Reprocessing: Another Waste Management Strategy

The reprocessing of irradiated civil nuclear fuel has been used as a fuel management strategy in a number of countries for many years. Recent discussions have raised reprocessing as a possible solution to US utility fuel storage needs. Several papers on the status and development of international programs have shown that reprocessing, at least in the rest of the world, is a viable commercial program with industrial scale application. This paper will address some of the issues associated with reprocessing waste, waste volumes, and storage philosophy. In addition reprocessing provides a means to decouple utility storage needs from the search for a national high level waste repository.