Recent advances in separations and immobilization sciences make reproc­essing more effective than ever for reducing the impact of nuclear waste on the environment. Waste form development has been focused in two primary directions that tend to be competitive: (1) reduction in complexity and cost of waste treatment, storage, and disposal and (2) improvements in the long­term performance of waste forms containing long-lived radionuclides. These endeavors allow for choices to be made in how regulatory dose limits are met, and where and how limited resources are spent.

5.2 Conclusion

Management of irradiated fuel continues to challenge the nuclear power industry. Despite improvements in packing efficiency in fuel storage pools, continued delays in establishing geological repositories for permanent dis­position have led utilities to move irradiated fuel into dry storage. The design for the Yucca Mountain repository in the US is in an advanced state, but this project has been suspended. Sweden and Finland have made sub­stantial progress in locating sites and in designing geological repositories for disposing of irradiated fuel based on the once-through fuel cycles prac­ticed in those countries. In countries such as France and Japan, irradiated fuels are processed to recycle the uranium and plutonium components for further energy production using mixed oxide fuel. Research is underway worldwide to develop advanced fuel cycle concepts that not only recycle the uranium and plutonium, but also the minor actinide component of the fuel. The goal of U/Pu recycle is to extend the supply of fuel; the primary goal of minor actinide recycle is to reduce the long-term radiological hazards associated with irradiated fuels from millions of years to a few hundred years. Regardless of the fuel cycle implemented, the choice of waste form is of critical importance to the safe disposition of the radioactive components. In reprocessing operations, consideration must be given to the waste forms used to immobilize volatile fission products, cladding, hulls, and other hardware components, undissolved solids, and the HLW stream.

5.3 Sources of further information

Yucca Mountain Repository License Application, http://www. nrc. gov/