Gordon Thompson

The International Panel on Fissile Materials (IPFM) is an independent group of arms-control and nonproliferation experts from eighteen countries.  Princeton University’s Program on Science and Global Security provides IPFM with administrative and research support.  IPFM convened an international team to examine the history, current status, problems, and prospects of civilian programs of nuclear fuel reprocessing around the world.  This report summarizes the team’s findings.  Eleven authors contributed to the report.  Gordon Thompson was the lead author on radiological risk.

This report discusses the radiological risk arising from reprocessing as a generic activity, with examples from specific sites.  Options for reducing radiological risk are also discussed here.  The report has appendices that discuss the radiological risk of reprocessing at two specific sites: La Hague (Appendix A); and Rokkasho (Appendix B).  These appendices are designed to be largely self-contained.  Both this report and the appendices give particular attention to the radiological risk posed by two large concentrations of radioactive material at a reprocessing plant: stored spent fuel awaiting reprocessing; and stored high-level liquid waste generated by reprocessing.

This report discusses radiological risk arising from reprocessing at La Hague, in France.  This report is self-contained, but also serves as Appendix A to a main report.  The main report discusses radiological risk arising from reprocessing as a generic activity, with examples from particular sites.  Both the main report and this report give particular attention to two large concentrations of radioactive material at a reprocessing plant: (i) stored spent fuel awaiting reprocessing; and (ii) stored high-level liquid waste generated by reprocessing.  This report finds that responsible authorities in France have under-estimated the radiological risk arising from these concentrations of radioactive material at La Hague.  The report discusses options for reducing that risk.

This report discusses radiological risk arising from reprocessing at the Rokkasho site in Japan.  This report is self-contained, but also serves as Appendix B to a main report.  The main report discusses radiological risk arising from reprocessing as a generic activity, with examples from particular sites.  Both the main report and this report give particular attention to two large concentrations of radioactive material at a reprocessing plant: (i) stored spent fuel awaiting reprocessing; and (ii) stored high-level liquid waste generated by reprocessing.  This report finds that responsible authorities in Japan have under-estimated the radiological risk arising from these concentrations of radioactive material at Rokkasho.  The report discusses options for reducing that risk.

The Ontario government currently envisions that ten existing nuclear reactors at the Darlington and Bruce sites will be refurbished during the next two decades and then operated until mid-century, providing a substantial fraction of the province’s electricity.  The government acknowledges that refurbishment could turn out to be economically less attractive than it now appears.  Accordingly, the government has established policy “off-ramps” that would allow it to withdraw from its present commitment to refurbishment.  This report shows that decision making about reactor refurbishment has been conducted without full information about risks.  It further shows that a thorough, independent assessment of radiological risk and program risk would almost certainly identify large costs and impacts of reactor refurbishment and continued operation that have not yet been recognized by decision makers.  The report reaches these findings by focusing on the Darlington reactors, but the findings also apply to the Bruce reactors.  Also, these findings are relevant to the remaining years of operation of reactors at the Pickering site.  Moreover, these findings have important Canada-wide implications regarding the adequacy of emergency response planning for nuclear incidents, the need for upgrading of Canada’s Nuclear Liability Act, the need to enhance the safety and security of reactors, and Canada’s national security.

This paper outlines a proposed, master’s-level degree program that would prepare its students to meet a growing demand.  The demand is for engineers skilled in integrating three types of system – natural, human, and manufactured systems – to achieve sustainable outcomes.  With those skills, engineers will be sought after to work on the design or appraisal of a wide variety of projects – including infrastructure (water, energy, transport, etc.), buildings, urban plans, and manufacturing centers – that will be needed in the 21st century.  Achieving sustainable outcomes of these projects will require engineers who can engage with diverse stakeholders, employ new tools for decision support, conduct adaptive management, and find creative solutions by integrating natural, human, and manufactured systems in novel ways.  The proposed degree program would have several features that nurture these skills.  For example, the curriculum would engage students in practical, group tasks that run in parallel with theory courses.  This experiential approach would connect theory to practice while enhancing capabilities in teamwork, communication, and creative problem solving.  The program would begin operating as a two-year, full-time, face-to-face program leading to a master’s degree.  Later, it may spawn related programs employing online or blended delivery.  The program would link students with employers, and would promote its own sustainability by practicing the skills that it teaches.

