Fuel Reprocessing Versus Direct Disposal of Spent Fuel—A Comparison from the Standpoint of Radiological Safety

Within the framework of the fuel cycle evaluation that has been conducted between 1981 and 1985 by Karlsruhe Nuclear Research Center in the Federal Republic of Germany, radiological safety has been considered an essential assessment criterion. The collective doses from normal operation turned out to exceed markedly the accidental doses associated with all stations at the back end of the fuel cycles. Both occupational and nonoccupational doses in the fuel cycle based on fuel reprocessing are higher than those from the once-through cycle, but radiological exposure of the population consists mainly of small individual doses that are only a small fraction of the doses due to natural background radiation.