Characteristics and quantities of radioactive wastes

Abstract

Estimates are given of the total quantities of radioactivity, and of the contribution from different isotopes to this total, arising in the wastes from civil nuclear power generation; the figures are normalized to 1 GW (e) y of power production. The intensity of the heat and y-radiation emitted by the spent fuel has been calculated, and their decrease as the radioactivity decays. Reprocessing the spent fuel results in 95% or more of the fission products and higher actinides being concentrated in a small volume of high-level, heat-emitting waste. The total decay curve of unreprocessed spent fuel or of the separated high-level waste is dominated by the decay of some fission products for a few hundred years and then by the decay of some actinide isotopes for some tens of thousands of years. The residual activity is compared with that of the original uranium ore. Some of the long-lived activity will appear in other waste streams, particularly on the fuel cladding, and the volumes and activities of these wastes arising in this country are recorded. The long-lived activity arising from reactor decommissioning will be small compared with the annual arisings from the fuel cycle.