Storage sites for high-level radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel and repository with license under review. Source: U.S. Department of Energy

A new study says the strategy for highly radioactive nuclear waste storage and disposal in the U.S. has stalled. About 80,000 tons of highly radioactive spent fuel from commercial nuclear power plants and millions of gallons of high-level nuclear waste from defense programs are now stored in pools, dry casks and large tanks at more than 75 sites. Advanced treatment technologies are emerging, such as vitrification of high-level radioactive residues and bacterial bioremediation of acidic radioactive wastes, but these do not contribute to the resolution of the permanent disposal problem. Prospects for advancing the proposed Yucca Mountain geologic repository have dimmed with the withdrawal of government support and funding.

The three-year study spearheaded by Stanford University offers a series of recommendations for effectively closing up the back end of the nuclear fuel cycle. A first step toward fixing the currently fragmented nuclear waste program should entail moving responsibility for commercially generated, used nuclear fuel away from the federal government in favor of an independent, nonprofit, utility-owned and -funded nuclear waste management organization.

This entity would control spent fuel from the time it is removed from reactors until its final disposal in a geologic repository. The success of such a cradle-to-grave approach will depend on access to the Nuclear Waste Fund, which should be transferred to the new organization over several decades. Emphasis should be placed on removal of spent fuel from plants that have been shut down first, instead of the oldest fuel, as fully decommissioning shutdown plants would save hundreds of millions of dollars. The ultimate goal is the development of a geologic repository, which could also be used for highly radioactive defense waste.