CONSTOR® Transport and Storage Cask for Spent Fuel and for High Active Waste

2001 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rudolf Diersch ◽  
Robert Gartz ◽  
Konrad Gluschke
Keyword(s):  
Nuclear Power ◽  
Type B ◽  
Spent Fuel ◽  
The Czech Republic ◽  
Active Waste ◽  
Intermediate Storage ◽  
Near Future ◽  
And Storage ◽  
Rbmk Fuel

Abstract The CONSTOR® was developed with special consideration to an economical and effective way of manufacturing by using conventional mechanical engineering technologies and common materials. The main objective of this development was to fabricate these casks in countries not having highly specialized industries for casting or forging of thick-walled casks. Nevertheless, the CONSTOR® concept fulfills both the internationally valid IAEA criteria for transportation and the German criteria for long-term intermediate storage. The basic cask concept has been designed for adaptation to different spent fuel specifications as well as handling conditions in the NPPs. Adaptations have been made for spent fuel from RBMK and VVER reactors, and also for BWR spent fuel and high active waste. So far, 30 CONSTOR® RBMK-1500 original casks have been manufactured and delivered to Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant in Lithuania. Two of these have been succesfully loaded during hot trial tests and placed in storage. The CONSTOR® cask for RBMK fuel has obtained the type B(U)F verification certificate from the Russian authority GAN and the release for manufacturing as a storage cask by the Lithuanian Authority VATESI. Following the successful hot trials, the final storage license from VATESI is expected in the near future. The type B(U)F licensing in the Czech Republic will be finished in 2001.

CASTOR® BR3: Design of a Transport and Storage Cask for Spent Fuel From a Belgian Nuclear Power Plant

2001 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ulrich Knopp
Keyword(s):  
Nuclear Power ◽  
Storage Period ◽  
Nuclear Research ◽  
Ductile Cast Iron ◽  
Radioactive Material ◽  
Research Centre ◽  
Spent Fuel ◽  
Interim Storage ◽  
And Storage

Abstract The CASTOR® BR3 cask has been designed and manufactured to accomodate irradiated fuel (U and MOX) from the BR3 test reactor at the nuclear research centre SCK/CEN in Dessel near Mol, Belgium, which is currently being dismantled. The CASTOR® BR3 is designed as a Type B(U)F package for transport and will be licensed in Belgium. In addition, the CASTOR® BR3 needs a license as a storage cask to be operated in an interim cask storage facility. To obtain these licenses, the cask design has to observe the international regulations for the safe transport of radioactive material as well as the special requirements for the cask storage. The CASTOR® BR3 is a member of the CASTOR® family of spent fuel casks, delivered by the German company GNB. In this way, the cask has such typical features as the following: • monolithic cask body made of ductile cast iron; • double-lid system consisting of primary and secondary lid for long-term interim storage of the fuel. This family of casks has been used for over 20 years for transport and storage of spent fuel. In this paper, the IAEA regulatory requirements for transport casks are summarized and it is shown by selected examples how these requirements have been converted into the cask design and the analyses performed for the cask. Finally, the cask features for an interim storage period of up to 50 years will be spotlighted. Main topics are the evaluation of the long term behaviour of selected cask components and the cask monitoring system for the surveillance of the leak tightness of the cask during the storage period.

scholarly journals Long-Term Radiotoxicity Evaluation of PWR Spent Uranium and MOX Fuel and Highly Active Waste

2020 ◽  
Vol 207 ◽  
pp. 01024
Author(s):  
Petar Paunov ◽  
Ivaylo Naydenov
Keyword(s):  
Nuclear Power ◽  
Spent Nuclear Fuel ◽  
Potential Danger ◽  
Spent Fuel ◽  
Highly Active ◽  
Active Waste ◽  
Interim Storage ◽  
The Given ◽  
Nuclear Power Production

One of the main concerns related to nuclear power production is the generation and accumulation of spent nuclear fuel. Currently most of the spent fuel is stored in interim storage facilities awaiting final disposal or reprocessing. The spent fuel is stored in isolation from the environment in protected facilities or specially designed containers. Nevertheless, spent fuel and highly active waste might get in the environment in case the protective barriers are compromised. In such a case, spent fuel may pose risk to the environment and human health. Those risks depend on the concentration of the given radionuclide and are measured by the value of potential danger. The potential danger is called also ’radiotoxicity’. The paper examines spent uranium and MOX fuels from a reference PWR, as well as the highly radioactive wastes of their reprocessing. The radiotoxicity of the four materials is examined and evaluated for a cooling time of 1000 years. The contribution of different radionuclides is assessed and the cases of reprocessing and no reprocessing of spent fuel have been compared.

