woe (u) - THE FEASIBILITY OF REDUCING THE COST OF DISPOSAL OF REACTOR WASTES BY USING FISSION PRODUCTS AS HEAT SOURCES. L. M. Hardin and R. P. Beckelheimer, November 1959. UNCLASSIFIED - fete ee wee CWLR - 2307 eR eB ollie Sh — eee UNCLASSIFIED The growth of the nuclear-power industry during the period 1960 to 1980 will be accompanied by a large increase in the annual quantity of fission-product wastes. These wastes must be processed, stored, and ultimately disposed of in @ manner such that control over them will be maintained for periods of the order of hundreds of years. The eventual buildup of waste materials will pose problems of containment and will require the investment The feasibility of reducing the cost of waste disposal by utilizing the energy of the decaying fission products for the production of useful heat is explored. For this purpose, it is assumed that an efficient fission-product "furnace" can be devised for converting both ——— of large sums of capital for waste disposal. the beta and gamma radiation emitted by the fission products into heat. In order to show the overall magnitude of the potential heat-producing power; (1) the rate of growth of the nuclear-power industry; (2) the total fission-product power per unit reactor power; (3) the useful fission-product heat output per unit reactor (4) the useful heat output from all the fission products re- wee ere capability, the following predictions and calculations are presented: The total useful radiation power available for the system postulated in this study ranges from 3.5X10° Btu/hr (1000 Kw) in 1961 to 1X10 Btu/hr (879,000 Kw) in 1980. These figures represent the useful power available when the initial use of mixed fission products begins 100 days after removal from the reactor and the energy is used as process wD heat. The value of the heat produced by a given fission-product heat facility is compared with the costs of producing it. An analysis of the costs involved in the production of heat indicates that the overall costs are significantly greater than the value of the heat produced. In addition, a practical heat-use program cannot be completely substituted for the ultimate disposal system. The fission products must eventually enter the disposal system for long-term containment, since the specific activity of a given fuel loading will decrease to a level such that the use of it as a heat source is no longer profitable. UNCLASSIFIED ene Ban sulting from the nuclear power industry during the period 1960 to 1980.