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

7.9
Four types of waste management costs are computed including treatment, interim waste
storage, transportation, and repository costs. All costs are based on estimated unit costs
as described in Sections 4.9 and 5.6. The cost of high-level waste treatment reflects an
adjustment of high-level waste volume per container as limited by the thermal criteria at
the geologic repository and the thermal energy of the waste at the time of emplacement.
Figure 7.2.3 schematically illustrates the relationship between the cash flow of the
individual waste management system components and the discounting procedures. There are two
similar but distinctly different applications of discounting techniques used in the
development of the equivalent electric power and fuel cost of waste management. First, a
present-worth levelizing procedure is used to develop unit costs, i.e., cost per unit of
spent fuel, for each waste management function. Second, a separate present-worth levelizing
procedure is used to convert waste management costs to equivalent electric power and fuel
costs.
KWHTO
CONSUMERS
DISCOUNT
POWER A --
GENERATION
TIME
WASTE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM COST ACCUMULATIONS - TOT COST
MGMT COST
t t t t
STORAGE TREATMENT TRANSPORT REPOSITORY
UNIT COSTS UNIT COSTS UNIT COSTS UNIT COSTS
CAPITAL $ OPERATING $
THROUGHPUT
DISCOUNT
TIME
FIGURE 7.2.3. Time and Discounting Relationships of
Waste Management Functions of Cost
The lower row of boxes in Figure 7.2.3 illustrates the functions that contribute to the
total waste management system costs. The additional detail under the treatment unit-costs
box indicates the flow of dollars and materials that are factored into the development of
unit waste management costs. For any single waste management function all of the cash flows
are present-worth discounted to a common starting point. The levelized unit cost for that
function is then calculated by the relationship: