The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is responsible for issuing regulations for the
packaging of spent fuel (and other large quantities of radioactive material) for transport that
provide for public health and safety during transport (Title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations
(10 CFR) Part 71, “Packaging and Transportation of Radioactive Waste,” dated
January 26, 2004). In September 1977, the NRC published NUREG-0170, “Final Environmental
Statement on the Transportation of Radioactive Material by Air and Other Modes,” which

This presentation was given by Earl Easton at the 2011 National State Liaison Officers Conference in Bethesda, MD.

The presentation highlights the current state of spent nuclear fuel as well as the progress toward its ultimate disposal.

The Industry Spent Fuel Storage Handbook (“the Handbook”) addresses the relevant aspects of at-reactor spent (or used) nuclear fuel (SNF) storage in the United States. With the prospect of SNF being stored at reactor sites for the foreseeable future, it is expected that all U.S. nuclear power plants will have to implement at-reactor dry storage by 2025 or shortly thereafter. The Handbook provides a broad overview of recent developments for storing SNF at U.S. reactor sites, focusing primarily on at-reactor dry storage of SNF.

The Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) convened a workshop of over 40 representatives of the nuclear industry, federal government, national laboratories, and suppliers of used-fuel dry-storage systems to discuss the potential issues associated with extended dry storage of used fuel, that is, storage considerably beyond the term of current and recently proposed U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) regulations. The workshop was held November 18-19, 2009, at EPRI's offices in Washington, DC.

As nuclear power plants began to run out of storage capacity in spent nuclear fuel (SNF) storage pools, many nuclear operating companies added higher density pool storage racks to increase pool capacity. Most nuclear power plant storage pools have been re-racked one or more times. As many spent fuel storage pools were re-racked to the maximum extent possible, nuclear operating companies began to employ interim dry storage technologies to store SNF in certified casks and canister-based systems outside of the storage pool in independent spent fuel storage installations (ISFSIs).

Spent nuclear fuel comprises a fraction of the hazardous materials packages shipped annually in the United States. In fact, at the present time, fewer than 100 packages of spent nuclear fuel are shipped annually. At the onset of spent fuel shipments to the proposed Yucca Mountain, Nevada, repository, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) expects to ship 400 - 500 spent fuel transport casks per year over the life of the facility.

In May 2003, The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) formed a Committee on Transportation of Radioactive Waste (NAS Committee) to examine the transportation of spent nuclear fuel (SNF) and high-level radioactive waste (HLW) in the United States. The focus of this study was on the transportation of SNF in the United States.

Following the massive earthquake and resulting tsunami damage in March of 2011 at the Fukushima
Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan, interest was amplified for what was done for recovery at the Three
Mile Island Unit 2 (TMI-2) in the United States following its meltdown in 1979. Many parallels could be
drawn between to two accidents. This paper presents the results of research done into the TMI-2 recovery
effort and its applicability to the Fukushima Daiichi cleanup. This research focused on three topics:

This document provides the background and basis for the operational waste stream used in the 2000 Total System Life Cycle Cost (TSLCC) estimate for the Civilian Radioactive Waste Management System (CRWMS). This document has been developed in accordance with its Development Plan (CRWMS M&O 2000a), and AP-3.11Q, ''Technical Reports''.

This Plan outlines the Department of Energy’s (DOE) current strategy and planning for
developing and implementing the transportation system required to transport spent nuclear fuel
(SNF) and high-level radioactive waste (HLW) from where the material is generated or stored to
the proposed repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. The Plan describes how DOE’s Office of
Civilian Radioactive Waste Management (OCRWM) intends to develop and implement a safe,
secure and efficient transportation system and how stakeholder collaboration will contribute to

This document provides specifications for selected system components of the Transportation, Aging and Disposal (TAD) canister-based system. A list of system specified components and ancillary components are included in Section
1.2.

The Department of Energy (DOE) is studying a site at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, for a
permanent underground repository for highly radioactive spent fuel from nuclear reactors,
but delays have pushed back the facility’s opening date to 2010 at the earliest. In the
meantime, spent fuel is accumulating at U.S. nuclear plant sites at the rate of about 2,000
metric tons per year. Major options for managing those growing quantities of nuclear spent
fuel include continued storage at reactors, construction of a DOE interim storage site near

Presented at WM'03 Conference, Tucson, AZ, February 23-27, 2003

At the request of the U.S. Congress, the National Academies assessed the safety and
security of spent nuclear fuel stored in pools and dry casks at commercial nuclear power
plants in the United States. The public report can be viewed on the National Academies
Press website at http://books.nap.edu/catalog/11263.html.

The purpose of this document is to provide the requirements rationale for the current version of the Preliminary Transportation, Aging and Disposal Canister System Performance Specification; WMO-TADCS-000001.

This report was prepared in accordance with Technical Work Plan for: Regulatory Integration Modeling and Analysis of the Waste Form and Waste Package (BSC 2004 [DIRS 171583]). This report provides information on the phase stability of Alloy 221, the current waste package outer barrier material. The goal of this model is to determine whether the single-phase solid solution is stable under repository conditions and, if not, how fast other phases may precipitate.

The Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 (NWPA), as amended, assigned the Department of
Energy (DOE) responsibility for developing and managing a Federal system for the disposal of
spent nuclear fuel (SNF) and high-level radioactive waste (HLW). The Office of Civilian
Radioactive Waste Management (OCRWM) is responsible for accepting, transporting, and
disposing of SNF and HLW at the Yucca Mountain repository (if licensed) in a manner that
protects public health, safety, and the environment; enhances national and energy security; and

This design calculation updates the previous criticality evaluation for the fuel handling, transfer, and staging operations to be performed in the Dry Transfer Facility (DTF) including the remediation area. The purpose of the calculation is to demonstrate that operations performed in the DTF and RF meet the nuclear criticality safety design criteria specified in the Project Design Criteria (PDC) Document (BSC 2004 [DIRS 171599], Section 4.9.2.2), the nuclear facility safety requirement in Project Requirements Document (Canori and Leitner 2003 [DIRS 166275], p.

Because there is currently no designated disposal site for used nuclear fuel in the United States, the nation faces the prospect of extended long‐term storage (i.e., >60 years) and deferred transportation of used fuel at operating and decommissioned nuclear power plant sites. Under U.S. federal regulations contained in Title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) 72.42, the initial license term for an Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installation (ISFSI) must not exceed 40 years from the date of issuance. Licenses may be renewed by the U.S.

Presented at the NEI Used Fuel Management Conference, St. Petersburg, FL, May 7-9, 2013

Presented at the NEI Used Fuel Management Conference, St. Petersburg, FL, May 7-9, 2013