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GAO: Clarification of HLW definition could save DOE billions
A clearer definition of what constitutes high-level radioactive waste could save the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management “tens of billions of dollars” in waste management costs and accelerate its cleanup schedule by decades, according to a report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office.
DOE-EM’s efforts to manage waste resulting from legacy spent nuclear fuel reprocessing have been hindered for decades by the ambiguity of the statutory definition of HLW as laid out in the Atomic Energy Act and Nuclear Waste Policy Act, the report states. While admitting that the DOE has taken steps to overcome this ambiguity, the GAO says that the department has not fully evaluated all available opportunities to treat and dispose of waste more economically as either transuranic or low-level radioactive waste.
Hiroyuki Tsuchiya, Yamato Asakura, Kunio Kamiya, Hideo Yusa, Masaki Takeshima
Nuclear Technology | Volume 58 | Number 3 | September 1982 | Pages 397-403
Technical Paper | Fission Reactor | doi.org/10.13182/NT82-A32975
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Received August 24, 1979 Accepted for Publication March 8, 1982 Fundamental and pilot plant experiments have been carried out to develop a new recombiner catalyst with high catalytic activity and less deterioration at high temperature. The catalyst is prepared by electroplating palladium over a chromium layer, which in turn has been plated onto a sponge nickel metal surface. The optimal Cr/Ni ratio and palladium content are 2% and 0.6 mg/cm2, respectively. The catalytic activity of the new catalyst is about ten times more than presently available metallic catalysts.