The Road to a Nuclear-Free Japan

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Naoto Kan ◽  
Jeffrey S. Irish
Keyword(s):  
Power Plant ◽  
Nuclear Power Plant ◽  
Nuclear Power ◽  
Spent Fuel ◽  
The Road ◽  
Japanese Prime Minister ◽  
Treatment And Disposal ◽  
Intermediate Storage ◽  
Company Insolvency

This chapter describes Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan's thoughts and activities following his resignation. He says that we must continue to give earthquake victims comprehensive, long-term support, especially those who were forced to evacuate and unable to return to their intact homes located near the Fukushima nuclear power plant. He calls for the increased use of alternative and renewable energies in order to move away from the use of nuclear energy. He also discusses visits to renewable energy sites in Europe; the true costs of nuclear power; the absence of so-called “back end” solutions, i.e., the intermediate storage of spent fuel, its reprocessing, and the treatment and disposal of radioactive waste; the problem of electric company insolvency; and dismantling the nuclear village.

scholarly journals Extending the Life Time of a Nuclear Power Plant: Impact on Nuclear Liabilities in the Czech Republic

10.14311/962 ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 47 (4-5) ◽  
Author(s):  
L. Havlíček
Keyword(s):  
Czech Republic ◽  
Economic Evaluation ◽  
Power Plant ◽  
Nuclear Power Plant ◽  
Nuclear Power ◽  
Life Time ◽  
Spent Fuel ◽  
The Czech Republic ◽  
The Impact

Nuclear power plant (NPP) operators have several basic long-term liabilities. Such liabilities include storage, treatment and disposal of radioactive waste generated at the operators’ NPP, storage and management of nuclear fuel irradiated in the reactor of the operator’s NPP (“spent fuel”), disposal of the spent fuel (SF) or residues resulting from spent fuel reprocessing. Last but not least, the operator is liable for decommissioning its nuclear facilities. If the operator considers extending the life time of its NPP or if the construction of a new NPP is being evaluated by an investor, an integral part of the economic evaluation must be a comprehensive assessment of future incremental costs related to the above-mentioned long-term liabilities. An economic evaluation performed by standard methods (usually NPV, alternatively real options) leads to a decision either to proceed with the project or to shelve it. If the investor decides to go ahead with the project there can be an immediate impact on nuclear liabilities. The impact is not the same for all operator liabilities. Depending on the valid legislation and the nature of the liability, in some cases the extent of the liability must be immediately recalculated when a decision is made to proceed with the project, and the annual accrual of accumulated reserves / funds must be adjusted. In other cases, the change in liability is linked to the generation of additional radioactive waste or spent fuel. In the Czech Republic, responsibility for each of the nuclear liabilities is defined, as is the form in which the financial means are to be accumulated. This paper deals with the impact of NPP life time extension (alternatively NPP power up-rate or construction of a new NPP) on individual nuclear liabilities in the conditions of the Czech Republic. 

Current Status of the Radioactive Waste Management Programme in Spain

2007 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jorge Lang-Lenton Leo´n ◽  
Emilio Garcia Neri
Keyword(s):  
Radioactive Waste ◽  
Waste Management ◽  
Management Programme ◽  
Current Status ◽  
Spent Fuel ◽  
Radioactive Waste Management ◽  
Set Up ◽  
Intermediate Storage ◽  
Term Management

Since 1984, ENRESA is responsible of the radioactive waste management and the decommissioning of nuclear installations in Spain. The major recent challenge has been the approval of the Sixth General Radioactive Waste Plan (GRWP) as “master plan” of the activities to be performed by ENRESA. Regarding the LILW programme, the El Cabril LILW disposal facility will be described highlighting the most relevant events especially focused on optimizing the existing capacity and the start-up of a purpose–built disposal area for VLLW. Concerning the HLW programme, two aspects may be distinguished in the direct management of spent fuel: temporary storage and long-term management. In this regards, a major challenge has been the decision adopted by the Spanish Government to set up a Interministerial Committee for the establishment of the criteria that must be met by the site of the Centralized Intermediate Storage (CTS) facility as the first and necessary step for the process. Also the developments of the long-term management programme will be presented in the frame of the ENRESA’s R&D programme. Finally, in the field of decommissioning they will be presented the PIMIC project at the CIEMAT centre and the activities in course for the decommissioning of Jose´ Cabrera NPP.

