Nuclear Science: Developing Technology to Reduce Radioactive Waste May
Take Decades and Be Costly (Letter Report, 12/93, GAO/RCED-94-16S).

U.S. efforts to develop a technology, known as waste transmutation, that
might be able to reduce the volume and the radioactivity of nuclear
waste have lagged because the Energy Department (DOE) believes that the
technology is too costly and unnecessary.  Such radioactive waste, the
legacy of commercial nuclear power and nuclear weapons production, will
have to be buried in a deep geological repository.  In essence, any
practical application of transmutation is at least decades away, and
several roadblocks would likely slow or prevent application should it be
pursued.  These include current funding constraints; the high cost and
the long time needed to develop and implement transmutation; and the
technical, institutional, and public challenges that would need to be
overcome.  Moreover, DOE's waste managers, industry representatives, and
others now believe that transmutation is neither necessary nor
cost-beneficial.

--------------------------- Indexing Terms -----------------------------

 REPORTNUM:  RCED-94-16S
     TITLE:  Nuclear Science: Developing Technology to Reduce 
             Radioactive Waste May Take Decades and Be Costly
      DATE:  12/93
   SUBJECT:  Nuclear waste disposal
             Nuclear waste storage
             Nuclear waste management
             Radioactive wastes
             Research and development
             Energy research
             Research and development costs
             Cost control
             Cost analysis
             Nuclear facilities
IDENTIFIER:  DOE Advanced Liquid Metal Reactor/Integral Fast Reactor 
             Program
             DOE Accelerator Transmutation of Waste Program
             DOE Phoenix Accelerator Program
             DOE Particle-Bed Reactor Program
             DOE Clean Use of Reactor Energy Program
             DOE Advanced Liquid Metal Reactor Actinide Recycle Program
             
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