MadSci Network: Environment & Ecology |
The following information can be found at: http://www.uic.com.au/ne5.htm Over the forty years to 1995, more than 55,000 tonnes of spent fuel from commercial power reactors was reprocessed, and annual capacity for reprocessing, worldwide, is now over 5000 tonnes per year. World Commercial Reprocessing Capacity Light water reactor fuel: France, La Hague 1600 tonnes per year UK, Sellafield (THORP) 1200 Russia, Mayak 400 Japan 90 total LWR 3290 Other nuclear fuels: UK, Sellafield 1500 France, Marcoule 400 India 200 total 2100 Total civil capacity 5400 A great deal of reprocessing has been going on since the 1940s, mainly for military purposes, to recover plutonium for weapons. In the UK, metal fuel elements from the first generation gas-cooled commercial reactors have been reprocessed at Sellafield for about 40 years. The 1500 t/yr plant has been successfully developed to keep abreast of evolving safety, hygiene and other regulatory standards. From 1969 to 1973 oxide fuels were also reprocessed, using part of the plant modified for the purpose. A new 1200 t/yr thermal oxide reprocessing plant (THORP) was commissioned in 1994. In the USA, there is a technical and political saga and no plants are now operating. Three plants for the reprocessing of civilian oxide fuels have been built in USA: the first, a 300 t/yr plant at West Valley, N.Y., was built and operated successfully from 1966-72. However, increasingly severe regulatory requirements meant plant modifications which were deemed uneconomic, and the plant was shut down. The second was a 300 t/yr plant built at Morris, Illinois, incorporating new technology which, although proven on a pilot-scale, failed to work successfully in the production plant. The third was a 1500 t/yr plant at Barnwell, South Carolina, which was aborted due to a change in government policy which ruled out all US civilian reprocessing as one facet of US non-proliferation policy. In all, the USA has over 250 plant-years of reprocessing operational experience, the vast majority being at government-operated defence plants since the 1940s. In France one 400 t/yr reprocessing plant is operating for metal fuels from gas-cooled reactors at Marcoule. At La Hague, reprocessing of oxide fuels has been done since 1976, and two 800 t/yr plants are now operating. India has a 150 t/yr oxide fuel plant operating at Tarapur, and Japan is building a major plant at Rokkasho while having most of its spent fuel reprocessed in Europe meanwhile. It has had a small (100 t/yr) plant operating. Russia has a 400 t/yr oxide fuel reprocessing plant at Mayak.
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