Planning, Preparation, and Transport of the High-Enriched Uranium Spent Nuclear Fuel from the Czech Republic to the Russian Federation

Conference · Mon Oct 01 00:00:00 EDT 2007

OSTI ID:918704

Tyacke, M J; Bolshinsky, I; Svitak, Frantisek

The United States, Russian Federation, and the International Atomic Energy Agency have been working together on a program called the Russian Research Reactor Fuel Return (RRRFR) Program, which is part of the Global Threat Reduction Initiative. The purpose of this program is to return Soviet or Russian-supplied high-enriched uranium (HEU) fuel, currently stored at Russian-designed research reactors throughout the world, to Russia. In February 2003, the RRRFR Program began discussions with the Nuclear Research Institute (NRI) in Rež, Czech Republic, about returning their HEU spent nuclear fuel to the Russian Federation for reprocessing. In March 2005, the U.S. Department of Energy signed a contract with NRI to perform all activities needed for transporting their HEU spent nuclear fuel to Russia. After 2 years of intense planning, preparations, and coordination at NRI and with three other countries, numerous organizations and agencies, and a Russian facility, this shipment is scheduled for completion before the end of 2007. This paper will provide a summary of activities completed for making this international shipment. This paper contains an introduction and background of the RRRFR Program and the NRI shipment project. It summarizes activities completed in preparation for the shipment, including facility preparations at NRI in Rež and FSUE “Mayak” in Ozyorsk, Russia; a new transportation cask system; regulatory approvals; transportation planning and preparation in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Ukraine, and the Russian Federation though completion of the Unified Project and Special Ecological Programs. The paper also describes fuel loading and cask preparations at NRI and final preparations/approvals for transporting the shipment across the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Ukraine, and the Russian Federation to FSUE Mayak where the HEU spent nuclear fuel will be processed, the uranium will be downblended and made into low-enriched uranium fuel for commercial reactor use, and the high-level waste from the processing will be stabilized and stored for less than 20 years before being sent back to the Czech Republic for final disposition. Finally, the paper contains a section for the summary and conclusions.

• Research Organization: Idaho National Lab. (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: DOE - NE
• DOE Contract Number: DE-AC07-99ID-13727
• OSTI ID: 918704
• Report Number(s): INL/CON-07-13380; TRN: US0805884
• Resource Relation: Conference: Proceedings of the 15th International Symposium on the Packaging and Transportation of Radioactive M,Miami Florida,10/21/2007,10/26/2007
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

12 - MGMT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE WASTES FROM NUCLEAR FACILITIES
CASKS
CZECH REPUBLIC
IAEA
NUCLEAR FUELS
PACKAGING
PLANNING
PROCESSING
REPROCESSING
RESEARCH REACTORS
RUSSIAN FEDERATION
SLOVAKIA
TRANSPORT
UKRAINE
URANIUM
WASTES
Czech Republic
Russian Federation
Russian Research Reactor Fuel Return Program
transport
VPVR/M cask