Risks associated with nuclear material recovery and waste preparation

Abstract

This paper presents an analysis of the risk associated with nuclear material recovery and waste preparation. The steps involve: (1) reprocessing of spent fuel to recycle fissionable material, (2) refabrication of the recovered material for use as reactor fuel, and (3) the transportation links connecting these plants with the power plants and waste repositories. The risks considered are radiological and non-radiological, accident and routine effects on the public and workers during plant construction, operation and decommissioning. The lightwater reactor fuel is considered to be in its fifth recycle. The reprocessing plant is sized to receive 2000 MTHM/year, which corresponds to the fuel from 75 one-G We nuclear power plants. The refabrication plant which is considerably larger than current designs is colocated (within 1 km), and receives all the recovered fissionable material from the reprocessing plant and produces the fuel for recycle to the power plants. Sabotage and material diversion is protected against by colocating the plants and by coprocessing, i.e., not separating plutonium from uranium. For this reason, this risk is not treated, nor is the risk from earthquakes and other natural occurrences, on the basis that the plant is appropriately designed. The results of the analysis are that the non-radiological risk is 0.34 fatalities/GWe-year and that the radiological risk is 2 x 10 −3 fatalities/GWe-year, of which 60% comes from occupational exposure, 40% from routine public exposure, and 0.025% from accidental public exposure. This distribution of risk is not generally perceived. The non-radiological aspects of the plants and transportation are often ignored, although statistically they contribute 170 times more risk than radiation; similarly, radiation exposure to workers and routine radiological releases contribute 4000 times more than radiological public accident risk, which receives a large fraction of the professional and public attention. To further give perspective, the total radiological risk (2 × 10 −3) is about 1 3500 of the risk that the same population group would experience from the natural background.