Materials Research in Nuclear Waste Management: Reflections on Twenty-Five MRS Symposia
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Materials Research in Nuclear Waste Management: Reflections on Twenty-Five MRS Symposia Rodney C. Ewing Department of Nuclear Engineering & Radiological Sciences University of Michigan Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2104, U.S.A. ABSTRACT The MRS symposium, “Scientific Basis for Nuclear Waste Management” was first held in Boston, November 28th to December 1st, 1978. This symposium marks the twenty-fifth in a series that now rotate to meeting sites around the world. During the past 24 years, there has been considerable progress in the development and understanding of the behavior of materials that are used in the processing, transport, containment and disposal of radioactive waste. The design and selection of materials for long-term performance has required a uniquely interdisciplinary effort. Over the same period, there have been important developments in the regulatory framework that guides the scientific and engineering needs of nuclear waste management. This paper provides a subjective commentary on the major developments and innovations during the past 25 symposia. The future challenge will be the proper and constructive integration of the science into the development of nuclear waste disposal strategies. IN THE BEGINNING . . . 1978 When the first symposium convened on November 28th, 1978, nuclear waste issues were very much in the public consciousness. This was a “hot topic” symposium chaired by Gregory J. McCarthy, and the keynote speaker was Rustum Roy. The Materials Research Society, founded in 1973, was young, and the nuclear waste symposium was a major symposium at the MRS fall meeting, drawing approximately 300 participants. Most of the papers were presented in the fortress-like, old Armory Building just a few blocks from the Park Plaza hotel. The sessions were well attended and required the use of a large auditorium. The large attendance was stimulated by a growing concern for the difficulties in siting a nuclear waste repository and developing a strategy for geologic isolation that was scientifically defensible and understandable to the public. There were two major issues: 1) What to do with the high-level waste (HLW), stored in tanks mainly at the Hanford and Savannah River sites, that resulted from the reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel (SNF) to reclaim fissile material for weapons; 2) What to do with the growing inventory of SNF from commercial nuclear power plants. Both the solidified HLW and the SNF would require geologic disposal. At about the same time the Energy Research and Development Administration (ERDA) had informed 36 of the 50 governors of its plans to search for nuclear waste repository sites in their states. This galvanized the attention of 72 senators on the activities of ERDA. Initial plans called for field investigations in 13 states before the end of 1977. The budget was increased by seven-fold to $34 million to support these activities. By 1978, a number of government agencies, interagency committees and review panels were studying the issue of nuclear waste disposal. A task force chaired by J
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