End point determination for spent nuclear fuel drying operations

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...

Phenomena Affecting Used Nuclear Fuel Cladding Temperatures during Vacuum Drying Operations

A two-dimensional computational model of a loaded used nuclear fuel canister filled with helium gas was constructed to predict the cladding temperature during vacuum drying conditions. It includes distinct regions for the fuel pellets, cladding and helium within each basket opening. Symmetry boundary conditions are employed so that only one-eighth of the package cross-section is included, and t...

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