Fukushima Meltdown May Mean Tighter Rules for Spent Nuclear Fuel in U.S.

The report, "The Future of the Nuclear Fuel Cycle," recommends a multi-decade program of moving spent fuel that now is stored in concrete and steel casks at reactors and decommissioned nuclear plants to a few centralized federal facilities. The authors see this as a stopgap step while an extensive research program investigates the potential for recycling spent fuel to produce new supplies. Spent reactor fuel may be either a waste or a resource, and it may take decades to find out which is true, the report authors conclude.

The 258-page report was nearly completed when the March 11 earthquake and tsunami struck Japan's northeast coast, crippling three reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear complex and damaging the fuel pool at a fourth reactor. The MIT authors did not attempt to analyze the damage to the Japanese facility.

But they predicted that the catastrophe could lead to new regulations requiring increased investment and operating costs in currently operating and future nuclear plants. "Requirements for on-site spent fuel management may increase and design basis threats may be elevated," the report says.

"The relicensing of forty-year old nuclear plants for another twenty years of operation will face additional scrutiny, with outcomes depending on the degree to which plants can meet new requirements. Indeed, some of the license extensions already granted for more than 60 of the 104 operating U.S. reactors could be revisited," it says.

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