10? 
: 2,000 Mwd/ton 
x 
5 Zr Nb?>, Gels! p43, Bal4 xe!33 
y?! Ce'44 
10° 
sr 89 
Ry!03 z!3!- 
107 
4,000 Mwd/ton 
High~ Activity Waste in Storage (gol) 
Activity (curies) 
10,000 Mwd/ton 
Total Activity (curies) 
1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 
 Yeor 
2 33 100 300 700 
Nuclear Power (x 10 Mw heat) 
; 1 
1990 2000 2010 2020 
1960 1980 2000 2020 1980 
1 Year Year 
FIG. 4. Accumulated volume of high- FIG. 5. Accumulated activity. Dashed FIG. 6. Accumulated activity of im- 
portant fission products in predicted 
nuclear economy. Dashed lines indi- 
decay lines are used to determine ac- 
cumulated activity following any speci- 
activity waste. Curves are based on 
820 gal of high-activity waste per ton 
of fuel processed 
curies of a fission product at any time 
between 1960 and 2000. It should be 
emphasized that the activities plotted 
are not only the activities to be found 
in waste-disposal tanks but include 
fission products present in the reactors 
and in fuel being stored prior to process- 
ing. This is especially important for 
the shorter-lived isotopes such as Ba}?®, 
In Figs. 2 and 8 are plotted predicted 
processing-capacity requirements. 
Figures 4-6 show accumulated radio- 
active wastes, and Fig. 7 the accumu- 
lated plutonium activity. Accumu- 
lated activity means the integrated 
production of fission-product activity 
with time minus loss by decay and by 
neutron capture while in the reactor. 
TABLE 1—Cost of Tank Storage of 
Liquid Waste 
Unit cost ($/gat/yr) 
Rate for 
fixed charge Fixed Direct 
(%) charge charge Total 
$0.25/gal initial investment 
15 0.038 0.003 0.041 
12 0.030 0.003 0.033 
4 0.010 0.003 0.013 
$2.00/gal initial investment 
15 0.30 0.003 0.30 
12 0.24 0.003 0.24 
4 0.08 0.003 0.08 
130 
fied cooling period 
Capture is negligible, making the curves 
essentially independent of reactor de- 
sign and operating conditions. The 
activity can be considered as being 
dumped into and accumulated in a 
common “‘sink.’”’ 
With respect to the waste-disposal 
problem, the amount of plutonium in 
storage is several orders of magnitude 
less than the Cs!57 and Sr*° in storage. 
Thus plutonium becomes the limiting 
factor on permitted dispersal of aged 
wastes only after removal of Cs!37 and 
Sr°°, 
Allowable Waste-Disposal Cost 
The limits on the tolerable cost per 
initial gallon of liquid radiochemical 
process waste can be defined as a func- 
tion of 
1. Reactor operating and design 
characteristics. 
2. The radiochemical separations 
process employed. 
3. The fraction of 8 mill/kwh power 
that is allocated to the disposal of 
wastes. 
It has been said that ultimate dis- 
posal of radioactive liquid wastes, par- 
ticularly those resulting from the proc- 
essing of spent reactor fuels, would 
place a significant economic burden on 
the future nuclear power economy (8). 
Waste-disposal costs of the order of $1 
per initial gallon of liquid wastes result- 
ing from the standard solvent-extrac- 
cate decay of accumulated activity 
10& 
fo) 
a 
A. “10,000 Mwd/ ton 
~*4,000 Mwd/ ton 
~---2,000 Mwd/ton 
fo} 
> 
Pu239 + py 24° activity (curies) 
103 
102 
1960 
1970 
1980 
Year 
1990 2000 
FIG. 7. Accumulated plutonium ac- 
tivity. Curves are based on 1% 
process loss of plutonium 
tion separations processes seemed to be 
an upper limit. These cost limits do 
hold for certain reactor-processing com- 
plexes, but are for the most part not in 
accord with the characteristics of the 
contemplated nuclear power economy. 
It is our purpose here to indicate the 
allowable cost limits in the more general 
case, taking pertinent reactor-process- 
