Commercial high-level-waste management: options and economics. A comparative analysis of the ceramic and glass waste forms

Abstract

Results of an estimate of the waste management costs of the commercial high-level waste from a 3000 metric ton per year reprocessing plant show that the judicious use of the ceramic waste form can save about $2 billion during a 20-year operating campaign relative to the use of the glass waste form. This assumes PWR fuel is processed and the waste is encapsulated in 0.305-m-diam canisters with ultimate emplacement in a BWIP-type horizontal-borehole repository. The estimated total cost (capital and operating) of the management in the ceramic form is $2.0 billion, and that of the glass form is $4.0 billion. Waste loading and waste form density are the driving factors in that the low-waste loading (25%) and relatively low density (3.1 g/cm/sup 3/) characteristic of the glass form require several times as many canisters to handle a given waste throughput than is needed for the ceramic waste form whose waste loading capability exceeds 60% and whose waste density is nominally 5.2 g/cm/sup 3/) characteristic of the glass form requires several times as many canisters to handle a given waste throughput than is needed for the ceramic waste form whose waste loading capability exceeds 60% and whose waste density is nominally 5.2 g/cm/sup 3/. The minimum-cost ceramic waste form has a 60 wt. % waste loading of commercial high-level waste and requires 25 years storage before emplacement in basalt with delayed backfill. Because of the process flexibility allowed by the availability of the high-waste loading of the ceramic form, the intermediate-level liquid waste stream can be mixed with the high-level liquid waste stream and economically processed and emplaced. The cost is greater by $0.3 billion than that of the best high-level liquid waste handling process sequence ($2.3 billion vs $2.0 billion), but this difference is less than the cost of the separate disposal of the intermediate-level liquid waste.