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Science Underlying Radioactive Waste Management: Status andNeeds-Twenty Years Later

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 September 2012

Rustum Roy
Rustum Roy*
Affiliation:
Materials Research Laboratory, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802
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Abstract

The setting of the technical subsystem within the overallsocio-political-economic-technical radwaste system will be described and thehighly interactive nature of the larger setting emphasized. It will be shownthat because of the dominance of the socio-political subsystem, theimportance of the technical subsystem is overshadowed. Moreover the keyissue in the technical subsystem, whether to put more reliance on theimmobilization (via the waste package or engineeered barriers) or theisolation (via the geology) has stayed tilted toward the latter since 1978,when we organized the first symposium on radwaste science (at the MaterialsResearch Society meeting). Now that the isolation strategy is stymied, theopportunity arises again for the materials community to make a compellingcase for the waste package's true significance.

This review is made mainly from the perspective of one laboratory in onecountry, the U.S. What is remarkable about the state of research in thetechnical subsystem is how little the big picture of the science or the technology has changed after somebillions spent on R/D. The borosilicate glass (almost unchanged) is stillthe establishment's choice of reference waste form for HLW Cost, however, isfinally forcing cement encapsulated forms to be given a second look.Mineral-modeled ceramics have received a great deal of scientific attentionbut remain esoteric to managers. It will be shown that in the author'sopinion an enormous amount of detailed science has been done but most of itis unlikely to prove to be of any relevance or use. The policy implicationsfor future R/D are discussed.

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Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 465: Symposium II – Scienfific Basis for Nuclear Waste Management XX , 1996 , 3
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 1997

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References

REFERENCES

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