RWMAC's Advice to Ministers on the Radioactive Waste Implications of Reprocessing

Contents

Foreword

Executive summary

1. Introduction

2. Background to the study

2.1 Previous RWMAC considerations of reprocessing

2.2 The current Government policy context

3. The form of RWMAC study

3.1 RWMAC work programme

3.2 Relationship to other studies

3.3 The form of this report

4. Assembly and interpretation of data

4.1 Sources of data

4.2 Scenarios considered

5. Solid materials

5.1 Amounts of spent nuclear fuel to be reprocessed

5.2 Rates of material arisings per tonne of spent fuel heavy metal reprocessed

5.3 Estimated arisings per scenario

5.4 Combined scenario arisings in the context of total UK radioactive waste generation

5.5 Material arisings and other implications of the reprocessing of overseas spent fuel

6. Material treatment, storage and downstream handling implications

6.1 The concept of passivity

6.2 Materials treatment routes and facilities at Sellafield

6.3 Reprocessing timescales

6.4 Storage requirements

6.5 The prospects for uranium and plutonium recycling

6.6 Possible disposal implications

7. Discharges and the doses from them

7.1 Methodology

7.2 Discharges activity

7.3 Doses from discharges

7.4 Radiation doses to workers

7.5 Implications of the finding for OSPAR Sintra agreement implementation

8. Social and political issues

9. Cost implications

10. Concluding remarks

11. References

Annex 1. History and purpose of reprocessing in the UK context

Annex 2. RWMAC Sellafield Working Group membership

Annex 3. Project definition statement

Annex 4. Dry storage and disposal of Magnox spent fuel

Annex 5. The major Sellafield materials conditioning plants

Annex 6. Storage facilities at Sellafield

Annex 7. Indicative discharges and doses from representative reprocessing throughputs