Hostname: page-component-77f85d65b8-hzqq2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-04-17T05:25:16.781Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Need for Integrating the Back End of the Nuclear Fuel Cycle in the United States of America

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 February 2018

Evaristo J. Bonano ,
Elena A. Kalinina  and
Peter N. Swift
Evaristo J. Bonano*
Affiliation:
Advanced Nuclear Energy Programs, Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA 87185
Elena A. Kalinina
Affiliation:
Advanced Nuclear Energy Programs, Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA 87185
Peter N. Swift
Affiliation:
Advanced Nuclear Energy Programs, Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA 87185
*
*(Email: ejbonan@sandia.gov)

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the 'Save PDF' action button.

Current practice for commercial spent nuclear fuel management in the United States of America (US) includes storage of spent fuel in both pools and dry storage cask systems at nuclear power plants. Most storage pools are filled to their operational capacity, and management of the approximately 2,200 metric tons of spent fuel newly discharged each year requires transferring older and cooler fuel from pools into dry storage. In the absence of a repository that can accept spent fuel for permanent disposal, projections indicate that the US will have approximately 134,000 metric tons of spent fuel in dry storage by mid-century when the last plants in the current reactor fleet are decommissioned. Current designs for storage systems rely on large dual-purpose (storage and transportation) canisters that are not optimized for disposal. Various options exist in the US for improving integration of management practices across the entire back end of the nuclear fuel cycle.

Keywords

waste management

Information

Type
Articles
Information
MRS Advances , Volume 3 , Issue 19: Scientific Basis for Nuclear Waste Management XLI , 2018 , pp. 991 - 1003
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2018

