replaces retired capacity to maintain the 250 GWe capacity to the
year 2040 when the case terminates.
Case 5--500 GWe in Year 2040. In this case, we assume the same 250 GWe growth by the
year 2000 as in Case 3 but continue capacity additions to 500 GWe in the year 2040 when the
case terminates.
The nuclear capacities for these cases are shown in Table 3.2.1 and Figure 3.2.3. The
total electric energy generated in these five cases is shown in Table 7.1.1. Although power
generation terminates in the year 2040 in all cases, waste management operations and decom-
missioning activities are continued until all wastes are emplaced in disposal facilities.
In all cases, this is accomplished by the year 2075. The system simulation encompasses a
(a) High-level waste in this context includes spent fuel in the once-through cycle.