Burnup Credit for Storage and Transportation Casks

Conference · Sun Jun 12 00:00:00 EDT 1988 · Transactions of the American Nuclear Society

OSTI ID:5482537

Wells, A. H.

The application of burnup credit to storage and transportation cask licensing results in a significant improvement in cask capacity and an associated reduction of the cost per kilogram of uranium in the cask contents. The issues for licensing with burnup credit deal primarily with the treatment of fission product poisons and methods of verification of burnup during cask operations. Other issues include benchmarking of cross-section sets and codes and the effect of spatial variation of burnup within an assembly. The licensing of burnup credit for casks will be complex, although the criticality calculations are not themselves difficult. Attention should be directed to the use of fission product poisons and the uncertainties that they introduce. Verification of burnup by measurements will remove some of the concerns for criticality safety. Calculations for burnup credit casks should consider rod-to-rod and axial variations of burnup, as well as variability of burnable poisons it they are used in the assembly. In spite of the complexity of cask burnup credit licensing issues, these issues appear to be resolvable within the current state of the art of criticality safety.

• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), Nuclear Criticality Safety Program (NCSP)
• OSTI ID: 5482537
• Report Number(s): CONF-880601-; CODEN: TANSA; TRN: 89-027557
• Journal Information: Transactions of the American Nuclear Society, Vol. 56; Conference: American Nuclear Society Annual Meeting, San Diego, CA (United States), 12-16 Jun 1988; ISSN 0003-018X
• Publisher: American Nuclear Society
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

42 ENGINEERING
11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS
21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS
PWR TYPE REACTORS
SPENT FUEL ELEMENTS
BURNUP
SPENT FUEL STORAGE
CRITICALITY
CROSS SECTIONS
FISSION PRODUCTS
MULTIPLICATION FACTORS
REACTIVITY
SAFETY
FUEL ELEMENTS
ISOTOPES
MATERIALS
RADIOACTIVE MATERIALS
REACTOR COMPONENTS
REACTORS
STORAGE
WATER COOLED REACTORS
WATER MODERATED REACTORS
Nuclear Criticality Safety Program (NCSP)
Burnup Credit
Issue determination
Problem Solving
Measurements
420203* - Engineering- Handling Equipment & Procedures
050900 - Nuclear Fuels- Transport
Handling
& Storage
210200 - Power Reactors
Nonbreeding
Light-Water Moderated
Nonboiling Water Cooled