References

REFERENCES

National Research Council / National Academy of Sciences, The Disposal of Radioactive Waste on Land, Report of the Committee on Waste Disposal of the Division of Earth Sciences (National Academy of Sciences – National Research Council Publication 519, Washington DC, 1957).Google Scholar
National Research Council / National Academies, Disposition of High-Level Waste and Spent Nuclear Fuel: The Continuing Societal and Technical Challenges (National Academy Press, Washington DC, 2001) 198 p.Google Scholar
United States Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board, Experience Gained from Programs to Manage High-Level Radioactive Waste and Spent Nuclear Fuel in the United States and Other Countries, A Report to Congress and the Secretary of Energy, (Arlington VA, USA, 2011) 70 p.Google Scholar
Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future, Report to the Secretary of Energy (2012) 157 p.Google Scholar
United States Department of Energy, Final Environmental Impact Statement for Decommissioning and/or Long-Term Stewardship at the West Valley Demonstration Project and Western New York Nuclear Service Center, Executive Summary (DOE/EIS-0226, 2010) 63 p.Google Scholar
Walker, J.S., The Road to Yucca Mountain, (University of California Press, 2009), p. 106–110.Google Scholar
Reagan, R., Statement Announcing a Series of Policy Initiatives on Nuclear Energy (October 8, 1981) Available online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project. http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=44353 (accessed 5 December 2017).Google Scholar
The Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982, as amended, 42 U.S.C. 10101 and following.Google Scholar
United States Department of Energy, Yucca Mountain Repository License Application. (DOE/RW-0573, Update no. 1, 2008) 8344 p.Google Scholar
United States Department of Energy, Strategy for the Management and Disposal of Used Nuclear Fuel and High-Level Radioactive Waste (2013), 32 p.Google Scholar
United States Department of Energy Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management, January 2009 Project Decision Schedule (DOE/RW-0604, 2009) 17p.Google Scholar
Curie Map (Oak Ridge National Laboratory, 2017), Available at: https://curie.ornl.gov/map (accessed December 5, 2017).Google Scholar
United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Spent Fuel Pools, available at https://www.nrc.gov/waste/spent-fuel-storage/pools.html (accessed December 5, 2017).Google Scholar
United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Dry Cask Storage, available at https://www.nrc.gov/waste/spent-fuel-storage/dry-cask-storage.html (accessed December 5, 2017).Google Scholar
Jones, R. H., Dry Storage Cask Inventory Assessment (U.S. Department of Energy FCRD-NFST-2014-000602, Revision 2, 2016) 170 p.Google Scholar
Wagner, J.C., Peterson, J.L., Mueller, D.E., Gehin, J.C., Worrall, A., Taiwo, T., Nutt, M., Williamson, M.A., Todosow, M., Wigeland, R., Halsey, W.G., Omberg, R.P., Swift, P.N., and Carter, J.T., Categorization of Used Nuclear Fuel Inventory in Support of a Comprehensive National Nuclear Fuel Cycle Strategy (Oak Ridge National Laboratory ORNL/TM-2012/308. FCRD-FCT-2012-000232, 2012) 98 p.Google Scholar
Carter, J., Vinson, D., and Wilson, J., Commercial Spent Nuclear Fuel and High-Level Radioactive Waste Inventory Report (U.S. DOE Office of Spent Fuel and Waste Management FCRD-NFST-2013-000263 Rev. 4 SRNL-STI-2016-00360, 2016) 176 p.Google Scholar
United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Generic Environmental Impact Statement for Continued Storage of Spent Nuclear Fuel (NUREG-2157 Volume 1, 2014), 687 p.Google Scholar
United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission, A Pilot Probabilistic Risk Assessment Of a Dry Cask Storage System At a Nuclear Power Plant (NUREG-1864, 2007), 299 p.Google Scholar
United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Managing Aging Processes in Storage (MAPS) Report: Draft Report for Comment (NUREG-2214, 2017), 517 p.Google Scholar
Hanson, B., Alsaed, H., Stockman, C., Enos, D., Meyer, R., Sorenson, K., Gap Analysis to Support Extended Storage of Used Nuclear Fuel Rev. 0 (U.S. Department of Energy Office of Used Nuclear Fuel Disposition FCRD-USED-2011-000136 Rev. 0 PNNL-20509, 2012) 218 p.Google Scholar
Electric Power Research Institute, High Burnup Dry Storage Cask Research and Development Project Final Test Plan (prepared by Electric Power Research Institute for the U.S. Department of Energy under contract DE-NE-0000593, 2014) 60 p.Google Scholar
Saltzstein, S., Sorenson, K., Hanson, B., and Swift, P., US DOE Spent Nuclear Fuel Storage and Transportation R&D Activities (proc. IHLRWM2017, 2017) p. 90–97.Google Scholar
Maheras, S.J., Best, R.E., Ross, S.B., Buxton, K.A., England, J.L., McConnell, P.E., Massaro, L.M., Jensen, P.J., Preliminary Evaluation of Removing Used Nuclear Fuel from Shutdown Sites (U.S. Department of Energy Nuclear Fuels Storage and Transportation Planning Project SFWD-IWM-2017-000024, PNNL-22676 Rev. 10, 2017) 452 p.Google Scholar
