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Division Spotlight
Fuel Cycle & Waste Management
Devoted to all aspects of the nuclear fuel cycle including waste management, worldwide. Division specific areas of interest and involvement include uranium conversion and enrichment; fuel fabrication, management (in-core and ex-core) and recycle; transportation; safeguards; high-level, low-level and mixed waste management and disposal; public policy and program management; decontamination and decommissioning environmental restoration; and excess weapons materials disposition.
Meeting Spotlight
Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
September 8–11, 2025
Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
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The Standards Committee is responsible for the development and maintenance of voluntary consensus standards that address the design, analysis, and operation of components, systems, and facilities related to the application of nuclear science and technology. Find out What’s New, check out the Standards Store, or Get Involved today!
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Take steps on SNF and HLW disposal
Matt Bowen
With a new administration and Congress, it is time once again to ponder what will happen—if anything—on U.S. spent nuclear fuel and high-level waste management policy over the next few years. One element of the forthcoming discussion seems clear: The executive and legislative branches are eager to talk about recycling commercial SNF. Whatever the merits of doing so, it does not obviate the need for one or more facilities for disposal of remaining long-lived radionuclides. For that reason, making progress on U.S. disposal capabilities remains urgent, lest the associated radionuclide inventories simply be left for future generations to deal with.
In March, Rick Perry, who was secretary of energy during President Trump’s first administration, observed that during his tenure at the Department of Energy it became clear to him that any plan to move SNF “required some practical consent of the receiving state and local community.”1
P. H. Chaubernard, G. Lelarge d’Ervau, R. Pfertzel
Nuclear Technology | Volume 38 | Number 2 | April 1978 | Pages 204-208
Technical Paper | Low-Temperature Nuclear Heat / Reactor | doi.org/10.13182/NT78-A32013
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Oil consumption in a refinery is ∼6% of the production, which indicates a great interest in the use of nuclear heat to save oil. A high-temperature reactor (HTR) was designed to be used in an existing refinery in France having a crude oil through-put of 20 Tg/yr. The HTR produces only one part of the process heat, which is distributed by hot helium in a localized part of the refinery to decrease the length of helium ducts. The present boiler is kept in operation and is running at 30% capacity to have steam and electricity available in case of reactor shutdown. With a 1000 MW of thermal energy reactor, the amount of fuel conserved is 500 Gg/yr. The studies have shown that it was technically possible to use an HTR to provide a large part of the energy. However, economic calculations lead to a prime cost of conserved crude oil of almost twice the existing price. This situation could change if the cost of the crude oil increases significantly.
