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WASTE MANAGEMENT OR COST WASTE

Courtesy of Gary Vespermann


From: NEN, Vol. 6, No. 4, Aug. 1998, p. 8.
New Energy News (NEN) copyright 1997 by Fusion Information Center, Inc.
COPYING NOT ALLOWED without written permission.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

WASTE MANAGEMENT OR COST WASTE

Courtesy of Gary Vespermann

DOE staff, "Analysis of the Total System Life Cycle Cost of the Civilian Radioactive Waste Management System," Introduction and Summary, pp 1-11, September 1995.

This report provides current estimates of the total system life cycle costs (with the acronym TSLCC) of one concept for the Civilian Radioactive Waste Management System (CRWMS). [The government loves acronyms. This editor believes it must come from the days when computer memory was a high-cost item.] The stated purpose of the publication is "to provide a cost estimate to aid in financial planning, to provide policy makers information to use in determining the course of the program, and to provide a system cost estimate as one of the inputs for assessing the adequacy of fees being paid by waste generating sources."

The total cost are summarized in the following table:

Summary of TSLCC 1995 (in Millions of 1994 Dollars)

Cost Category                      Total Cost

Repository                         $ 18,764

Waste Acceptance, Storage
   &  Transportation                 10,094

Othere Development & Evaluation       3,513

Payments Equal to Taxes (PETT)          308

Benefits                                417

TOTAL                              $ 33,196
In the case of normal history of events with DOE projects, the above figures will probably be larger when the next estimates are provided later this year. However, $33 billion is a relatively large amount. For example, about enough to fight a World War for several years. However, this budget is for the entire project from 1985 to 2071.

[Editor's Note: This publication believes that there is a better way to handle the high-level radioactive wastes -- by on-site remediation.]


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Sep. 8, 1998.