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Investigation of nuclide importance to functional requirements related to transport and long-term storage of LWR spent fuel

Technical Report ·
DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/95570· OSTI ID:95570
This study investigates the relative importances of the various actinide, fission-product, and light-element isotopes associated with LWR spent fuel with respect to five analysis areas: criticality safety (absorption fractions), shielding (dose rate fractions), curies (fractional curies levels), decay heat (fraction of total watts), and radiological toxicity (fraction of potential committed effective dose equivalent). These rankings are presented for up to six different burnup/enrichment scenarios and at decay times from 2 to 100,000 years. Ranking plots for each of these analysis areas are given in an Appendix for completeness, as well as summary tables in the main body of the report. Summary rankings are presented in terms of high (greater than 10% contribution to the total), medium (between 1% and 10% contribution), and low (less than 1% contribution) for both short- and long-term cooling. When compared with the expected measurement accuracies, these rankings show that most of the important isotopes can be characterized sufficiently for the purpose of radionuclide generation/depletion code validation in each of the analysis areas. Because the main focus of this work is on the relative importances of isotopes associated with L@ spent fuel, some conclusions may not be applicable to similar areas such as high-level waste (HLW) and nonfuel-bearing components (NFBC).
Research Organization:
Oak Ridge National Lab., TN (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), Nuclear Criticality Safety Program (NCSP)
DOE Contract Number:
AC05-84OR21400
OSTI ID:
95570
Report Number(s):
ORNL/TM--12742; ON: DE95014462
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English