United States high-level radioactive waste management programme: Current status and plans

1997 ◽  
Vol 211 (5) ◽  
pp. 381-392 ◽  
Author(s):  
J A Richardson
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Radioactive Waste ◽  
Waste Management ◽  
Nuclear Fuel ◽  
Nuclear Waste ◽  
Spent Nuclear Fuel ◽  
Management Programme ◽  
Spent Fuel ◽  
Dry Storage ◽  
High Level

Commercial reactor nuclear power generation in the United States is produced by 107 units and, during 1996, represented over 21 per cent of the nation's electricity generation in 34 of the 50 states and, through electric power wheeling, between states in most of the 48 contiguous states. Spent fuel is stored in fuel pools at 70 sites around the country and the projected rate of spent fuel production indicates that the current pool storage will be exceeded in the out years of 2000, 2010 and 2020 at 40, 67 and 69 of these sites respectively. The total accumulation projected by the end of 1996 at reactor sites is 33 700 metric tons of heavy metal (MTHM), with projections for increasing accumulations at annual rates of between 1800 and 2000 to produce an end of life for all commercial nuclear reactors of about 86 000 MTHM. There are presently eight facilities in six states with out-of-pool dry storage amounting to 1010 MTHM and this dry storage demand will increase. Based on all current commercial reactors achieving their 40 year licensed operation lifetimes, the dry storage needs will increase to 3128 MTHM at 28 sites and 20 states by 2000 and 11 307 MTHM at 58 sites in 32 states by 2010; the year 2010 is the present scheduled operation date for the federal mined geological disposal repository being characterized by the USDOE at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. The enabling statute for the federal high-level radioactive waste management programme is the 1982 Nuclear Waste Policy Act (NWPA) which charges the USDOE with the responsibility for the disposal of HLW and spent nuclear fuel. The Act also charges the utilities with the responsibility for managing their spent nuclear fuel until the USDOE can accept it into the federal waste management system. The funding for the federal programme is also stipulated by the Act with the creation of the Nuclear Waste Fund, through which the electric utilities entered into contract with the USDOE by payment of a fee of 1 mill per kilowatt hour sold and for which the USDOE would start collection of spent fuel from the reactor sites starting 31 January 1998.

scholarly journals The Need for Integrating the Back End of the Nuclear Fuel Cycle in the United States of America

MRS Advances ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (19) ◽  
pp. 991-1003 ◽  
Author(s):  
Evaristo J. Bonano ◽  
Elena A. Kalinina ◽  
Peter N. Swift
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Nuclear Fuel ◽  
United States Of America ◽  
Spent Nuclear Fuel ◽  
Fuel Cycle ◽  
Nuclear Fuel Cycle ◽  
The United States ◽  
Spent Fuel ◽  
Dry Storage ◽  
The Us

ABSTRACTCurrent practice for commercial spent nuclear fuel management in the United States of America (US) includes storage of spent fuel in both pools and dry storage cask systems at nuclear power plants. Most storage pools are filled to their operational capacity, and management of the approximately 2,200 metric tons of spent fuel newly discharged each year requires transferring older and cooler fuel from pools into dry storage. In the absence of a repository that can accept spent fuel for permanent disposal, projections indicate that the US will have approximately 134,000 metric tons of spent fuel in dry storage by mid-century when the last plants in the current reactor fleet are decommissioned. Current designs for storage systems rely on large dual-purpose (storage and transportation) canisters that are not optimized for disposal. Various options exist in the US for improving integration of management practices across the entire back end of the nuclear fuel cycle.

Site Investigations of Potential Repository Sites in Sweden

2003 ◽  
Vol 807 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Wikberg ◽  
Kaj Ahlbom ◽  
Olle Olsson
Keyword(s):  
Waste Management ◽  
Nuclear Fuel ◽  
Nuclear Waste ◽  
Spent Nuclear Fuel ◽  
Site Investigation ◽  
Management Programme ◽  
Nuclear Waste Management ◽  
Geologic Repository ◽  
The Public ◽  
Site Investigations

ABSTRACTThe Swedish nuclear waste management programme has entered the site investigation phase. Early 2002 SKB received permission from the municipalities of Östhammar and Oskarshamn to perform site investigations for a potential deep geologic repository for spent nuclear fuel. The goal of the site investigation phase is to obtain a permit to build the deep repository for spent nuclear fuel. In parallel with the investigations, consultations will be held with county administrative boards, regulatory authorities and municipalities, as well as with members of the public.

