Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
High-Level Waste
High-level radioactive waste is a by-product of both nuclear weapons
production and commercial reactors, although the relative amounts from
these two sources have not been revealed. The waste consists of spent
fuel rods and liquid materials involved in reprocessing spent fuel to
recover highly radioactive plutonium that was produced at more than
100 former nuclear weapons sites. There are now more than 100 million
gallons of high-level liquid waste in storage at 158 sites in forty-two
states (fi gure 8.3).
The United States stopped civilian reprocessing of spent fuel in 1981
as part of its nonproliferation policy. This ban was put in place because
plutonium, an element that does not occur naturally but is produced as
WA
NH
MT
ME
ND
VT
MN
OR
MA
NY
ID
WI
SD
MI
WY
RI
NV
IA
PA
CT
NE
Yucca
Mountain
OH
IN
NJ
UT
DE
MD
IL
CA
CO
WV
KS
MO
KY
VA
AZ
NC
TN
OK
NM
AR
SC
MS
GA
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Pearl Harbor HI
FL
Current Storage Locations (and Number of Locations)
Operating commercial reactors (104, at 72 sites in 33 states)
Shutdown commercial reactors with SNF on site (14)
Commercial SNF (not at reactor) (2)
Naval reactor fuel (7)
Non-DOE research reactors (45)
Shutdown non-DOE research reactors with SNF on site (2)
DOE-owned SNF and HLW (10)
Surplus plutonium (6)
Figure 8.3
Approximate locations of surface storage sites for spent nuclear fuel from commercial reac-
tors and for other high-level waste and radioactive materials. (Department of Energy, 2009)