AREVA Federal Services LLC, Design and Prototype Fabrication of Railcars for Transport of High-Level Radioactive Material. Phase 1: Mobilization and Conceptual Design (prepared by AREVA Federal Services LLC for the U.S. Department of Energy under contract DE-NE-0008390, 2016) 373 p.Google Scholar
Stockman, C. and Kalinina, E., Cooling Times for Storage and Transportation of Spent Nuclear Fuel (Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque NM, SAND NO. 2013-2013P, 2013) 10 p.Google Scholar
SKB (Svensk Kämbränslehantering AB), Long-Term Safety for the Final Repository for Spent Nuclear Fuel at Forsmark: Main Report of the SR-Site Project Volume 1 (Technical Report TR-11-01, 2011), 270 p.Google Scholar
Posiva, Oy, Safety Case for the Disposal of Spent Nuclear Fuel at Olkiluoto—Synthesis 2012 (POSIVA 2012-12, 2012) 324 p.Google Scholar
ANDRA (Agence nationale pour la gestion des déchets radioactifs), Dossier 2005: Argile. Tome: Safety Evaluation of a Geological Repository (English translation: original documentation written in French remains ultimately the reference documentation, 2005), 784 p.Google Scholar
Hardin, E.L., Price, L., Kalinina, E., Hadgu, T., Ilgen, A., Bryan, C, Scaglione, J., Banerjee, K., Clarity, J., Jubin, R., Sobes, V., Howard, R., Carter, J., Severynse, T., and Perry, F., Summary of Investigations on Technical Feasibility of Direct Disposal of Dual-Purpose Canisters (U.S. Department of Energy Office of Used Nuclear Fuel Disposition FCRD-UFD-2015-000129 Rev 0, 2015) 117 p.Google Scholar
Hardin, E., Blink, J., Greenberg, H. Sutton, M., Fratoni, M., Carter, J., Dupont, M., Howard, R., Generic Repository Design Concepts and Thermal Analysis (FY11) (U.S. Department of Energy Office of Used Nuclear Fuel Disposition FCRD-USED-2011-0002143 Rev. 2, 2011) 272 p.Google Scholar
AREVA Federal Services LLC, Task Order 12—Standardized Transportation, Aging, and Disposal Canister Feasibility Study (prepared for the U.S. Department of Energy under contract no. A&AS DE-NE-0000291, RPT-3008097-000, 2013) 143 p.Google Scholar
Energy Solutions, NAC International, Exelon Nuclear Partners, Booz Allen Hamilton, Talisman International LLC, Terranear PMC, and Sargent and Lundy LLC, Task Order 12: Standardized Transportation, Aging, and Disposal Canister Feasibility Study (prepared for the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Spent Fuel and Waste Management, 2013) 239 p.Google Scholar
Energy Solutions, NAC International, Exelon Nuclear Partners, and Booz Allen Hamilton, Task Order 21: Operational Requirements for Standardized Dry Fuel Canister Systems, Updated Final Report (prepared for the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Spent Fuel and Waste Management, 2015) 224 p.Google Scholar
Energy Solutions, NAC International, Exelon Nuclear Partners, Booz Allen Hamilton, Talisman International LLC, Petersen Incorporated, Task Order 18: Generic Design for Small Standardized Transportation, Aging, and Disposal Canister Systems, Updated Final Report (prepared for the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Spent Fuel and Waste Management, 2015) 317 p.Google Scholar
Jarrell, J., Joseph, R., Howard, R., Hale, R., Petersen, G., Wilkerson, B., Fortner, J., Kalinina, E., Initial Standardized Canister System Evaluation (U.S. Department of Energy Nuclear Fuels Storage and Transportation Planning Project FCRD-NFST-2014-000084, Rev. 1, ORNL/LTR-2014-330, 2015), 112 p.Google Scholar
Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Performance Specification for Standardized Transportation, Aging, and Disposal Canister Systems (U.S. Department of Energy Nuclear Fuels Storage and Transportation Planning Project FCRD-NFST-2014-000579, Rev. 2, ORNL/SPR-2015/251, 2015) 40 p.Google Scholar
Cumberland, R. M., Williams, K.A., Jarrell, J.J., Joseph, R. A. III, Cost Sensitivity Analysis for Consolidated Interim Storage of Spent Fuel: Evaluating the Effect of Economic Environment Parameters, (U.S. Department of Energy Office of Spent Fuel and Waste Management FCRD-NFST-2016-000721, Rev. 1, ORNL/SR-2016/681 2016) 26 p.Google Scholar
Jarrell, J., Joseph, J. R., Howard, R., Petersen, G., Cumberland, R., Nutt, M., Carter, J., and Cotton, T., Cost Implications of an Interim Storage Facility in the Waste Management System (U.S. Department of Energy FCRD-NFST-2015-000648 Rev.1 ONRL/TM-2015/18, 2016) 46 p.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rechard, R.P., Price, L.L., and Kalinina, E.A., Integrating Management of Spent Nuclear Fuel from Generation to Disposal (Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, NM USA, SAND2015-5503, 2015), 45 p.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
International Energy Agency, Potential Interface Issues in Spent Fuel Management, (IAEA-TECDOC-1774, 2015), 172 p.Google Scholar