World Energy Outlook 2006

Lithuania and Bulgaria are considering new reactors to replace those shut down
according to their respective EU accession agreements. The Slovak Republic is
considering the completion of two light-water reactors (VVER) and Romania
plans to add another two units at its Cernavoda plant (one unit is in operation
now and one under construction). South Africa is pursuing the development
of pebble-bed modular reactors and is also considering new nuclear power
stations of conventional design. Some countries that do not have any nuclear
power now (for example, Egypt, Indonesia, Malaysia, Morocco, Nigeria and
Vietnam) have expressed interest in building nuclear power plants.
Nuclear Fuel and Waste Management
All the steps of the nuclear fuel cycle generate radioactive waste. Nuclear waste
is classified according to the level of radioactivity into three broad categories:
low-level waste (LLW), intermediate-level waste (ILW) and high-level waste
(HLW). Most countries operating nuclear power plants have developed or
continue to develop strategies to deal with waste. In many countries, disposal
facilities are already available for LLW and, in some, for ILW.
More than 95% of the total radioactivity in radioactive wastes is contained in
HLW (spent nuclear fuel or the most radioactive residues of reprocessing), even
though HLW accounts for less than 5% of the total volume of waste. A typical
1 000-MW nuclear power plant produces 10 m3 of spent fuel per year, when
packaged for disposal. If this spent fuel is reprocessed, about 2.5 m3 of vitrified
waste is produced (IEA, 2001). Today, spent fuel and HLW are stored in special
purpose interim storage facilities.
Large-scale reprocessing facilities are currently operational in France, Russia and
the United Kingdom. The main Japanese reprocessing plant is still being
commissioned, although a small plant is in operation (most Japanese reprocessing
to date has taken place in France and the UK). Utilities in a few European
countries (including Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and
Switzerland) have had a significant amount of spent fuel reprocessed in France and
the UK. In most cases these contracts have now ended, following changes in policy
in these countries, but the power companies or countries concerned have a
contractual obligation to take back the HLW produced for eventual disposal (as
well as the separated plutonium and uranium). India has plans for commercial
reprocessing as part of a thorium-uranium fuel cycle, but this is at the
development stage. Other countries may reconsider the reprocessing option in
future if alternative reprocessing technologies are developed or if reprocessing
appears to be more economically attractive than direct disposal. New reactor
designs and fuel cycles are being developed with this consideration in mind. There
are relevant international cooperation programmes, with the United States taking
a major role, as well as those countries which today reprocess.
356 World Energy Outlook 2006 - FOCUS ON KEY TOPICS
© OECD/IEA, 2007