No abstract

As the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and DOE contractors have become increasingly involved with other nations in nuclear fuel cycle and waste management cooperative activities, a need has developed for a ready source of information concerning foreign fuel cycle programs, facilities, and personnel. This Fact Book was compiled to meet that need.

No abstract

The Engineered Sorbent Barriers Program at Pacific Northwest Laboratory is investigating sorbent materials to prevent the migration of soluble radionuclides from low-level waste sites. These materials would allow water to pass, preventing the bathtub effect at humid sites. Laboratory studies identified promising sorbent materials for three key radionuclides: for cesium, greensand; for cobalt, activated charcoal; and for strontium, synthetic zeolite or clinoptilolite. Mixtures of these sorbent materials were tested in 0.6-m-diameter columns using radioactive leachates. To simulate expected worst-case conditions, the leachate solut1on contained the radionuclides, competing cations, and a chelating agent and was adjusted to a pH of 5. A sorbent barrier comprised of greensand (1 wt%), activated charcoal (6 wt%), synthetic zeolite (20 wt%), and local soil (73 wt%) achieved the decontamination factors necessary to meet the regulatory performance requirements established for this study. Sorbent barriers can be applied to shallow-land burial, as backfill around the waste or engineered structures, or as backup to other liner systems.

to be developedfor time periodsof 30 to 100 years for LWR fuel in inert gas and for some fuels irloxidizinggases at low temperatures. Becauseit will probablybe decades before countrieswill have a repositoryfor spent fuels and high-levelwastes,the plans for expandeduse of dry storagehave increasedsignificantly in recentyears and are expectedto continueto increasein the near future. P'NL-8072ii i Abstract CONTENTS