Spent Fuel Burnup Credit in Casks: An NRC Perspective
- US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), Washington, DC (United States); ORNL
- US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), Washington, DC (United States)
- Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
Until now, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s (NRC) approval of criticality safety evaluations for spent fuel in transport and storage casks has been based on analyzing the fuel as though it were fresh and without burnable poisons. The well-known nuclide composition of fresh fuel has provided a straightforward and bounding approach for showing that spent fuel systems will remain subcritical under normal and accident conditions. Burnup credit refers to the approval of criticality safety evaluations that consider the decrease in fuel reactivity caused by. irradiation in the reactor. Extensive investigations have been performed in the U.S. and other countries to understand and document the technical issues related to bumup credit. This paper reviews the background for NRC’s efforts toward applying bumup credit in the licensing of casks for spent fuel from pressurized water reactors, discusses technical issues affecting the evoiving NRC guidance in this area, and outlines the information and efforts needed to further expand such applications of burnup credit.
- Research Organization:
- Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), Washington, DC (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), Nuclear Criticality Safety Program (NCSP)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC05-96OR22464
- OSTI ID:
- 774658
- Report Number(s):
- P00--108694
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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