Reliable information about the coronavirus covid19 is available from the world health organization current situation, international travel. Spent nuclear fuel an overview sciencedirect topics. Nuclear waste storage in minnesota minnesota issues. Once the spent fuel has cooled, it is loaded into special canisters. In germany, a site for a final repository of spent fuel is not yet available. Dry cask storage is also required as a result of delays in the construction of a permanent storage facility yucca mountain. The conference gave an opportunity to exchange information on the state of the art and. Fuel handling is currently a manual operation in most instances. Spent nuclear fuel has been stored safely in pools or dry systems for decades in over 30 countries. Snc utilizes the general license issued pursuant to 10 cfr 72. Until this snf is removed from these nine sites, the sites cannot be fully decommissioned and made available for other purposes. Edf energy and holtec complete the uks first dry fuel store. The snc fleet uses the holtec historm 100 systems for storage of spent fuel in the isfsis. Other nations are taking spent fuel vulnerabilities very seriously.
This paper explores the current design options of dry storage cask systems and examines some of the current design issues for above ground, inground, or belowground storage of spent fuel in dry casks. Good design is crucial to the safe operation of spent fuel storage facilities because spent fuel must be received, handled, stored and retrieved without undue. After nuclear fuel rods have been used up, theyre cooled in pools of water. Operation and maintenance of spent fuel storage and. The cask must keep spent fuel cladding below 752 degrees fahrenheit during normal storage conditionsa limit that, based on the material properties of the cladding, will prevent it from degrading. As a part of a comprehensive program of chernobyl npp decommissioning and shelter facility transforming into an ecologically safe system, construction of the repository for spent nuclear fuel isf for the disposal of nuclear waste by the method of dry storage was provided. Mar 22, 2011 the rest of the spent fuel from commercial u. It required that spent fuel in temporary storage facilities be moved to permanent storage within three years after a permanent waste repository went into operation. Regional coopera tion on spent fuel management offers many benefits, as well as. Onsite storage of spent fuel transfer of spent fuel between sfp and storage facility construction of tisf on the koeberg site national nuclear regulator conditional concurrence from the national nuclear regulator of the koeberg spent fuel storage strategy licensing framework approved rd0034 pp0012 qcps audits. Edisons artificial deadline of june 2019 to have all canisters loaded should not be the driving factor for the future of california. Epri said that the study entitled impacts associated with transfer of spent nuclear fuel from spent fuel storage pools to dry storage after five years of cooling, revision 1 is expected to be useful in informing policy and operational decisions regarding the handling and. The fuel storage facility site, selected from eight carefully researched areas, is located on cys property about threequarters of a mile from the former reactor site.
Spent fuel and waste disposition department of energy. Regional cooperation for nuclear spent fuel management in east. The book finds that successful terrorist attacks on spent fuel pools, though difficult, are possible. On the day 1 we shall mostly describe the current status of in. Experience in longterm storage there are two options for longterm storage of spent fuel. Oclcs webjunction has pulled together information and resources to assist library staff as they consider how to handle coronavirus. Millstone1 unf is all in wet storage in the spent fuel pool at that unit. In may 2008, xcel energy announced that it would seek permission from the minnesota public utilities commission to add more dry casks at the prairie island facility. Germany is seeking ways to harden its drystored spent fuel in even more robust containers. Typical dry cask storage system at many nuclear reactors across the world, spent fuel is kept on site, above ground, in various storage. Safety and security of commercial spent nuclear fuel storage. In the late 1970s the need for alternative spent fuel storage began to grow when spent fuel pools at many nuclear reactor sites began to fill up with stored spent fuel. The first step for commercial spent fuel begins with developing a pilot interim storage facility that will mainly accept used nuclear fuel from reactors that have already been shut down. This spent nuclear fuel is mostly stored wet, submerged in pools of water.
From the uranium mine to waste disposal 7 the nuclear fuel cycle 2 contents 3 introduction fuel is a material that can be burnt to pro vide heat. These sscs ensure that important safety functions are met. Spent fuel is not waste while the option of reprocessing the fuel remains open the current assumption is that the spent nuclear fuel from new uk reactors will not be reprocessed spent fuel overview policies spent fuel. Therefore high priority should be given to spent fuel storage options in program planning.
