Managing Commercial High-Level Radioactive Waste

After more than 20 years of commercial nuclear power, the Federal Government has yet to develop a broadly supported policy for fulfilling its legal responsibility for the final isolation of high-level radioactive waste. OTA's study concludes that until such a policy is adopted in law, there is a substantial risk that the false starts, shifts of policy, and fluctuating support that have plagued the final isolation program in the past will continue. Final isolation-the last step in radioactive waste management-is intended to limit or prevent the release of highly radioactive byproducts of nuclear fission into the environment for the thousands of years that it takes for the radioactivity to decay to low levels. Nearly all of the radioactive byproducts produced thus far by commercial nuclear power are contained in spent (used) fuel-about 8,000 metric tons-that is temporarily stored in water-filled basins at operating reactors. The original expectation that all spent fuel would be reprocessed to recover usable uranium and plutonium, and that the radioactive byproducts would be separated as high level waste, has not been realized. Since it now appears possible that at least some spent fuel may never be reprocessed, the term high-level radioactive waste applies in this report to both high-level waste from reprocessing and any spent fuel discarded directly as waste.