Design Process for Dual-Purpose Nuclear Spent Fuel Casks

Thermal assessment of new Ignalina NPP casks for spent nuclear fuel storage at some abnormal conditions

For interim storage of spent nuclear fuel (SNF) at the Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant (INPP), the so-called “dry” storage technology has been chosen. In this case, SNF after a cooling (pre-storage) period in water pools (no less than 5 years) is placed into GNS (Germany) manufactured metal CASTOR ® RBMK-1500 or reinforced concrete CONSTOR ® RBMK-1500 casks and may be stored for at least 50 years ...

Minimizing the Repository Volume for Spent Nuclear Fuel

When minimizing the size of the spent nuclear fuel repository, two parameters are important: the required total number of canisters and distance between neighbouring canisters (the canister array pitch). If the latter is kept fixed, the Canister Filling Problem arises. On the other hand, if the former is assumed minimal, we come across the Alternative Canister Filling Problem. Both problems are...

Cost analysis of the US spent nuclear fuel reprocessing facility

a r t i c l e i n f o The US Department of Energy is actively seeking ways in which to delay or obviate the need for additional nuclear waste repositories beyond Yucca Mountain. All of the realistic approaches require the reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel. However, the US currently lacks the infrastructure to do this and the costs of building and operating the required facilities are poorly es...

Partitioning and Transmutation of Spent Nuclear Fuel by Peacer

Challenges of managing long-living spent nuclear fuel wastes are to be technically overcome by a partitioning and transmutation system named as PEACER that is an abbreviation of its design goals: Proliferation-resistant, Environment-friendly, Accident-tolerant, Continuable and Economical Reactor. PEACER has been developed to manage spent nuclear fuels by uniquely combining Pb-Bi cooled critical...

Costs of Reprocessing Versus Directly Disposing of Spent Nuclear Fuel