Nuclear Waste Management Decision-Making Support with MCDA

Table 2

Challenges and opportunities associated with the open and the closed NFC and nuclear waste management options [7].

Aspect	Open NFC	Fully closed NFC
Uranium consumption	−20 tonnes U/TWh (i.e., 100 to 200 tonnes of uranium per year of reactor operation)	+Consumption reduced by a factor of 50 to 100
Complexity of the techniques	+Few technically relatively simple management and handling steps	−Complexity increased by use of reprocessing and fast neutron reactor system
Maturity of the techniques, developments required	+Long experience with interim storage; −Encapsulation and disposal in the design and licensing phase	−Limited experience with operation of fast neutron reactors, new reactors in design phase; −Developments for the SNF partitioning and transmutation techniques
Waste disposal	−Large repository footprint (due to waste volume and heat release); −Very long timescale to reach radiotoxicity of natural uranium (200,000 years)	+Reduction for the footprint by a factor of 1/3 (due to reduced volume and heat release for high level waste); +If partitioning and transmutation is applied: significant reduction of the timescale to reach radiotoxicity of natural uranium (theoretically less than 1000 years)
Safety	+Fewer handling steps; −More complicated long-term safety	−More operations and transport; +Potential for simpler long-term safety
Security	+Fewer handling steps; +No separated sensitive (fissile) material	−More operations and transport; −Sensitive material separated
Proliferation	+No free sensitive material; −Long-term safeguards of the repository	+Less or no enrichment needs; −Significant amount of sensitive material separated in the processes; +No sensitive material in repository