Key Issues
Frequently Asked Questions: Yucca Mountain and Used Nuclear Fuel Management
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January 2009
Q: Why is it necessary to create a deep geologic repository for used nuclear fuel?
A: Scientific consensus has long affirmed that the safest method for managing used nuclear fuel is in an engineered repository deep underground. Congress took this into account in enacting the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982, mandating the federal government to begin collecting and disposing of used nuclear fuel from U.S. nuclear power plants in 1998.
The consensus supporting deep geologic disposal has strengthened since then. In 2001, the National Academy of Sciences concluded: “Geologic disposal remains the only scientifically and technically credible long-term solution available.”
Q: What is the relationship between the development of a geologic repository and plans to recycle and reuse nuclear fuel with advanced technology?
A: Recycling and geologic disposal are complementary objectives that, along with safe interim storage until a recycling facility or repository becomes available, form what is known as an integrated approach to used nuclear fuel management.
Advanced recycling technologies can enable the derivation of additional energy from nuclear fuel. Using these technologies also could significantly reduce the volume of remaining byproducts that the U.S. Department of Energy must deposit in the repository. However, no technology can remove all of the radioactivity from the waste; therefore, a repository will still be necessary.
Finally, designing a repository so that materials emplaced in it are retrievable would allow disposal to proceed without foreclosing opportunities for recycling as advanced technologies are developed and refined in the future.
January 2009
Q: Why is it necessary to create a deep geologic repository for used nuclear fuel?
A: Scientific consensus has long affirmed that the safest method for managing used nuclear fuel is in an engineered repository deep underground. Congress took this into account in enacting the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982, mandating the federal government to begin collecting and disposing of used nuclear fuel from U.S. nuclear power plants in 1998.
The consensus supporting deep geologic disposal has strengthened since then. In 2001, the National Academy of Sciences concluded: “Geologic disposal remains the only scientifically and technically credible long-term solution available.”
Q: What is the relationship between the development of a geologic repository and plans to recycle and reuse nuclear fuel with advanced technology?
A: Recycling and geologic disposal are complementary objectives that, along with safe interim storage until a recycling facility or repository becomes available, form what is known as an integrated approach to used nuclear fuel management.
Advanced recycling technologies can enable the derivation of additional energy from nuclear fuel. Using these technologies also could significantly reduce the volume of remaining byproducts that the U.S. Department of Energy must deposit in the repository. However, no technology can remove all of the radioactivity from the waste; therefore, a repository will still be necessary.
Finally, designing a repository so that materials emplaced in it are retrievable would allow disposal to proceed without foreclosing opportunities for recycling as advanced technologies are developed and refined in the future.
