The South African government is in favour of recycling the hundreds of tons of highly radioactive spent uranium fuel that has passed through the country’s three nuclear reactors, members of Parliament’s minerals and energy portfolio committee heard on Wednesday.
”In terms of our nuclear policy, we … favour that process [recycling of used fuel] because it’s sustainable, and you can recycle some of the raw materials in the used fuel,” Minerals and Energy Department nuclear safety director Schalk de Waal told MPs.
He acknowledged that there were international concerns, mainly from the United States, over nuclear reprocessing.
”One of the components that you recycle is plutonium, and although it’s not really weapons-grade plutonium, they [the US] always argue that you can still make a bomb from that plutonium. Therefore — in terms of non-proliferation — they were against reprocessing.
”However, recently, with the world energy crisis, we believe that the US is changing its position, and is seriously looking into reprocessing great amounts of used fuel in that country,” De Waal said.
Officials from the department were briefing the committee on the National Radioactive Waste Management Agency Bill, which seeks to establish such an authority to take responsibility for the safe storage of nuclear waste.
Radioactive waste in South Africa stems mainly from Koeberg’s two nuclear reactors, though other sources include the Safari-1 reactor at Pelindaba near Pretoria, as well as waste from the production of radio-pharmaceuticals and radio-isotopes.
Low- and intermediate-level waste from Koeberg is currently transported to the South African Nuclear Energy Corporation-managed storage facility at Vaalputs in the Northern Cape, but high-level waste, mainly spent fuel rods, is kept at the power station.
According to the department, there is a total of 1 150 tons (120 cubic metres) of highly radioactive spent fuel at Pelindaba and Koeberg, the bulk of it at the latter site.
De Waal told the committee that recycling was useful ”because you can reprocess … and take out 95% of that used fuel and re-use it, and make new fuel for your reactor”.
About 5% of the used fuel would then remain as high-level waste.
Minerals and Energy chief director for nuclear energy, Tseliso Maqubela, speaking to the South African Press Association after the briefing, said the department was looking at storing high-level nuclear waste — that left over after the reprocessing operation — at Vaalputs.
Asked how this was possible, given the facility was licensed to store low- and intermediate-level waste only, he said ”studies” would have to be done beforehand.
Earlier, he told the committee Vaalputs was a safe repository.
”There were issues some time ago of [nuclear waste storage] drums that were found to have cracks … but … we believe that all corrective actions were implemented, and we haven’t had any problems at Vaalputs since that incident,” he said.
According to Maqubela, the new agency the Bill seeks to establish will not be responsible for the 1 150 tons of spent fuel until after it has been reprocessed.
Until that time, the spent fuel currently at Koeberg would remain the responsibility of Eskom, he said.
The national radioactive waste management agency, proposed in terms of the Bill, will replace the National Nuclear Regulator as the authority responsible for management of radioactive waste in South Africa.
Maqubela told the committee that having the regulator in charge of radioactive waste disposal was contrary to international conventions to which South Africa was party. — Sapa