However, the spent fuel needs to cool in the pools for a number of years, so we have time to do a better job selecting a dry cask storage system. Safety and security of commercial spent nuclear fuel is an unclassified public summary of a more detailed classified book. Jan 31, 2020 there are two acceptable storage methods for spent fuel after it is removed from the reactor core. Only one power plant an older plant at obrigheim has wet interim pool storage in a bunkered building. In the 60s and 70s, utilities expected to be able to send the spent fuel to a reprocessing facility after about 1. Dry casks are currently used to store spent nuclear fuel at 15 nuclear power plants in states, and are proposed for several additional locations, including one in connecticut. For most of its history with nuclear power, japanese official policy has been to recycle the. Behaviour of spent power reactor fuel during storage. Summary of design criteria for dry cask storage systems for. Economics of spent fuel storage options at reactor sites. Spent fuel rods are both radioactive and thermally hot, and they must be left to cool off underwater for at least five years before they are moved to dry cask storage 4. The good news is that weve got a viable stopgap solution. Zircaloy and stainlesssteel clad, waterreactor fuels. Twg on nuclear fuel cycle options and spent fuel management twgnfco focused on nuclear fuel cycle options with an emphasis on spent fuel management storage and reprocessing and recycling, innovative fuel cycles and nuclear.
Options for management of spent fuel and radioactive waste iaea. Apr 08, 2015 managing nuclear materials and spent fuels. Deterioration by ciscc can lead to canister penetration, potentially releasing helium and radioactive gases, and permitting air ingress which could pose a threat to fuel rod integrity. The purpose of a pilot facility is to begin the process of accepting spent fuel from utilities, while also developing and perfecting protocols and procedures. The spent fuel seminar provides a forum for the exchange of the newest technical information related to all aspects of spent fuel management. International nuclear waste disposal concepts updated april 2020 there have been several proposals for regional and international repositories for disposal of highlevel nuclear waste, and in 2003 the concept received strong endorsement from the head of the international atomic energy agency. Concerns, issues, and developments, tecdoc359 1985. For the purposes of this report all twenty shutdown reactors with unf and gtcc waste remaining at 17 sites will be evaluated.
Storage spent fuel sellafield storage in various ponds awaiting reprocessing or for. Commercial nuclear energy in an unstable, carbon constrained world prague, march 2008 storage v disposal of spent fuel. Typical dry cask storage system at some nuclear reactors across the country, spent fuel is kept on site, above ground, in systems basically similar to the ones shown here. Numerous and frequentlyupdated resource results are available from this search. Spent fuel pools currently, most spent nuclear fuel is safely stored in specially designed pools at individual reactor sites around the country. Wet storage, which is the proven technology for storing oxide fuel for the long term. Multiannual programmes twg on nuclear fuel cycle options and spent fuel management twgnfco focused on nuclear fuel cycle options with an emphasis on spent fuel management storage and reprocessing and recycling, innovative fuel cycles and nuclear. Such guidance is required to define and control the extent and quality of the facility, and will assist the designer in preparing technical documentation. Dry cask storage licensees may also store spent nuclear fuel in dry cask storage systems at. Planned activities on smr spent fuel and recommendations from. For spent fuel that has exited the reactor core, until it enters a permanent repository or is reprocessed, few storage options are available. Global market for nuclear spent fuel focus on dry storage 2015. The fuel storage facility site, selected from eight carefully researched areas, is located on cys property about threequarters of a.
