Reprocessing and recycling nuclear waste has several benefits: it reduces the volume of waste, extends the safe storage time of waste from millions of years to hundreds of years, and extracts usable material from the waste to generate additional energy. While reprocessing can produce weapons-grade plutonium, newer proliferation-resistant methods like pyroprocessing are being developed. The document recommends funding research into cost-effective reprocessing methods and beginning construction of a reprocessing facility within the next 10 years along with a mixed-oxide fuel fabrication plant and pebble bed fast neutron reactor to fully realize the benefits of reprocessing nuclear waste.

1. Reprocessing and Recycling Nuclear WasteGus MerwinPsc 403 B

2. There is NO Nuclear “Waste”In chemical reactions waste is a product that is in the lowest energy state so it offers no further use.

3. Used Nuclear Fuel AnatomyThe Nuclear Fuel Cycle Dr. Tsoulfanidis’

4. What is Reprocessing / RecyclingReprocessing is the process of removing useful material from used nuclear fuel.Recycling is the process of re-burning the “waste” in a reactor.

5. REPROCESSING/RECYCLING (R&R)Electro-refining facilities. ($5 billion??)MOX fuel fabrication facility ($5 billion or nothing if we utilize Savannah River, SC)Vitrification plant ($2 billion??)Fast neutron reactor $15 billion(??) for Pebble Bed with R&D or $10 billion(??) for LMFBRPrices are extremely approximate ± $2-5 billion

6. Benefits of Reprocessing1. Get the waste out of hereThe San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station is 60 miles from down town LA. If its spent fuel pools were attacked death tolls could be in the hundreds of thousands.

7. Benefits of Reprocessing2. Don’t pay billions to put it hereBy operating the Yucca Mountain repository the government would be paying billions of dollars, to store billions of dollars worth of energy.http://www.world-nuclear-news.org/newsarticle.aspx?id=24418

8. 8Benefits of Reprocessing3. Don’t build more repositoriesE. Gonzalez-Romero, Euradwaste’08, Luxembourg, 20-22 OCT 08

9. Benefits of Reprocessing4. Burn it!There is more than 57,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel in the Untied States. 97% of that can be used to release enormous amounts of energy in the above, or similar, reactions. http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/fact-sheets/fs-yucca-license-review.html

10. Benefits of Reprocessing5. Make the waste not last for 1,000,000 yearsWith transmutation, an offshoot of reprocessing, the radioactive half-life of the waste can be dropped to less than a few hundred years vs. one million.J. Bouchard, IEA, Paris 2008

11. DrawbacksProliferationPUREX (Plutonium Uranium Extraction) isolates Plutonium. Carter ends reprocessing 1977In the United States Reprocessing is not cost effective… unless….Cost

12. Flaws in the so called drawbacks“The misuse of civilian nuclear facilities for the production of weapons, although possible, is neither the easiest nor the most efficient way to achieve such an objective.”-International Nuclear Fuel Cycle Evaluation (INFCE) 1980Thirty years containment … FailureIndia, Pakistan, North Korea,…South Africa, Israel, Iran?http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/world/03/nuclear_powers/html/uk.stm, CIEP

13. Reprocessing across the globeThere are also pilot plants in China, Pakistan, and Germany.China has stated publicly that they will reprocess on an industrial scale by 2025Every one of these plants operates on the PUREX process which was invented in the United States in 1947.Private conversation with reprocessing specialist at INLRaymond G. Wymer, Vanderbilt University, https://smr.inl.gov/Document.ashx?

14. Flaws in the so called drawbacksCostYucca Mountain has already cost $10 billion. $30 billion for completionThe Nuclear Waste Fund ($.001/kWh surcharge on nuclear power) has accumulated $35.7 billion. The cost of catastrophe due to a natural disaster, or terrorist attacks on nuclear fuel storage is a cost that should never have to be calculated.We should not be sacrificing national security for economics.With these costs factored in, several full scale fuel reprocessing plants could easily be constructed.NIE “Nuclear Waste Fund Payment Information by State” / DOEhttp://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/fact-sheets/fs-yucca-license-review.html

15. Pyroprocessing http://www.anl.gov/Media_Center/Frontiers/2002/d1ee4.html

16. Pyroprocessing ProsConsDoes not isolate PlutoniumLess costlyHigher efficiency than PUREX, theoretically >99%Uses no waterPUREX proven technologySo far only proven on engineering scaleCan not be scaled up, many smaller batches must be employedMost suitable for metal fuelIssues with safeguards

17. Recommended next stepsMore funding for R&D of cost effective, proliferation resistant processes for the next 10 yearsBegin construction of reprocessing facility in 10 yearsPyroprocesing facilityMOX fabrication facility (Savannah River SC)Pebble Bed Fast Neutron Reactor

18. PBRPassive safety features15% greater efficiency than water cooled reactorRequires less water than a standard reactorBurns actinides (the 3% that last for thousands of years)

19. SummaryR&R is cost effectiveR&R is safer than long term storageR&R Extends fuel supplies ~10,000 yearsR&R Reduces volume of wasteR&R Reduces lifetime of wasteR&R Reduces the overall cost

20. POLICY RECOMENDATIONReprocess, Recycle and store nuclear waste in Nevada. Benefits for Nevadans -Massive construction employment 15 years -Continuous operational employment -Surge in technical industries and academic funding for Nevada universities

21. As history progresses Uranium prices will go up. Unless we start working towards reprocessing now, our experienced scientists will die out. We will be forced to pay for French or Chinese facilities, or have to store waste for several millennia.Any Questions?