System impacts of accelerated transfer of used nuclear fuel to dry storage - 15220

Conference · Wed Jul 01 04:00:00 EDT 2015

OSTI ID:22822752

Fortner, Jeffrey A.; Nutt, W. Mark ^[1]

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1. Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, IL 60439 (United States)

In the wake of the September 11, 2001 terror attacks, and again after the March 11, 2011, accident at the Fukushima Dai-Ichi station from the Great East Japan Earthquake/tsunami, concern was expressed regarding security of current spent fuel storage practices in the United States. An approach recurrently proposed to reduce the potential for fire and the release of radionuclides in an accident or sabotage scenario is to reduce the loading of the reactor fuel pools, which are frequently maintained near their full capacity at many reactor sites in the U.S. We assess the impact on the waste management system of different scenarios for accelerating the schedule of used nuclear fuel (UNF) transfer from reactor pools to dry storage casks. We consider scenarios where the spent fuel pools are drawn down to 50% or 25% of full capacity over 5- or 10-year schedules. The scenarios include status quo, where UNF continues to remain in dry storage at the reactor sites, as well as scenarios with UNF transfer to interim storage and eventually to a mined geologic repository. The primary purpose is to evaluate how the different scenarios for accelerating the transfer of UNF to at-reactor dry storage would affect the performance of the entire UNF management system. Areas that were considered include an estimate of the additional system costs that could be incurred and where the existing infrastructure at the reactor sites would come under stress from the transfer demands. This study considered only the fuel-handling logistics and rough-order-of-magnitude cost at reactor sites, interim storage facility, and operations to package UNF into disposal canisters. The effects of minimum fuel age that could be transferred and the accelerated transfer starting date are also examined, but found to have relatively little effect. Impacts on safety and worker dose are not evaluated quantitatively, although effects can be inferred from increases in handling operations, etc. from the scenarios considered. (authors)

• Research Organization: WM Symposia, Inc., PO Box 27646, 85285-7646 Tempe, AZ (United States)
• OSTI ID: 22822752
• Report Number(s): INIS-US--19-WM-15220
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE WASTES FROM NUCLEAR FACILITIES
COST
DRY STORAGE
EARTHQUAKES
FISSION PRODUCT RELEASE
FUEL STORAGE POOLS
FUKUSHIMA DAIICHI NUCLEAR POWER STATION
JAPAN
OCCUPATIONAL EXPOSURE
RADIATION DOSES
REACTOR ACCIDENTS
REACTOR SITES
SABOTAGE
SAFETY
SCHEDULES
SECURITY
SPENT FUEL CASKS
SPENT FUEL STORAGE
STORAGE FACILITIES
TSUNAMIS
USA
WASTE STORAGE