Fundamental R&D Work on Methods for State Monitoring of Transport and Storage Containers for Spent Fuel and Heat-Generating High-Level Radioactive Waste on Prolonged Intermediate Storage

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Fiß ◽  
Sebastian Schmidt ◽  
Sebastian Reinicke ◽  
Alexander Kratzsch
Keyword(s):  
Applied Sciences ◽  
Radioactive Waste ◽  
Storage Period ◽  
Material Behavior ◽  
Spent Fuel ◽  
Radiation Emission ◽  
Storage Container ◽  
University Of Applied Sciences ◽  
Intermediate Storage

The continuing search for a long-term storage for highly-active nuclear waste in Germany requires a prolonged intermediate storage period of spent fuel in dry storage casks at the power plant sites. Currently, it is not sufficiently clear if there might be a loss of integrity of the fuel rods within such long periods, e.g. due to rising pressure from gaseous products of nuclear decay. Regarding a final evaluation, extrapolative modelling of the radiochemical and thermomechanical material behavior is challenging and not suitable for predictions on the condition of storage container inventory after the intermediate storage period. Therefore, it is of public interest to find measurement principles or methods which can provide information about the condition of the storage container inventory. In line with a cooperative project (project partners: Technical University Dresden, Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences) different measurement principles and methods (radiation emission, muon transmission, thermography, acoustical spectrometry) for non-invasive condition monitoring of the storage container inventory in case of prolonged intermediate storage are going to be investigated and evaluated. The results shall help to determine suitable methods for the identification of both changes of the spent fuel and inner container structure over long periods without opening the container and would be a significant contribution for the long-term safety of intermediately stored highly radioactive waste. Furthermore, suitable methods would provide information about the transport and conditioning ability of the waste before transfer to the repository. This paper deals with the content of the subproject of Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences as well as with the approach for project realization. A further main part of this paper is the development of experimental infrastructure to support the investigations.

scholarly journals Fundamental Research on Radiochemistry of Geological Nuclear Waste Disposal

2020 ◽  
Vol 74 (12) ◽  
pp. 1000-1009
Author(s):  
Sergey V. Churakov ◽  
Wolfgang Hummel ◽  
Maria Marques Fernandes
Keyword(s):  
Nuclear Waste ◽  
Waste Disposal ◽  
Nuclear Power ◽  
Background Concentration ◽  
Chemical Thermodynamics ◽  
Deep Geological Disposal ◽  
Fundamental Research ◽  
Intermediate Storage ◽  
Paul Scherrer

Currently, 5 · 1019 Bq of radioactive waste originating from the use of nuclear power for energy production, and medicine, industry and research, is maintained in Switzerland at intermediate storage facilities. Deep geological disposal of nuclear waste is considered as the most reliable and sustainable long-term solution worldwide. Alike the other European countries, the Swiss waste disposal concept embarks on the combination of engineered and geological barriers. The disposal cell is a complex geochemical system. The radionuclide mobility and consequently radiological impact depend not only on their chemical speciation but also on the background concentration of other stable nuclides and their behaviour in the natural environment. The safety assessment of the repository is thus a complex multidisciplinary problem requiring knowledge in chemical thermodynamics, structural chemistry, fluid dynamics, geo- and radiochemistry. Broad aspects of radionuclide thermodynamics and geochemistry are investigated in state-of-the-art radiochemical laboratories at the Paul Scherrer Institute. The research conducted over the last 30 years has resulted in a fundamental understanding of the radionuclides release, retention and transport mechanism in the repository system.

Design, Loading, Transport and Storage Experience of CASTOR® Casks for Vitrified High Level Waste

2003 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andre´ Voßnacke ◽  
Wilhelm Graf ◽  
Roland Hu¨ggenberg ◽  
Astrid Gisbertz
Keyword(s):  
Nuclear Power ◽  
High Performance ◽  
Power Plants ◽  
Nuclear Power Plants ◽  
High Level Waste ◽  
Spent Fuel ◽  
Highly Active ◽  
Dry Conditions ◽  
Intermediate Storage ◽  
High Level

