Wednesday, November 10, 2004
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal
Nuclear waste at center stage
Scientists discuss reprocessing and recycling
By KEITH ROGERS
REVIEW-JOURNAL
Scientists from around the world traveled to Las Vegas on Tuesday to talk about a common problem: How to reduce the amount of nuclear waste destined for yet-to-be-built repositories like the one planned for Yucca Mountain.
The solution, they said, is to continue to develop and explore a couple techniques known in scientific circles as reprocessing and transmutation. As one put it, it's like "the alchemist's dream of turning lead into gold."
"What hasn't been shown is the feasibility at the engineering level. We can do it one atom at a time," said scientist Gary Cerefice, among the hosts of the three-day conference at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. About 120 scientists from countries including France, Japan and Russia are attending.
Although progress in developing the techniques is measured in decades, the pursuit continues abroad to reprocess or recycle materials in spent nuclear fuel pellets.
Reprocessing spent fuel in the United States has been prohibited since the mid-1970s. The Bush administration allows research into what it takes to extract usable plutonium and uranium.
The other technique, transmutation, is aimed at taking long-lived radionuclides such as americium and neptunium and transforming them into smaller amounts of shorter-lived radioactive materials to be buried in a repository.
"We're doing the research. The implementation is many, many years away," said Carter "Buzz" Savage, who directs the U.S. effort at the Department of Energy.
Reprocessing and transmutation won't change the need for a Yucca Mountain repository but may reduce or eliminate the need for future repositories, he said.
The task of making transmutation viable would entail licensing a new generation of reprocessing plants, fuel fabrication plants and reactors.
Some scientists envision regional facilities to cater to commercial power reactors. One scenario would be to locate them at Yucca Mountain.
The Department of Energy hopes to begin a licensing review in December for the proposed repository at Yucca Mountain, with first deliveries of spent fuel from U.S. power reactors in 2010.
Savage said the government is spending $68 million on the Advanced Fuel Cycle Initiative Program, with the same amount expected next year.
