Preliminary cost and risk analysis for transporting spent fuel and high-level waste to candidate repository sites
The Transportation Technology Center (TTC) at Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) analyzed the costs and risks of transporting spent nuclear fuel to each of nine potential candidate repository sites. The total amount of spent fuel to be shipped was assumed to be 70,000 tHM (tons of heavy metal). The transport of 30 canisters of high-level wastes from West Valley (WVHLW) and 6720 canisters of defense high-level wastes (DHLW) from Savannah River, which may be sent to the repository, also was evaluated in this study, and the cost and risk estimates given below are totals for all three waste forms. As in the previous study, two scenarios, in which 100% of all shipments are by truck and 100% of all shipments are by rail, respectively, were analyzed as bounding conditions. The transport scenarios maximize the number of trips for each mode. Since estimates of radiological and nonradiological impacts are proportional to the number of miles traveled and, hence, to the number of shipments, analyses of transport exclusively by truck and exclusively by rail yield estimates that are expected to bound the range of impacts that might actually occur under the assumptions used. This comparison of the two analyses for the once-through scenario reveals the impact on transportation-related costs and risks of changes in cask capacity and transport index (TI), where TI is a function of both fuel age and packaging shielding. Recent changes in the base-case scenario options including: (1) insertion of a potential repackaging or MRS facility; and (2) consideration of alternative modal options and operational considerations (e.g. barge transport and multiple-car rail shipments), could affect these cost and risk estimates. Analyses of these options will be documented to support the environmental and siting requirements of the Nuclear Waste Policy Act. 9 references, 1 figure, 4 tables.
- Research Organization:
- Sandia National Labs., Albuquerque, NM (USA)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC04-76DP00789
- OSTI ID:
- 5987650
- Report Number(s):
- SAND-85-0680C; CONF-850314-20; ON: DE85008422
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: Waste management '85, Tucson, AZ, USA, 24 Mar 1985
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Projected environmental impacts of radioactive material transportation to the first US repository site
A Transportation Risk Assessment Tool for Analyzing the Transport of Spent Nuclear Fuel and High-Level Radioactive Waste to the Proposed Yucca Mountain Repository
Related Subjects
HIGH-LEVEL RADIOACTIVE WASTES
RAIL TRANSPORT
ROAD TRANSPORT
SPENT FUELS
WASTE TRANSPORTATION
COST BENEFIT ANALYSIS
RISK ASSESSMENT
COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION
RADIATION HAZARDS
SPENT FUEL CASKS
TRANSPORTATION SYSTEMS
CASKS
CONTAINERS
ENERGY SOURCES
FUELS
HAZARDS
HEALTH HAZARDS
LAND TRANSPORT
MANAGEMENT
MATERIALS
NUCLEAR FUELS
RADIOACTIVE MATERIALS
RADIOACTIVE WASTES
REACTOR MATERIALS
SIMULATION
TRANSPORT
WASTE MANAGEMENT
WASTES
050900* - Nuclear Fuels- Transport
Handling
& Storage