Artikel

Transporting and Storing High-Level Nuclear Waste in the U.S.—Insights from a Mathematical Model

The nuclear industry in the United States of America has accumulated about 70,000 metric tons of high-level nuclear waste over the past decades; at present, this waste is temporarily stored close to the nuclear power plants. The industry and the Department of Energy are now facing two related challenges: (i) will a permanent geological repository, e.g., Yucca Mountain, become available in the future, and if yes, when?; (ii) should the high-level waste be transported to interim storage facilities in the meantime, which may be safer and more cost economic? This paper presents a mathematical transportation model that evaluates the economic challenges and costs associated with different scenarios regarding the opening of a long-term geological repository. The model results suggest that any further delay in opening a long-term storage increases cost and consolidated interim storage facilities should be built now. We show that Yucca Mountain’s capacity is insufficient and additional storage is necessary. A sensitivity analysis for the reprocessing of high-level waste finds this uneconomic in all cases. This paper thus emphasizes the urgency of dealing with the high-level nuclear waste and informs the debate between the nuclear industry and policymakers on the basis of objective data and quantitative analysis.

Language
Englisch

Bibliographic citation
Journal: Applied Sciences ; ISSN: 2076-3417 ; Volume: 9 ; Year: 2019 ; Issue: 12 ; Pages: 1-23 ; Basel: MDPI AG

Classification
Wirtschaft
Subject
Nuclear waste disposal policy
Transportation modeling
Interim storage
United States of America
Nuclear energy
Nuclear policy

Event
Geistige Schöpfung
(who)
Wegel, Sebastian
Czempinski, Victoria
Oei, Pao-Yu
Wealer, Ben
Event
Veröffentlichung
(who)
MDPI AG
(where)
Basel
(when)
2019

DOI
doi:10.3390/app9122437
Handle
Last update
10.03.2025, 11:43 AM CET

Data provider

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Object type

  • Artikel

Associated

  • Wegel, Sebastian
  • Czempinski, Victoria
  • Oei, Pao-Yu
  • Wealer, Ben
  • MDPI AG

Time of origin

  • 2019

Other Objects (12)