Developing a Concept for a National Used Fuel Interim Storage Facility in the United States

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donald Wayne Lewis
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Nuclear Fuel ◽  
Nuclear Waste ◽  
Spent Nuclear Fuel ◽  
The United States ◽  
Yucca Mountain ◽  
Storage Facility ◽  
Spent Fuel ◽  
Geological Repository ◽  
Interim Storage

In the United States (U.S.) the nuclear waste issue has plagued the nuclear industry for decades. Originally, spent fuel was to be reprocessed but with the threat of nuclear proliferation, spent fuel reprocessing has been eliminated, at least for now. In 1983, the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 [1] was established, authorizing development of one or more spent fuel and high-level nuclear waste geological repositories and a consolidated national storage facility, called a “Monitored Retrievable Storage” facility, that could store the spent nuclear fuel until it could be placed into the geological repository. Plans were under way to build a geological repository, Yucca Mountain, but with the decision by President Obama to terminate the development of Yucca Mountain, a consolidated national storage facility that can store spent fuel for an interim period until a new repository is established has become very important. Since reactor sites have not been able to wait for the government to come up with a storage or disposal location, spent fuel remains in wet or dry storage at each nuclear plant. The purpose of this paper is to present a concept developed to address the DOE’s goals stated above. This concept was developed over the past few months by collaboration between the DOE and industry experts that have experience in designing spent nuclear fuel facilities. The paper examines the current spent fuel storage conditions at shutdown reactor sites, operating reactor sites, and the type of storage systems (transportable versus non-transportable, welded or bolted). The concept lays out the basis for a pilot storage facility to house spent fuel from shutdown reactor sites and then how the pilot facility can be enlarged to a larger full scale consolidated interim storage facility.

Technology Development to Support OCRWM Transportation Activities

2004 ◽  
Author(s):  
William H. Lake ◽  
Nancy Slater-Thompson ◽  
Ned Larson ◽  
Franchone Oshinowo
Keyword(s):  
Radioactive Waste ◽  
Waste Management ◽  
Private Sector ◽  
Nuclear Fuel ◽  
Spent Nuclear Fuel ◽  
Technology Development ◽  
Yucca Mountain ◽  
Department Of Energy ◽  
High Level ◽  
Transportation Program

Technology development activities are being conducted by the Department of Energy, Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management to support spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste transport to the federal repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada in 2010. The paper discusses the motivation for pursuing transport technologies for a private sector operated transportation program, and describes some of the current technologies being pursued.

Near field evolution of a spent fuel repository in an argillaceous rock formation and impact on radionuclide migration

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vanessa Montoya ◽  
Orlando Silva ◽  
Emilie Coene ◽  
Jorge Molinero ◽  
Renchao Lu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Ion Exchange ◽  
Radioactive Waste ◽  
Nuclear Fuel ◽  
Reactive Transport ◽  
Spent Nuclear Fuel ◽  
Near Field ◽  
Spent Fuel ◽  
Exchange Reactions ◽  
Radionuclide Migration ◽  
High Level

<p>In August 2015, the German government approved the national programme for the responsible and safe management of spent nuclear fuel (SNF) and radioactive waste proposed by the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Reactor Safety (BMU). The assumption is that about ~ 1 100 storage casks (10 500 tons of heavy metal) in the form of spent fuel assemblies will be generated in nuclear power plants and will have to be disposed. However, a decision on the disposal concept for high-level waste is pending and an appropriate solution has to be developed with a balance in multiple aspects. All potential types of host rocks, clay and salt stones as well as crystalline formations are under consideration. In the decision process, evaluation of the risk of different waste management options and scenarios play an enormous role in the discussion. Coupled physical and chemical processes taking place within the engineered barrier system of a repository for high-level radioactive waste will define the radionuclide mobility/retention and the possible radiological impact. The objective of this work is to assess coupled processes occurring in the near-field of a generic repository for spent nuclear fuel in a high saline clay host rock, integrating complex geochemical processes at centimetre-scale. The scenario considers that radionuclides can be released during a period of thousands of years after full saturation of the bentonite barrier and the thermal phase.</p><p>Transport parameters and the discretization of the system, are implemented in a 2D axisymmetric geometry. The multi-barrier system is emplaced in clay and a solubility limited source term for the selected radionuclides is assumed. Kinetics and chemical equilibria reactions are simulated using parameters obtained from experiments. Additionally, porosity changes due to mineral precipitation/dissolution and feedback on the effective diffusion coefficient are taken into account. Protonation/deprotonation, ion exchange reactions and radionuclide inner-sphere sorption is considered.</p><p>Numerical simulations show, that, when the canister corrosion starts, the redox potential decreases, magnetite precipitates and H<sub>2</sub> is formed. Furthermore, the aqueous concentration of Fe(II) increases due to the presence of magnetite. By considering binding to montmorillonite via ion exchange reactions, the bentonite acts as a sink for Fe(II). Additionally, magnetite forms a chemical barrier offering significant sorption capacity for many radionuclides. Finally, a decrease of porosity in the bentonite/canister interface leads to a further deceleration of radionuclide migration. Due to the complexity of reactive transport processes in saline environments, benchmarking of reactive transport models (RTM) is important also to build confidence in those modelling approaches. Development of RTM benchmark procedures is part of the iCROSS project (Integrity of nuclear waste repository systems - Cross-scale system understanding and analysis) funded by both the Helmholtz Association and the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF).</p><p> </p>

