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

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3.9<br />

ENRICHED NUER WATER BASIN SPENT FUEL ISOLATION<br />

2 FUEL PLANT STORAGE (a ) PACKAGING<br />

NON-TRU NON-TRU NON-TRU<br />

WASTES WASTES WASTES<br />

(a)WATER BASIN STORAGE IN EITHER REACTOR BASINS OR AFR FACILITIES<br />

FIGURE 3.2.1. Once-Through Cycle<br />

storage requirements that approximate the maximum requirements shown in a recent<br />

study when currently licensed expansion plans are all assumed to be implemented<br />

and full core reserve capacity is maintained (DOE/NE-0002 1980). Implications <strong>of</strong><br />

variations in reactor storage capacity are discussed in the Final Environmental<br />

Impact Statement on U.S. Spent Fuel Policy (DOE/ET-0015 1980).<br />

* To permit the spent fuel to cool down prior to dry encapsulation and disposal the<br />

spent fuel is stored for a minimum <strong>of</strong> 5 years in the nuclear power plant storage<br />

basins for the reference once-through fuel cycle. If a disposal facility is not<br />

available, the spent fuel remains stored at the reactor until the 7-yr capacity<br />

is filled, after which excess fuel older than 5 years is shipped (Section 4.5) to<br />

an AFR (Section 4.4) where it remains until a disposal facility is available.<br />

* Spent fuel encapsulation (or packaging) facilities (Section 4.3) are located on<br />

the same site as the disposal facility. An alternative <strong>of</strong> encapsulating the spent<br />

fuel at the AFR and storing packaged spent fuel is also described in the predisposal<br />

system discussions in Sections 4.3 and 4.4.<br />

* For purposes <strong>of</strong> estimating transportation impacts, shipping distances from reac-<br />

tors to an AFR average 1000 miles for this generic statement. Shipping distances<br />

from reactors to a repository or from an AFR to a repository are assumed to aver-<br />

age 1500 miles. Therefore, total shipping distance between a reactor and disposal<br />

can be as much as 2500 miles. Actual shipping distances would vary, <strong>of</strong> course,<br />

depending on sites selected.<br />

The logistics and storage requirements <strong>of</strong> this fuel cycle for several nuclear power<br />

growth assumptions are discussed in Chapter 7.<br />

3.2.1.2 Reprocessing Fuel Cycle<br />

A simplified diagram <strong>of</strong> the reprocessing fuel cycle is shown in Figure 3.2.2. In this<br />

fuel cycle, uranium and plutonium are separated from other components <strong>of</strong> the fuel and

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