Thesis (M.S.)--University of Nevada, Reno, 2007. / "May, 2007." Includes bibliographical references. Online version available on the World Wide Web.

Title from PDF of title page (University of Missouri--Columbia, viewed on Feb 24, 2010). The entire thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file; a non-technical public abstract appears in the public.pdf file. Dissertation supervisors: Dr. William H. Miller, Dr. Brady D. Hanson. Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

No description available.

D.Phil. / The existence of radioactive waste (or ‘radwaste’) has become a problem that afflicts the nuclear industry worldwide. The search for a social consensus on radwaste management strategies is proving to be one of the most complex challenges facing nuclear technological development. The categories of radwastes that are currently of greatest concern are spent nuclear fuel (SF) that is discharged from nuclear power reactors and high level waste (HLW) arising from reprocessing of SF, as they continue to accumulate in storage facilities around the world and perceived to be without an end solution to their existence. Like many other nuclear countries, South Africa too is facing major decisions about future management of SF that is generated from its nuclear power and research reactors. It remains undecided on which of the available spent fuel management (SFM) options it must adopt. This research study seeks to produce a framework for evaluating SFM options that will identify and characterise the elements or aspects to be analysed, and use it to evaluate the SFM options in order to identify a preferred or optimum option for South Africa. The methodological approach to this study involves the use of literature research, a case study on Eskom’s SFM approach and a questionnairebased survey complemented by in-depth interviews with key stakeholders of nuclear power in South Africa. These qualitative methods are used to verify and validate the SFM evaluation framework. To complement the qualitative approach, a cost analysis of the options based on input from Eskom and literature data as well as on assumed scenarios, is carried out. Both the qualitative and the cost analysis lead to identification of a preferred SFM option for South Africa. Three principal SFM options were identified and evaluated: the reprocessing and recycling (or closed fuel cycle) option, the direct disposal (or once-through fuel cycle) option, and the indefinite storage (or deferral-of-a-decision) option. There are at least nine categories of issues that have been identified as factors affecting these SFM options: technology, safety, environmental impact, proliferation resistance, physical security, economics, sociopolitical influence, ethical principles and institutional capability. These formed the evaluation framework and were used as the criteria for the assessment of the SFM options. Based on the analysis conducted in the study concerning the feasibility of the SFM options for the South African context in terms of these criteria, it is concluded that the direct disposal option is the most favourable option for implementation in the South African nuclear power programme. However, all three options have their technical merits but are also contentious in various degrees both within the nuclear industry and the public domain.

The selection of the form of spent nuclear fuel disposition, currently under debate, will precipitate an immediate requirement for spent-fuel transport regardless of the disposition alternative chosen. In this study, a constrained transportation model of the spent fuel cask scheduling problem is formulated with the objective of determining the minimum number of casks required to meet a fixed transport schedule. An iterative search procedure is employed to determine schedules which minimize cask idle time for each required spent fuel cask. The formulated model and the iterative search procedure are applied to a reference case to demonstrate their utility. An economic analysis of the results was performed to compare the truck and rail transport modes. Results indicate a substantial savings when rail transport is employed. An economic comparison of the cask lease and cask purchase options indicates that cask purchase is preferable for the 23-year planning horizon. / Master of Science

The purpose of this study is to determine the constituents of value in spent nuclear fuel and integrate these results into an economic time dependent model of a spent fuel assembly. The value of the constituents in the spent fuel is balanced against the cost of the various nuclear fuel cycle services. BWR and PWR-UO₂/MOX spent fuel assemblies are modeled at 5 different burnups. The recycle modes that are examined are uranium recycle with and without fission product sales and uranium and plutonium recycle with and without fission product sales. UO₂ and MOX spent fuel assemblies discharged from a nuclear reactor from 1977 to 1990 are modeled for a period of 19 years. Four key results of this study are: (1) a re-examination of the value of recycling materials other than uranium and plutonium, namely cesium-137, 134, rhodium, palladium and xenon is justified; (2) the magnitude of the net profits obtainable from the recycling of spent nuclear fuel are tied primarily to burnup and the decision to sell fission products; (3) for fission product recycle, any burnup yields a net positive value with the greater values being at high burnups; and (4) under only spent uranium and plutonium recycle, it is marginally profitable or unprofitable to recycle spent nuclear fuel. The utilization of cesium-137, 134 in the treatment of municipal sludge can reduce the importation of oil by 47.92 million U.S. barrels annually for the United States. / Master of Science

Thesis (M. S.)--Mechanical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2009. / Committee Chair: van Rooijen, Wilfred; Committee Member: Hertel, Nolan; Committee Member: Stacey, Weston

Graduation date: 1998

No description available.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Nevada, Reno, 2007. / "December, 2007." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 25-28). Online version available on the World Wide Web.