This NATO Advanced Research Workshop on Disposal of Weapons Plutonium is
a follow-up event to two preceding workshops, each dealing with a
special subject within the overall disarmament issue: "Disposition of
Weapon Plutonium", sponsored by the NATO Science Committee. The first
workshop of this series was held at the Royal Institute of International
Affairs in London on 24-25 January 1994, entitled "Managing the
Plutonium Surplus, Applications, and Options". Its over- all goal was to
clarify the current situation with respect to pluto- nium
characteristics and availability, the technical options for use or
disposal, and their main technical, environmental, and economic
constraints. In the immediate term, plutonium recovered from dismantled
nuclear warheads will have to be stored securely, and under
international safeguards if possible. In the intermediate term, the
principal alter- natives for disposition of this plutonium are:
irradiation in mixed- oxide (MOX) fuel assemblies in existing commercial
light-water reac- tors or in specially adapted light-water reactors
capable of operation with full cores of MOX fuel .and irradiation in
future fast reactors. Another option is to blend plutonium with
high-level waste as it is vitrified for final disposal in a geologic
repository. In both cases, the high radioactivity of the resulting
products provides "self- shielding" and prevents separation of plutonium
without already- developed and available sophisticated technology. The
so-called "spent fuel standard" as an effective protection barrier is -
quired in either case.