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Integration of the Back-end of the Nuclear Fuel Cycle: An Overview

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2020

François Diaz-Maurin Open the ORCID record for François Diaz-Maurin [Opens in a new window]  and
Rodney C. Ewing
François Diaz-Maurin*
Affiliation:
Center for International Security and Cooperation, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA Amphos 21 Consulting SL, C/ Venezuela 103, 08019 Barcelona, Spain
Rodney C. Ewing
Affiliation:
Center for International Security and Cooperation, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA Department of Geological Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA
*
*(Email: [email protected])

Abstract

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Recent efforts have been made toward the integration of the back-end of the nuclear fuel cycle in the United States. The back-end integration seeks to address several management challenges: 1) current storage practices are not optimized for transport and disposal; 2) the impact of interim storage on the disposal strategy needs to be evaluated; and 3) the back-end is affected by—and affects—nuclear fuel cycle and energy policy choices. The back-end integration accounts for the various processes of nuclear waste management—onsite storage, consolidated storage, transport and geological disposal. Ideally, these processes should be fully coupled so that benefits and impacts can be assessed at the level of the full fuel cycle. The paper summarizes the causes and consequences of the absence of integration at the back-end of the nuclear fuel cycle in the U.S., critically reviews ongoing integration efforts, and suggests a framework that would support the back-end integration.

Keywords

waste managementnuclear materialssocietyenvironment
Type
Articles
Information
MRS Advances , Volume 5 , Issue 5-6: Scientific Basis for Nuclear Waste Management XLIII , 2020 , pp. 253 - 264
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2020

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