Commercial nuclear power plants around the world harness nuclear fission to produce electricity.  At each plant, a fission reactor receives fresh nuclear fuel and discharges spent nuclear fuel (SNF).  Although the SNF is “spent”, it contains a large amount of radioactive material.  Some of that material could be released to the environment by an accident or an attack, causing harm to humans by exposing them to ionizing radiation.  The potential for such harm is the “radiological risk” associated with SNF.  Independent assessment of this risk could help societies to manage the risk.  This report is designed as a handbook that could be used to support such independent assessment.  The report has two main parts.  The first part provides introductory material, and the second part sets forth a seven-step approach to assessing SNF radiological risk.

There is scientific consensus on a prevailing hypothesis that, down to near-zero levels, the occurrence of future cancer is proportional to the dose of radiation received.  Some experts and professional bodies in the field, however, subscribe to this linear no-threshold (LNT) model in scientific discussions but object to the use of the model for policy-related purposes.  Given the large economic interests that are affected by policy decisions, this article recommends that experts and professional bodies avoid the intermingling of scientific and policy debates and acknowledge a logical implication of the LNT hypothesis: Low-dose radiation will sicken and kill a number of people over time.

This report contributes to ongoing debate about the future role of nuclear fission power, by outlining a code of conduct for transfer of nuclear power plant (NPP) technology to consumer countries.  The term “consumer” is used here to refer to a country that is a party to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and has not developed an indigenous capability to design or manufacture the major components of an NPP.  The code outlined here would apply to the transfer of Generation III NPP technology during the next few decades.  Relevant items of technology would pertain to light-water reactors (LWRs) or CANDU reactors.  Before outlining the content of a potential code, this report provides background regarding codes of conduct, sustainability, and trends in the use of nuclear power.  It then discusses ten issue areas for a code of conduct, and outlines a process for constructing a code that accounts for each issue area.  The World Nuclear Association Charter of Ethics, reproduced here, might be one point of departure for such a process.

This paper reviews the history of the US effort to dispose of high-level radioactive waste created by operating nuclear fission reactors for military and commercial purposes.  The history is considered here in three parts: the period beginning in 1957 and ending with passage of the Nuclear Waste Policy Act in 1982; implementation of that Act over the period 1982 to 2005; and recent plans to promote a nuclear power "renaissance", including the initiation of the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership in 2006.  To date, disposal has not been accomplished, and many observers doubt that disposal will occur during the next several decades.  The history of the disposal effort features a series of decision-action cycles in which objectives were formulated, decisions were taken, actions were implemented, and outcomes occurred.  The decision-action process is examined here with attention to the roles and objectives of major stakeholders, the relation of those objectives to governmental decisions, and the extent to which the actual outcomes have corresponded with the objectives.

This report develops a hierarchy of "reasonably foreseeable security events" that should be considered in choosing options for the long-term storage or disposal of radioactive waste.  Here, a "security event" is a deliberate, planned attack.  A "reasonably foreseeable" attack is one that is feasible using known or anticipated technology, and whose probability is sufficiently high that the attack should be considered in selecting a radioactive-waste option.  The time horizon for this analysis is 300 years.

Post-conflict reconstruction encompasses social, physical and political reconstruction.  Social reconstruction entails rebuilding the human interactions that allow a society to function.  This involves the healing of psychological and social wounds of individuals and society.  Psychosocial healing is a process to promote psychological and social health of individuals, families and community groups.  The Medical Network for Social Reconstruction in the Former Yugoslavia has pioneered a broad range of psychosocial healing programs including community-integration programs, development of volunteer action, and training of professional and lay people to take part in psychosocial healing.  These programs have demonstrated that psychosocial healing can be an effective way to heal post-conflict societal trauma and rebuild a society with a vastly improved quality of life.

This report discusses releases of hazardous material that may have occurred at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory.  The primary focus here is on atmospheric releases of radioactivity, with limited discussion of releases of radioactivity in surface water.  Some atmospheric releases of radioactivity could have occurred through pathways that also involved atmospheric releases of non-radioactive hazardous material.  These pathways are discussed here, and some background information is provided on the nature and scale of activities that could have released non-radioactive hazardous material to the atmosphere.

Human security is an evolving principle for organizing humanitarian endeavours in the tradition of public health.  It places the welfare of people at the core of programmes and policies, is community oriented and preventive, and recognizes the mutual vulnerability of all people and the growing global interdependence that mark the current era.  Health is a crucial domain of human security, providing a context within which to build partnerships across disciplines, sectors and agencies.  These principles have been demonstrated in field programmes in which health-care delivery featuring multi-sectoral co-operation across conflict lines has been used to enhance human security.  Such programmes can be a model for collaborative action, and can create the sustainable community infrastructure that is essential for human security.