The Morris Operation in
Grundy County,
Illinois
Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...
,
United States
The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
, is the location of the only permanent (the rest are temporary) ''de facto'' high-level
radioactive waste
Radioactive waste is a type of hazardous waste that contains radioactive material. It is a result of many activities, including nuclear medicine, nuclear research, nuclear power generation, nuclear decommissioning, rare-earth mining, and nuclear ...
storage site in the United States and holds 772 tons of
spent nuclear fuel
Spent nuclear fuel, occasionally called used nuclear fuel, is nuclear fuel that has been irradiated in a nuclear reactor (usually at a nuclear power plant). It is no longer useful in sustaining a nuclear reaction in an ordinary thermal reactor and ...
. It is owned by
GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy and located near the city of
Morris. The site is located immediately southwest of
Dresden Generating Station. Spent
nuclear fuel assemblies are stored at this away-from-reactor, Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installation (ISFSI) in a
spent fuel storage pool. The storage basins at the Morris Operation store spent high-level radioactive waste from
Connecticut Yankee Nuclear Power Plant,
Cooper Nuclear Station,
Dresden Generating Station,
Monticello Nuclear Generating Plant, and
San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station.
The newest fuel currently in storage has been at the site since 1989, and the basins are essentially full. No new fuel will be received and storage is limited to the current inventory.
Nuclear fuel reprocessing
The facility was originally constructed by General Electric to reprocess spent nuclear fuel, but was never operational in that use. Testing in 1975 revealed that the facility would not operate properly without extensive modifications, and the facility's application for a license to reprocess was withdrawn.
In 2007 and 2013 proposals were advanced for the completion of the reprocessing facility.
References
Buildings and structures in Grundy County, Illinois
Energy infrastructure in Illinois
Nuclear fuel infrastructure in the United States
Radioactive waste repositories in the United States
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