IN THE U.S.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration on Tuesday released data on the growing amount of spent fuel left from operation of 118 commercial reactors from 1968 through June 2013.
The latest data from the Nuclear Fuel Data Survey shows a total of 241,468 fuel assemblies, with a starting loading weight of about 70,000 metric tons of uranium (MTU), were discharged from and stored at the 118 reactors in the 45-year span. The data shows Illinois, Pennsylvania, and South Carolina as having the greatest amount of stored nuclear material, recording more than 4,000 MTU each.
About two-thirds of America’s full spent nuclear fuel originated in pressurized-water reactors, while about one-third comes from boiling-water reactors. Nearly all spent fuel is stored on-site at commercial nuclear power plants, according to the survey, while less than 1 percent has been shipped to off-site locations. For the full report, visit: http://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.cfm?id=24052.
The U.S. Energy Department is ultimately charged with permanent storage of the spent fuel. The Obama administration suspended work on the planned Yucca Mountain repository, and earlier this year announced plans to "decomingle" defense and commercial waste into separate geologic repositories.
INTERNATIONAL
An Australian ship carrying 25 metric tons of radioactive waste was greeted by protesters in Sydney’s Port Kembla harbor on Saturday, after the material was reprocessed in France.
While French officials classified the cargo as high-level waste, Australia has reportedly labeled it as intermediate-level material, a discrepancy that has drawn the attention of Greenpeace Australia Pacific. The environmental group says the repatriated material could severely impact the country’s long-term environmental health.
Reuters reported that a small number of protesters, tight security, and a heavy police presence greeted the BBC Shanghai as it docked in Port Kembla. Greenpeace spokeswoman Emma Gibson told the news service that the organization will be monitoring the handling of the material all the way to its interim storage site at the Lucas Heights nuclear research facility in New South Wales. Phil McCall, spokesman for the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organization, defended the estimated AUS$30 million repatriating project, explaining that Australia produced the nuclear waste and is therefore responsible for dealing with it, Reuters reported.
"Along with the significant benefits from Australia’s nuclear program comes a responsibility to safely manage the by-products, which is what we are doing here," ANTSO Head of Nuclear Services Hef Griffiths said in an agency press release.
The Australian government is searching for a location to build its first permanent storage site for low- and intermediate-level nuclear waste.
Unused nuclear fuel once intended for the Prototype Fast Reactor at Scotland’s shuttered Dounreay nuclear facility reached the Sellafield site on Monday for storage, according to a press release. This was the first such shipment of fuel from the reactor.
Started in 2001, the site’s full defueling program is not expected to be completed for several more years, the release says. Earlier this year, crews transported breeder material from the Dounreay Fast Reactor to Sellafield, a reprocessing and decommissioning site in Cumbria, England.
The Dounreay Fast Reactor shut down in 1977, followed by the Prototype Fast Reactor in 1994. Decommissioning of Dounreay is presently scheduled for 2030.
"Each fuel move requires a great deal of preparation and co-ordination across the industry, regulators, government and police,” Alex Anderson, Dounreay Site Restoration operations chief for the transport, said in a press release. "I’m very grateful to everyone who played their part in delivering this first consignment safely and securely, without harm.”