The revised German Atomic Act together with the Agreement between the German Government and the German Utilities of June 11, 2001 form new boundary conditions that considerably influence spent fuel strategies by stipulation of lifetime limitations to nuclear power plants and termination of reprocessing. The contractually agreed return of reprocessing residues comprises some 156 casks containing vitrified highly active waste, the so-called HAW or glass canisters, coming form irradiated nuclear fuel assemblies to be shipped from COGEMA, France and BNFL, UK to Germany presumably until 2011. Several hundred casks with compacted residues and other waste will follow. The transports are scheduled presumably beyond 2020. The central interim storage facilities in Ahaus and Gorleben, formerly intended to accumulate up to 8,000 t of heavy metal (HM) of spent fuel from German nuclear power plants, offer sufficient capacity to receive the totality of residues to be returned from reprocessing abroad. GNB has developed, tested, licensed, fabricated, loaded, transported and stored a large number of casks for spent fuel and is one of the world leaders for delivering spent fuel and high level waste casks. Long-term intermediate storage of spent fuel is carried out under dry conditions using these casks that are licensed for transport as well as for storage. Standardized high performance casks such as the types CASTOR® HAW 20/28 CG, CASTOR® V/19 and CASTOR® V/52 meet the needs of most nuclear power plants in Germany. Up to now GNS has co-ordinated the loading and transport of 27 casks loaded with 28 canisters each from COGEMA back to Germany for storage in Gorleben for up to 40 years. In all but one case the cask type CASTOR® HAW 20/28 CG has been used.

Decommissioning of the A-1 NPP Long-Term Storage Facility

2009 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan Medved ◽  
Ladislav Vargovcik
Keyword(s):  
Nuclear Power ◽  
Water Jet ◽  
Stage I ◽  
Stage Ii ◽  
Storage Facility ◽  
Spent Fuel ◽  
Special Equipment ◽  
Long Term Storage ◽  
Term Storage

The paper deals with experience, techniques and new applied equipment durig undergoing decommissioning process of the A-1 NPP long-term pool storage and the follow-up decommissioning plan. For rad-waste disposal of the long-term pool storage (where most of the contaminants had remained following the removal of spent fuel) special equipment has been developed, designed, constructed and installed. The purpose of this equipment is the restorage, drainage and fragmentation of cartridges (used as a spent fuel case), as well as treatment of sludge (located at the pool bottom) and of the remaining liquid radwaste. The drainage equipment for cartridges is designed for discharging KCr2 solution from cartridges with spent fuel rods into the handling storage tank in the short-term storage facility and adjustment of the cartridges for railway transport, prior to the liquidation of the spent fuel rod. The equipment ensures full remote visual control of the process and exact monitoring of its technical parameters, including that of the internal nitrogen atmosphere concentration value. Cartridges without fuel and liquid filling are transferred to the equipment for their processing which includes fragmentation into smaller parts, decontamination, filling into drums with their sealed closing and measurement of radioactive dose. For the fragmentation, special shearing equipment is used which leaves the pipe fragment open for the following decontamination. For cleaning the cartridge bottom from radioactive sludge water jet system is used combined with slow speed milling used for preparing the opening for water jet nozzle. The sludge from the cartridge bottom is fixed into ceramic matrix. Nuclear Power Plant JE A-1 (since 1980 in decommissioning) is situated in the locality of Jaslovske´ Bohunice. So far the decommissioning of the Long-term storage was carried out within Stage I of A-1NPP decommissioning. This year the Stage I of decommissioning finished, and the performance of Stage II of decommissioning was started. Decommissioning of the long-term storage facility continues within Stage II of the A-1 NPP decommissioning process.

Dry Storage of the BR3 Spent Fuel in the CASTOR® BR3 Cask

2003 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luc Ooms ◽  
Vincent Massaut ◽  
L. Noynaert ◽  
M. Braeckeveldt ◽  
G. Geenen
Keyword(s):  
Spent Fuel ◽  
Dual Purpose ◽  
Shock Absorbers ◽  
Commercial Plant ◽  
Long Term Storage ◽  
Fuel Assemblies ◽  
Test Reactor ◽  
And Storage ◽  
Term Storage

The BR3 reactor was the first PWR plant installed in Europe. Started in 1962, BR3 was definitely shut down on June 30th, 1987. Used at the beginning of its life as a training device for commercial plant operators, it was also used during its whole life as test-reactor for new fuel types and assemblies. Most of the spent fuel was stored in the deactivation pool of the plant for more than 15 years. The reactor being now in decommissioning, it was decided to remove the spent fuel from the plant. After comparison of different solutions, the long term storage in dual purpose storage casks was selected in 1997. The selected CASTOR-BR3® cask is designed as a transport and storage cask for accommodating 30 spent fuel assemblies. As a type B(U) cask fitted with shock absorbers, it meets the transport requirements according to the IAEA guidelines and fulfils also the conditions for cask storage.

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