Uranium, Plutonium and Decommissioning

Abstract

The nuclear fuel cycle is conventionally used to describe the life history of uranium fuel from mining to refining and enrichment, to fuel fabrication, fission, reprocessing and eventual disposal. We concentrate here on only four related areas, namely uranium mining, reprocessing and the alleged linkage between civil nuclear fuel use and its deployment or diversion into military weapons, the transportation of irradiated fuel, and the decommis-sioning of spent reactors. Figure 8.1 illustrates how these topics connect to the nuclear fuel cycle. The nature of the topics discussed in this chapter is significant. They raise profound moral and political issues. The Inquiry broke new grounds by dealing with such issues and the objecting groups undoubtedly used the Inquiry as a political forum. They also exploited the investigatory nature of the Inquiry to extract information and concessions from the Board. The pattern of evidence is illustrated in Figure 8.2.