Geologic repository design and disposal: GNEP spent fuel processing-waste volume

Conference · Sun Jul 01 04:00:00 EDT 2007

OSTI ID:20979533

Bauer, T H ^[1]; Wigeland, R A ^[2]

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1. Argonne National Laboratory: 9700 South Cass Avenue, Argonne, IL 60439 (United States)
2. Idaho National Laboratory, P.O. Box 1625, Idaho Falls, ID 83415 (United States)

Previous work has shown that removal of key heat generating elements from spent fuel would allow greater utilization of space in a geologic repository such as Yucca Mountain by factors of 100 or more without increasing the estimated peak dose rate to an exposed individual. However, achieving such utilization increases within a repository storage drift requires the density of the remaining fission products, actinide elements, etc. to be increased by roughly the same factor as the utilization increase, itself. This paper analyzes several alternative drift configurations possible within a designated repository area that could: (1) allow greater volume for waste storage and (2) maintain significant utilization benefit. For a representative range of GNEP-generated waste streams, computed results show that increase in repository area space utilization by a factor {approx}100 can be maintained with such configurations as long as waste stream volume can be reduced from that of the original spent fuel by a factor of {approx}10. (authors)

• Research Organization: American Nuclear Society, 555 North Kensington Avenue, La Grange Park, IL 60526 (United States)
• OSTI ID: 20979533
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE WASTES FROM NUCLEAR FACILITIES
ACTINIDES
FISSION PRODUCTS
RADIOACTIVE WASTE PROCESSING
RADIOACTIVE WASTE STORAGE
SPACE
SPENT FUELS
YUCCA MOUNTAIN