Understanding the changing nuclear and mechanical characteristics of used nuclear fuel (UNF) over time and how these changing characteristics affect storage, transportation, and disposal options can require many tools and types of data. To streamline analysis capabilities for the waste management system, a comprehensive, integrated data and analysis tool has been assembled—UNF-Storage, Transportation & Disposal Analysis Resource and Data System (UNF-ST&DARDS).

Presentation made at the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) Extended Storage Collaboration Project (ESCP) meeting November 2016 discussing the status of nondestructive examinations being performed on high burnup (HBU) sent nuclear fuel (SNF) rods at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and proposed destructive examinations that will be performed over the next several years.

The U.S. industry’s limited efforts at licensing transportation packages characterized as “highcapacity,”
or containing “high-burnup” (>45 GWd/MTU) commercial spent nuclear fuel
(CSNF), or both, have not been successful considering existing spent-fuel inventories that will
have to be eventually transported. A holistic framework is proposed for resolving several CSNF
transportation issues. The framework considers transportation risks, spent-fuel and cask-design

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.

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

This report investigates trends in the radiological decay properties and changes in relative nuclide importance associated with increasing enrichments and burnup for spent LWR fuel as they affect the areas of criticality safety, thermal analysis (decay heat), and shielding analysis of spent fuel transport and storage casks. To facilitate identifying the changes in the spent fuel compositions that most directly impact these application areas, the dominant nuclides in each area have been identified and ranked by importance.

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

The work reported here is an investigation of the sensitivity of component temperatures in a specific storage system, including fuel cladding temperatures, in response to modeling assumptions that differ from design-basis, including age-related changes that could degrade the thermal behavior of the system. Preliminary evaluations of representative horizontal and vertical storage systems at design basis conditions provides general insight into the expected behavior of storage systems over extended periods of time.