Benefits of an Integrated Fuel Cycle on Repository Effective Capacity
Conference
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OSTI ID:21210782
- COGEMA Inc., 4800 Hampden LA, Suite 1100, Bethesda, MD 20814 (United States)
- COGEMA, 2 rue Paul Dautier BP 4 78141 Velizy Cedex (France)
- SGN, 1 Rue des Herons, Montigny le Bretonneux, 78182 st. Quentin en Yvelines (France)
Today, the Yucca Mountain repository is limited by legislation to a maximum capacity of 70,000 metric tons of initial heavy metal (MTiHM), of which 63,000 MTiHM is reserved for civilian nuclear used fuel. Various sources have estimated the 'real' or 'technical' capacity of Yucca Mountain could be around 125,000 MTiHM. Whatever the actual number is, it will be significantly less than the anticipated total volume of used fuel expected to be generated in the US by 2100. This paper briefly reviews the design constraints of the Yucca Mountain repository and shows the potential gains in capacity by early recycling of used fuel from US commercial reactors using an evolutionary COEX process (co-extraction of uranium and plutonium) design. To optimize the Yucca Mountain loading, two important constraints need to be addressed: heat load and physical volume. For heat load there is a long-term issue with actinides (primarily plutonium and americium) and a short-term issue with fission products (primarily cesium and strontium). We present a new way to increase the capacity of Yucca Mountain by increasing the unit loading of the repository - early recycling approach. For the once-through option and the early recycling solution, drift loading factors are calculated, looking at both volume and heat. The resulting densification factor (ratio of drift loading factor of treatment high level waste residues to used fuel) is 4 using COEX technology. In simple terms, the total length of Yucca Mountain tunnels needed to dispose of 63,000 MTiHM of used fuel (legal limit) could be used to dispose of the residues from the treatment of 252,000 MTiHM of used fuel. (authors)
- Research Organization:
- WM Symposia, Inc., PO Box 13023, Tucson, AZ, 85732-3023 (United States)
- OSTI ID:
- 21210782
- Report Number(s):
- INIS-US--09-WM-06617
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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