Simulation and Analysis: The Dose Distribution of KBS-3 Spent Nuclear Fuel Canister by MCNP

2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bo Yang ◽  
He-xi Wu ◽  
Yi-bao Liu
Keyword(s):  
Cast Iron ◽  
Radioactive Waste ◽  
Nuclear Fuel ◽  
Nuclear Power ◽  
Power Plants ◽  
Spent Nuclear Fuel ◽  
Ductile Cast Iron ◽  
Nuclear Industry ◽  
Spent Fuel ◽  
High Level

With the sustained and rapid development of the nuclear power plants, the spent fuel which is produced by the nuclear power plants will be rapidly rising. Spent fuel is High-level radioactive waste and should be disposed safely, which is important for the environment of land, public safety and health of the nuclear industry, the major issues of sustainable development and it is also necessary part for the nuclear industry activities. It is important to study and resolve the high-level radioactive waste repository problem. Spent nuclear fuel is an important component in the radioactive waste, The KBS-3 canister for geological disposal of spent nuclear fuel in Sweden consists of a ductile cast iron insert and a copper shielding. The ductile cast iron insert provides the mechanical strength whereas the copper protects the canister from corrosion. The canister inserts material were referred to as I24, I25 and I26, Spent nuclear fuel make the repository in high radiant intensity. The radiation analysis of canister insert is important in canister transport, the dose analysis of repository and groundwater radiolysis. Groundwater radiolysis, which produces oxidants (H2O2 and O2), will break the deep repository for spent nuclear fuel. The dose distribution of canister surface with different kinds of canister inserts (I24, I25 and I26) is calculated by MCNP (Ref. 1). Analysing the calculation results, we offer a reference for selecting canister inserts material.

scholarly journals Neutron Activation of Structural Materials of a Dry Storage System for Spent Nuclear Fuel and Implications for Radioactive Waste Management

Energies ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (20) ◽  
pp. 5325
Author(s):  
Se Geun Lee ◽  
Jae Hak Cheong
Keyword(s):  
Radioactive Waste ◽  
Waste Management ◽  
Nuclear Fuel ◽  
Spent Nuclear Fuel ◽  
Storage Systems ◽  
Storage System ◽  
Residual Activity ◽  
Sensitivity Analyses ◽  
Dry Storage ◽  
Residual Radioactivity

In order to estimate the radiological characteristics of disused dry storage systems for spent nuclear fuel, a stepwise framework to calculate neutron sources (ORIGEN-ARP), incident neutron flux and reaction rate (MCNPX), effective cross-section (hand calculation), and residual activity (ORIGEN-2) was established. Applicability of the framework was demonstrated by comparing the residual activity of a commercialized storage system, HI-STORM 100, listed in the safety analysis report and calculated in this study. For a reference case assuming an impurity-free storage system, the modified effective cross-sections were theoretically interpreted and the need for managing disused components as a radioactive waste for at least four years was demonstrated. Sensitivity analyses showed that the higher burnup induces the higher residual radioactivity, and the impurity 59Co may extend the minimum decay-in-storage period up to 51 years within the reported range of 59Co content in stainless steel. The extended long-term storage over 100 years, however, caused no significant increase in residual radioactivity. Impurity control together with appropriate decay-in-storage was proposed as an effective approach to minimize the secondary radioactive waste arising from disused dry storage systems. The results of this study could be used to optimize the decommissioning and waste management plan regarding interim storage of spent fuel.

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