The International Panel on Fissile Materials (IPFM) will present the findings of a new international study on the experience in ten countries with management of spent nuclear fuel. The two volume study focuses on the policy and technical challenges faced over the past four decades by efforts at site selection and construction of long term storage and geological repositories for the disposal of spent nuclear fuel from nuclear power reactors and high level radioactive waste. These challenges have so far prevented the licensing of a geological spent fuel repository anywhere in the world.

Spent Fuel: Volume 1, Country Studies, summarizes how individual countries are managing their spent fuel and searching for ways to dispose of the fuel. The cases presented here are Canada, France, Germany, Japan, South Korea, Russia, Sweden and Finland, the United Kingdom and the United States. This volume also includes a review of efforts to develop the option of countries sharing a multinational repository for spent nuclear fuel.

Spent Fuel: Volume 2, Technical Issues, describes our current understanding of several of the technical issues relevant to the disposal of spent fuel, and provides a background to the challenges facing individual countries. It includes a discussion of the current state of International Atomic Energy Agency safeguards on spent nuclear fuel and the prospects for effective monitoring of a spent fuel geological repository for the indefinite future.

The presentations will be on 3 June 2011 in Washington DC on Capitol Hill (12-1pm, Rayburn House Office Building - Room B-340) and at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (3pm-5pm, AAAS, 2nd Floor).

Materials from the meetings:

Overview of a forthcoming IPFM research report "Spent Fuel From Nuclear Power Reactors"

Presentation slides

Presenters:

Frank von Hippel, Professor of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University, Co-Chair of the IPFM

Beate Kallenbach-Herbert, Head of the Nuclear Engineering and Facility Safety Division, Oeko Institute, Germany

Pavel Podvig, Princeton University, IPFM

M.V. Ramana, Princeton University, IPFM

Johan Swahn, Director of the Office for Nuclear Waste Review, Sweden, IPFM