The future of high-level nuclear waste disposal at Yucca Mountain remains uncertain as a new U.S. administration considers its nuclear agenda. The European Union’s policies remain just as unsettled. With new projects under construction in several countries and a nuclear ban in effect in others, no unified long-term storage approach is in sight.
It sometimes seems like a too-long football game. On one side is "Brussels," code word throughout Europe for the European Union’s drive toward continent-wide standards and practices. On the other side are jealously protected national, regional, and local interests. The struggle between the two forces is felt in areas as diverse as labor standards, food products, building practices... and radioactive waste management.
In 1957 the EURATOM Treaty did not extend to waste management. The result is that Europe has multiple national radioactive waste management standards and practices, and progress toward satisfactory continent-wide solutions can be best described as "patchy." Brussels issued a draft Directive in 2004, attempting to improve the situation, but it remains a draft.
The fact is that each country with a nuclear power program has sought ways to dispose of waste in a way that meets its own realities. Those realities include a wide range of factors not unlike those faced by the Yucca Mountain repository in the U.S.
Geological Factors
Start with geology. Each country has naturally considered the types of soil and rock available within its borders.
For a while a consensus was forming that nuclear fuel storage in crystalline rock structures, such as granite, was the way to go. The properties of granite made it attractive — it forms a strong barrier and tunnels are stable. Later investigation and analysis indicated that the strength of granite was perhaps a handicap, as any cracks in the rock tend to stay open, so that even deep underground there is risk of relatively fast groundwater transport of released radionuclides. The lack of any alternatives in Scandinavia means that crystalline storage is the selected approach there.
Choices of host rock for deep repositories have widened in recent years, and clay rocks are now being investigated seriously both in France and Switzerland. Although clay is held to be an option in Germany, the main focus there is on salt, with its good thermal and self-sealing properties. Until recently in the UK, attention was focused on crystalline host rock (specifically, the conditions at Sellafield on the Cumbrian coast, site of Calder Hall, the world’s first commercial nuclear power station), but the challenge of ensuring public acceptance is now forcing consideration of other alternatives.
Although there are question marks surrounding the disposal of high-level radioactive waste, low- and intermediate-level waste issues are typically solved or much closer to solution. Sweden and Finland have crystalline rock cavern repositories in operation at depths of around 50 meters (about 150 feet). Hungary (Figure 1) is about to proceed with constructing a similar repository, but deeper, at around 270 meters (about 900 feet) (see "Nuclear waste disposal in Hungary"). There are also near-surface vault-type repositories operating in the UK, France, Spain, and other countries (Figure 2).
1. Bury it deep. The Bataapati site in southwest Hungary is designed for the disposal of low- to intermediate-level nuclear waste. Courtesy: Golder Associates
2. Packaged waste. Low- and intermediate-level radioactive waste at the La Manche site in Normandy, France is stored in sealed drums. The site will eventually be covered with concrete. Courtesy: Commissariat a L'Energie Atomique
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