An International Spent Nuclear Fuel Storage Facility: Exploring a Russian Site as a Prototype: Proceedings of an International Workshop

As part of a long-standing collaboration on nuclear nonproliferation, the National Academy of Sciences and the Russian Academy of Sciences held a joint workshop in Moscow in 2003 on the scientific aspects of an international radioactive disposal site in Russia. The passage of Russian laws permitting the importation and storage of high-level radioactive material (primarily spent nuclear fuel from reactors) has engendered interest from a number of foreign governments, including the U.S., in exploring the possibility of transferring material to Russia on a temporary or permanent basis. The workshop focused on the environmental aspects of the general location and characteristics of a possible storage site, transportation to and within the site, containers for transportation and storage, inventory and accountability, audits and inspections, and handling technologies.

• Front Matter
• Opening Remarks
• Handling Spent Nuclear Fuel-International Experience -- IAEA Activities in Nuclear Spent Fuel Management
• Analysis of U.S. Experience with Spent Fuel
• Problems of Spent Nuclear Fuel Management and Storage Site Selection
• Feasibility of Transmutation of Radioactive Elements
• The High Level Waste Disposal Technology Development Program in Korea
• The Use of Sodium-Cooled Fast Reactors for Effectively Reprocessing Plutonium and Minor Actinides
• Site Selection for Spent Fuel Storage and Disposal of High Level Waste -- Site Selection for Spent Fuel Storage and Disposal of High Level Waste: Experience of European Countries
• The Private Fuel Limited Liability Company National Spent Fuel Site
• Experience of Japan
• The Current Status of Spent Nuclear Fuel in Korea
• Safe Transport of Spent Nuclear Fuel and High Level Waste: International Experience
• Ensuring Nuclear and Radiation Safety During the Transport of Radioactive Materials in Russia
• Problems in Establishing an International Repository for Spent Nuclear Fuel in Russia -- Creating an Infrastructure for Managing of Spent Nuclear Fuel
• Current Status of Government Regulation of Activities Associated with the Import of Spent Nuclear Fuel into the Russian Federation Return to the Russian Federation of Irradiated Fuel Assemblies from the Institute of Nuclear Physics of the Republic of Uzbekistan
• Return to the Russian Federation of Irradiated Fuel Assemblies from the Institute of Nuclear Physics of the Republic of Uzbekistan
• Investment and International Aspects of the Problem of Spent Nuclear Fuel Management
• Creation of an Underground Repository for Spent Nuclear Fuel near the City of Zheleznogorsk (Eastern Siberia)
• Conditions for the Creation of an International Spent Nuclear Fuel Repository near the Priargunsk Mining-Chemical Production Association (City of Krasnokamensk, Chita Oblast)
• Utilization of High-Level Waste -- Types of High-Level Radioactive Wastes Formed as a Result of Dry Methods of Spent Fuel Regeneration and Technologies for their Management
• Chemical Treatment of High Level Waste for Utilization
• Immobilization of High Level Waste: Analysis of Appropriate Synthetic Waste Forms
• The Management of High-Level Radioactive Wastes from the Mayak Production Association and Plans for the Creation of an Underground Laboratory
• Creation of Underground Laboratories at the Mining-Chemical Complex and at Mayak to Study the Suitability of Sites for Underground Isolation of Radioactive Wastes
• Concluding Observations--Milton Levenson
• Appendix A: Workshop Agenda
• Appendix B: Environmental Effects of Radiation in the Russian Federation
• Appendix C: Geochemistry of Actinides During the Long-Term Storage and Disposal of Spent Nuclear Fuel