Each canister is designed to hold approximately 26 dozen spent fuel assemblies, depending on the type of. Spent fuel pools sfp are storage pools or ponds uk usage for spent fuel from nuclear reactors. Spent nuclear fuel is typically stored either in spent fuel pools either at reactor sites or, in the case of the ge morris facility, away. The ultimate objectives of spent fuel dry storage are to prevent a gross rupture of the spent fuel during operation and to keep its retrievability until transportation because storage implementation was born conceptually as an intermediate method before a permanent decision. Spent nuclear fuel storage congressional research service this report focuses on the current situation with spent nuclear fuel storage in the united states. Us used fuel storage options assessed world nuclear news. Utilities began looking at options, such as dry cask storage, to increase spent fuel storage capacity. Nuclear powers energy output per amount of fuel is overwhelmingly large and it can. Aug 31, 2015 the search for interim spent nuclear fuel storage in south korea. Spent nuclear fuelthe used fuel removed from nuclear power reactorsis expected to accumulate at an average rate of about 2,200 metric tons per year in the united states. Geological disposal feasibility studies exploring options. Successful completion of the new dry fuel store means sizewell b can continue producing reliable low carbon power to supply 2. Sfwd has two offices that cover different aspects of this oversight.
After an extensive analyses and comparison of fuel pool and dry cask storage options, cy chose the dry cask option for storing its 1019 spent fuel assemblies. An international conference on storage of spent fuel from power reactors was held in vienna from 2 to 6 june 2003. Interim storage of spent nuclear fuel woods hole research center. There are two acceptable storage methods for spent fuel after it is removed from the reactor core. All information in the spreadsheet is obtained from publicly available documents, but may not be entirely accurate due to the evolving nature of this information. As of the end of 2007, six of the nine sites have developed independent spent fuel storage. The spent fuel pool criticality management database ml212a064 lists the means by which each operating spent fuel pool in the entire us fleet meets its subcriticality requirement. Longterm storage of spent nuclear fuel request pdf. Plants have storage pools which are closely associated with the operating units. Safety and security of commercial spent nuclear fuel. With the yucca mountain geologic repository for spent nuclear fuel not expected to be available until at least 2010, nuclear power plant owners are increasingly looking at onsite dry cask storage. Citeseerx spent fuel storage dry storage options and. Options for management of spent fuel and radioactive waste for countries developing new nuclear.
Special sessions are arranged on safeguards, international and domestic management, packaging and transportation, information surety, inspections, containment and surveillance, measurement technology. Measured by mass of snf, there is a slightly higher percentage 83% of snf stored in wet pools 40,260 out of 54,092 mtu at eastern sites compared to the national share of snf in wet storage 73%, or 49,338 out of 67,450 mtu. The 2003 law had authorized enough dry casks to store spent fuel until the end of the operating licenses in 20 and 2014. A discussion of alternative spent fuel storage options. Spent fuel rods give off about 1 million rems 10,00sv of radiation per hour at a distance of one foot enough radiation to kill people in a matter of seconds. Department of energy and private spent fuel storage facilities by law, the spent fuel and the plutonium in the fuel has always belonged to the us government. Point1 is in dry storage at the isfsis on those sites and these two spent fuel pools sfps have been decommissioned. Spent nuclear fuel, occasionally called used nuclear fuel, is nuclear fuel that has been irradiated in a nuclear reactor usually at a nuclear power plant. The alternatives to storing nuclear waste at yucca mountain. The main aim is to provide spent fuel management policy making organizations, designers, scientists and spent fuel storage facility operators with the latest information on spent fuel storage technology under wet and dry conditions. Once spent fuel is in dry storage, there are additional challenges, such as. These storage methods are designed to last for no more than a few decades, until a permanent underground repository can be built and openedassuming such a thing ever. It does not address all of the issues associated with permanent disposal of snf, but rather focuses. The longer spent fuel is stored, the less selfprotecting it becomes as the strongly radiating shorter lived isotopes that provide the protection continue to decay, and thus as it becomes less radioactive, the greater security risk it presents.
