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4.4.2 Radiological impact of waste discharges
As with doses to the workers, the main environmental impact from the nuclear fuel cycle is
due equally to uranium mining and milling, and to the operation of the nuclear power plants. The
enrichment and fuel fabrication plants have a minimal impact on the environment.
The nuclear reprocessing operations do not have world-wide a very large impact because only
a fraction of the spent fuel is being reprocessed for Pu recycling, furthermore many technical
improvements have been introduced to decrease the discharges into the ocean, particularly those of 90 Sr,
99 Tc, 137 Cs and the actinides.
Assessing the influence of P&T on the waste discharges needs more specific data on the
chemical methods used for MA separation. But a global assessment can be made through the discharges
from the present reprocessing plants.
The UNSCEAR 1993 [174] and the NEA 1993 [175] report provide overview and
comparative data for the period 1980-1985 and for the period 1985-1990, respectively. More recent
data about releases are available in the proceedings of the RECOD’94 conference [176]. Additional
efforts have been made in the 1985-1995 period to reduce the radioactive releases, especially α emitting
nuclides.
The data are summarised in Table II.23 through a compilation and intercomparison of release
rates from different international sources, providing a coherent overview of their relative impact.
Airborne effluents
Table II.23 Radionuclides discharged from reprocessing plants
(compiled from UNSCEAR, NEA and RECOD’94 [173-176])
La Hague
Sellafield
Throughput
(GWe-year)
Year 1980-85 1986-91 1990-95 1980-85 1986-88 1990-95
Tritium
(TBq/GW-year)
14 C
(TBq/GW-year)
85 Kr
(TBq/GW-year)
129 I
(TBq/GW-year)
a) Excludes tritium.
b) Cs and Sr.
35.7 83.2 143 16.3 8 20.35
0.91 1.44 1.84 120 54 173.4
– – – 3.5 2.2 1.05
11 500 11 000 5 476 14 000 15 800 14 779
0.0049 0.0198 8.04×10 -4 0.0037 0.009 0.006
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