APPENDIX A
STATEMENT OF WORK
The National Research Council Board on Radioactive Waste Management, in conjunction with the Board on Chemical Science and Technology and the Energy and Engineering Board, will arrange for the nomination of a multidisciplinary committee of approximately 18 experts in appropriate fields such as nuclear chemical and fuel-cycle engineering, nuclear engineering, separations science, accelerator physics, waste (radioactive and hazardous) disposal technologies, exposure assessment, economics, public policy, regulatory policy/procedures, nuclear reactor safety, and plant operations. The committee will meet approximately four times per year. Meetings will be conducted in accordance with National Research Council meeting procedures.
The committee will initiate its activities by conducting an issue-oriented workshop and will then broadly review the applications of separations and subsequent processing system technologies to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) waste management programs in the context of the National Energy Strategy. Mature technologies will be considered and, in addition, those developed sufficiently to be technically credible. Benefits and detriments to disposal of wastes will be evaluated. The review will emphasize:
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The extent to which the technologies have been demonstrated and on what scale.
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The potential benefits and detriments to disposal of high-level radioactive wastes in geologic repositories.
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The technical, scientific, economic, and regulatory uncertainties associated with those technologies, of foreign and/or domestic origin, that may have been demonstrated to only a limited degree.
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The time required for technology demonstration and its relationship to repository program timing.
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The impacts, positive and negative, of technologies on waste arisings over the entire fuel cycle.
The preceding evaluations will involve identification and discussion of the amount and chemical characteristics of the products, including secondary waste streams, of the facilities constructed to enable the technologies to be effectively applied to the waste management system. Mass balances will be developed for all significant materials entering into or deriving from the affected facilities.
The committee will evaluate the probable costs associated with the development of the various technologies through their demonstration stages, and the probable costs of the facilities and operations that would apply the technologies to the waste management system. The
committee will also address other factors that might affect whether facilities applying the technologies reviewed will be constructed and operated.
A final report summarizing the committee's findings in areas reviewed will be prepared 36 months after task approval. Interim reports will be provided as appropriate. All reports will be reviewed and distributed in accordance with standing procedures and policies of the National Research Council. DOE will receive 150 copies of each report; additional copies will be provided to the National Research Council committee members and other parties in accordance with National Research Council policy. Committee reports will be made available to the public without restriction.
June 27, 1991