More Than a TAD:
A Study of the Problems With the Transport and Reprocessing
of Nuclear Waste in the Carolinas

Summary

This report quotes the Department of Energy’s statement on the proposed Global Nuclear Energy Partnership and questions if the aims of the project can be achieved with the currently available technology.  The statement that nuclear power generation has less impact on global warming than fossil fuel plants is also challenged.

As part of the GNEP program, eleven sites have been nominated for study as locations for nuclear fuel reprocessing plants and fast neutron reactors. Two of these sites, the Savannah River National Laboratory and Barnwell, are adjacent to each other in South Carolina.  If either or both these sites are selected large quantities of high level radioactive waste will have to be transported through communities in the Carolinas.  Assuming that technology will be developed to make the reprocessing and “burning” of nuclear waste economically feasible, the report looks at the disposition of the waste at nuclear reactor sites and the routes that may be used to transport it to SRS and Barnwell.

The information from the RW-859, 2002 database, prepared by the Department of Energy from information supplied by the nuclear plant operating companies, is used to establish the quantity and disposition of the nuclear waste.  At the end of 2002 there were 46,999 metric tonnes of waste stored in 163,646 fuel rod assemblies at 75 nuclear plant sites in 33 of the 48 contiguous states.  The database is used to project the increase in waste from continuing operation of the nuclear plants to the end of 2006.  This indicated an increase of waste of about 2,250 tonnes each year totaling 56,000 tonnes by the end of 2006.

The DOE has proposed purchasing Transport, Aging and Disposal canisters to handle this waste and has issued specifications for their manufacture.  From the data tables it is calculated that, on average, each TAD canister will contain about one and a half times the fissile uranium in the atomic bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima plus about ten times the amount of fissile plutonium in the atomic bomb that was dropped on Nagasaki.   The number of these canisters needed to move the waste accumulated at each reactor site is calculated.  This indicates of the number of loads that would be needed.

A study area was chosen to examine the routes that could be used to transport the waste to SRS.  The area includes the states east of the Mississippi and north of South Carolina.  This area contains about two thirds of the total waste.  A routing program called TRAGIS is used to show probable road, rail and water routes and routing diagrams created for each state.

A summary map for each transport method is presented.  The reader is asked to consider if the possible benefits offered by the GNEP program justify the hazards to the communities through which the waste will be transported.

--by John Sticpewich

More Than A TAD study incl. all maps (pdf 7 MB)
Road route summary map (pdf)
Rail route summary map (pdf)
Water route summary map (pdf)