2009 Report to Government on National Research and

purpose-built building. The former is common in the USA but the latter would be
more appropriate for the UK.
A.36 Although much of the dry s<strong>to</strong>rage technology could be bought 'off the shelf',
especially from the USA, there are a number of significant R&D issues that would
need <strong>to</strong> be addressed before it could be used in the UK for Magnox and AGR
spent fuels. For AGR fuel, foremost among these are studies related <strong>to</strong> how dry
the fuel needs <strong>to</strong> be in order <strong>to</strong> avoid corrosion of its steel cladding during
s<strong>to</strong>rage and so be safely s<strong>to</strong>red (and subsequently disposed of), and <strong>to</strong> potential
drying processes (CoRWM docs. 2480, 2500, 2520, 2533). The former include
studies of the fuel clad corrosion processes in the presence of residual moisture
and under different 'inert' gases. USA experience of drying metal fuels and
worldwide experience of drying LWR fuels is valuable but R&D specific <strong>to</strong> the
UK’s fuels is required.
Management of Plu<strong>to</strong>nium
A.37 R&D in<strong>to</strong> management of the UK’s civil plu<strong>to</strong>nium 22 s<strong>to</strong>ckpile has been an NDA
priority since its inception and has, CoRWM believes, been an example of good
practice which could be used as a model for future R&D programmes. It has
involved collaboration between the NDA, NNL, universities and learned societies
in a co-ordinated manner. The strong input from the Royal Society (Royal
Society, 2007; CoRWM doc. 2374) has lent credibility <strong>to</strong> the programme as has
participation in the EU-funded Eura<strong>to</strong>m programme entitled Red Impact (Red
Impact, 2007).
A.38 In 2008 the NDA issued a consultation paper on options for the management of
plu<strong>to</strong>nium and held two stakeholder workshops (NDA, 2008e). It used the results
of the consultation and the workshops in preparing a paper on “credible options”
for plu<strong>to</strong>nium management that was submitted <strong>to</strong> <strong>Government</strong>, with supporting
technical documents (NDA, <strong>2009</strong>f, g, h, i). The <strong>2009</strong> NDA documents identify four
high level strategy options for managing the UK’s separated plu<strong>to</strong>nium:
i) continued s<strong>to</strong>rage until 2120, then immobilise the plu<strong>to</strong>nium in a suitable
waste form and dispose of the waste in a geological facility
ii) immobilise the plu<strong>to</strong>nium as soon as practicable, s<strong>to</strong>re the resulting waste,
then dispose of it in a GDF when one is available
iii) sell or lease the plu<strong>to</strong>nium for recycling, then dispose of the resulting spent
fuel
iv) some combination of the above.
A.39 The NDA proposed that option (i) be adopted as the reference strategy for
planning purposes, while further work is carried out <strong>to</strong> develop and assess the
other options (NDA, <strong>2009</strong>f).
A.40 To date the NDA has considered several immobilisation options for plu<strong>to</strong>nium.
These are use of a composite cement, use of a glass composite material, use of
multiphase ceramics made via hot isostatic pressing or cold pressing and
22 MoD also has holdings of plu<strong>to</strong>nium. Any plu<strong>to</strong>nium that is declared surplus <strong>to</strong> MoD
requirements becomes part of the civil s<strong>to</strong>ckpile and is managed under civil arrangements,
although it is still owned by MoD.
CoRWM Document 2543, Oc<strong>to</strong>ber <strong>2009</strong> Page 107 of 151