Until the late 1970s, most commercial power plant operators outside the United States adopted a spent fuel management policy of immediate reprocessing and recycling of recovered products. In response to rising reprocessing prices, decreasing values of re covered products, concerns over proliferation risks, and a belief in the favorable eco nomics of direct disposal, many utilities have since opted to store spent fuel on an in terim basis pending the availability of direct disposal facilities or a change in the eco nomic and/or political climate for reprocessing and recycling uranium and plutonium. Spent fuel has traditionally been stored in water-filled pools located in the reactor building or fuel handling buildings, on reactor sites, or as part of large centralized fa cilities (e.g. Sellafield, La Hague, CLAB). Because the economics of pool storage are dependent on the size of the facility, the construction of additional separate pools on reactor sites has only been pursued in a few countries, such as Finland and Bulgaria.

Klappentext

The risks dealt with are set in the context of current radioactive contamination issues in the Arctic, the operation and infrastructure of the Russian Nuclear fleet, and the world-wide decommissioning of nuclear submarines. The risks involve those of spent nuclear fuel, and low and intermediate level liquid and solid wastes. Risk assessment and monitoring techniques are also dealt with.

Inhalt
I. Introduction.- 1 Current Radioactive Contamination Issues in the Arctic North and Operation and Infrastructure of the Russian Nuclear Fleet.- 2 Worldwide Decommissioning of Nuclear Submarines: Plans and Problems.- II. Spent Nuclear Fuel.- 3 The Development of a Comprehensive Understanding of the Handling and Transport of Submarines' Spent Nuclear Fuel Out of Northwestern Russia.- 4 The Lepse Project: Result of the European Commission Study for Retrieval of Spent FuelTACIS Program.- 5 Interim Storage of Spent Nuclear Fuel in the Arctic Far North.- 6 Multi-Purpose Casks for Power Station Fuel: Possibly Also A Flexible, Economical Naval Fuel Management System?.- III. Low- and Intermediate-Level Liquid and Solid Wastes.- 7 Application of IVO International Ltd.'s Mobile Nuclide Removal System (NURES) for Liquid Radioactive Waste Treatment at the Paldiski Naval Training Center, Estonia and at the Repair and Technology Enterprise RTP Atomflot, Murmansk, Russia.- 8 The Development of a Modular Plant for Processing Liquid Radioactive Wastes from the Nuclear Fleet: Korvet Project.- 9 Low and Medium Radioactive Solid Waste: Concept for the Development of a Waste Treatment Facility.- 10 Catalytic Extraction Process (CEP) Applications to Mixed and Radioactive Wastes and Weapons Components: Potential for Use in Northwestern Russia.- IV. Risk Assessment And Monitoring Techniques.- 11 Assessment of Radioactive Contamination in the Arctic: Status Report from AMAP.- 12 Spent Nuclear Fuel Issues on the Kola Peninsula.- 13 Time-Risk Methodologies for Examining Remediation Technologies for Waste Contamination Sites.- V. Summary And Conclusions.- 14 Integration of Technical Projects with Larger Political and Economic Contexts.