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32 <br />Nuclear Wane Disposal Crisis <br />The cost of nut extending defense-in-depth to tipent fuel assembly storage at <br />nuclear pu..'er plant sites will range between Three Mile Island and Chernobyl <br />magnitude if a major accident happens at a facility where the second and third <br />laver of defense-in-depth are compromised. The Susquehanna concerns repre- <br />sented credible sequences that penetrated the second and third lavers fur a design <br />basis loss-uf-coolant accident with pustulated cure damage. <br />A major reactor accident like Three Vlile Island may never happen again <br />because the tint and second lavers of defense-in-depth combine to significantly <br />reduce this probability. But nuclear pu..•er plant operation in this country is pred- <br />icated on the knowledge that even if such an accident occurs, and e~•en if emer- <br />~encv systems fail to mitigate the accident and prevent fuel damage, containment <br />pro.'isions are in place to protect the public. <br />It is imperative that the nuclear pu..•er industry apply defense-in-depth <br />principles to spent fuel risk as rigorously as they are applied to reactor operation. <br />If the cost to achieve spent fuel risk defense-in-depth protection is prohibitive, <br />Congress must implement legislation that enables the Nuclear Waste Fund to <br />finance implementation of necessary safety measures. After all, the Nuclear <br />Waste Fund ~.•as established by the rate pa~•en of utilities with nuclear power <br />plants. These rate payers have the spent fuel assemblies stored at these plants in <br />their back yards. Defense-in-depth protection, strung in theory and dem~nstrat- <br />ed effective at Three Mile Island, will resol~•e the crisis in nuclear waste disposal <br />and make these back yards sate. <br />1 \udear Fagulatun~ Cummueiun. "Fepurt un the .~cddent at the Chernobyl Nuclear Po..•er <br />Station." \'tr'REG-131 Rev 1. December 1QH~. p. 3-%. <br /> <br />it a important to dishnl;vish brn~•ren dn• uurae...•here irradiated fuel assemblies that hate <br />undergone se.•eral .•ean of rediuacn.•e deca.• are placed tntu hea.•tiv shielded casks, and an <br />accident drarning the ~.ater from a ~prnt fuel p.wl...~here irradiated fuel assemblies pose <br />~anuu: rodianun r.powre hazard. and :Quid .utter damage. <br />~ u,u <br />