With nearly 100 tables and figures, this report on the global market for nuclear spent fuel focus on dry storage is a complete coverage of this market with data coverage from the year 2002. The property tax treatment of dry cask facilities which includes the casks, the concrete pads on which they sit, storage buildings, and other equipment varies from. These objectives have led to active spent fuel integrity evaluation research prior to storage system development. The license for the storage of spent nuclear fuel assemblies in dry casks is limited to 40 years. Review of international spent fuel storage and disposal strategies, 2014 iaea spent fuel management conference 2015 paper 48 nnl has recently provided advice to the romanian nuclear agency and radioactive waste andr. Recently, spent fuel dry storage demands, rather than wet storage, are continuously increasing in other nuclear countries owing to various advantages such as easy system installation, expandability, transportability, economical efficiency, safety, and public acceptance. Recycling spent fuel rods recovers uranium called repu. Citeseerx document details isaac councill, lee giles, pradeep teregowda. Spent fuel storage systems may therefore have to be maintained for longer periods of time, possibly for more than 100 years, which induces research and development to be carried out and ageing management programme to be established to demonstrate the safety case of long term spent fuel storage. Data on spent fuel storage at reactors in the united states. Spent fuel pools currently, most spent nuclear fuel is safely stored in specially designed pools at individual reactor sites around the country dry cask storage licensees may also store spent nuclear fuel in dry cask storage systems at independent spent fuel storage.
It is no longer useful in sustaining a nuclear reaction in an ordinary thermal reactor and depending on its point along the nuclear fuel cycle, it may have considerably different isotopic constituents. Report to congress on plan for interim storage of spent. Spent fuel storage in pools and dry casks key points and. To design reliable and safe geological repositories it is critical to understand how the characteristics of spent nuclear fuel evolve with time, and how this affects the storage environment. Spent fuel because the united states is hesitant to embrace yucca mountain and longterm storage of spent fuel politically, an emphasis on recycling spent fuel rods will likely be seen in the future. In particular, it deals with the impact of storage quantity, storage period, storage methods, financing, and the process from planning and construc. The search for interim spent nuclear fuel storage in south. Nuclear waste storage and disposal problems greentumble. Report to congress on the demonstration of the interim storage of spent nuclear fuel 2. There are key political and social constraints on fuel storage options in both. Inlext1640471 atr spent fuel management options study michael j. Plans call for a continued expansion in south koreas fleet of nuclear reactors, but at the same time, facilities for the temporary storage of spent fuel, mostly in atreactor pools, continue to fill up. Apr 05, 2016 the dry fuel store will safely house spent fuel from sizewell b from autumn 2016 onwards until a geological disposal facility is available for the longer term storage of spent fuel.
Sep 07, 2000 dry casks are currently used to store spent nuclear fuel at 15 nuclear power plants in states, and are proposed for several additional locations, including one in connecticut. However, for the first five years after discharge from a reactor, spent fuel assemblies generate too much heat to be safely stored in dry canisters or casks. Radioactive nuclear waste sits on great lakes shores. The most familiar fuels are wood, coal, natural gas and oil. Longterm storage of spent nuclear fuel nature materials. The conference was organized by the international atomic energy agency in cooperation with the oecd nuclear energy agency. Finding longterm solutions for nuclear waste department. The amount of spent fuel stored onsite at commercial nuclear reactors will continue to accumulateincreasing by about 2,000 metric tons per year and likely more than doubling to about 140,000 metric tonsbefore it can be moved offsite, because storage or disposal facilities may take decades to develop.
Two options are available for storing spent fuel wet storage in pools of water and dry storage in canisters or casks. Overview on spent fuel management the options for spent fuel management chosen by each member state can be generally categorized into three groups. The fuel must also remain below 1058 degrees in offnormal or accident conditions such as if a cask were dropped while it is being positioned on. The increase in the number of nuclear energy power generation facilities will require the ability to store the spent nuclear fuel for a long period until the host countries develop reprocessing or disposal options. Interim storage of used or spent nuclear fuel february 2008 background for position statement 76 american nuclear society outreach program 708 3526611 federal affairs 708 3526611. Mar 21, 2011 coakley warns on spent fuel rods ag says storage at vt.
They are typically 40 or more feet 12 m deep, with the bottom 14 feet 4. Independent spent fuel storage installations isfsi, also known. Independent spent fuel storage installations isfsis i. With respect to management of its inventory of spent candu fuel, involving evaluation of options. Planned activities on smr spent fuel and recommendations.