DOE Yucca Implementation Letter
DOE Yucca Implementation Letter
Letter from the Congress of the United States House of Representatives, Committee on Energy and Commerce.
Letter from the Congress of the United States House of Representatives, Committee on Energy and Commerce.
The objectives of this report are to document the development of data and assumptions used in
developing the transportation modules of the Total System Model (TSM) and to demonstrate that
transportation and transportation timing work correctly. This validation supports the
Transportation Design and Basis Report (BSC 2007a) and is issued with Version 6.0 of the TSM.
This report is largely based on the analysis approach and content in the transportation calculation
provided for TSM Version 4.0 (BSC 2006a). Much of the information in that report is repeated
The results of an extensive update of the decay data of the ORIGEN-S library are presented
in this report. The updated decay data were provided for both the ORIGEN-S and ORIGEN2
libraries in the same project. A complete edit of the decay data plus the available half-life
uncertainties are included in Appendix A. A detailed description of the types of data contained in the
library, the format of the library, and the data sources are also presented. Approximately 24% of the
At the request of the staff to the Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future (“BRC”), we have reviewed whether certain recommendations in the BRC’s July 29, 2011 Draft Report respecting near-term actions by the Department of Energy (“DOE”) or other officers or agencies in the Executive Branch can be implemented under existing law. These recommendations relate to:
(1) Initial steps to site, license and construct consolidated interim storage facilities for spent nuclear fuel (“spent fuel”);
An Account of the Programs of Federal Agencies and Events That Have Led to the Selection of a Potential Site for a Geologic Repository for High-Level Radioactive Waste
The validity of the computation of pressurized-water-reactor (PWR) spent fuel isotopic
composition by the SCALE system depletion analysis was assessed using data presented in the report.
Radiochemical measurements and SCALE/SAS2H computations of depleted fuel isotopics were
compared with 19 benchmark-problem samples from Calvert Cliffs Unit 1, H. B. Robinson Unit 2,
and Obrigheim PWRs. Even though not exhaustive in scope, the validation included comparison of
predicted and measured concentrations for 14 actinides and 37 fission and activation products.
This report provides details of dry storage cask systems and contents in U.S. for commercial light water
reactor fuel. Section 2 contains details on the canisters used to store approximately 86% of assemblies in
dry storage in the U.S. Transport cask details for bare fuels, dual purpose casks and canister transport
casks are included in Section 3. Section 4 details the inventory of those shutdown sites without any
operating reactors. Information includes the cask type deployed, transport license and status as well as
Gentlemen,
In accordance with the charter of the Blue Ribbon Commission on America's Nuclear Future and as the Secretary's designee, I approve your request to establish an ad hoc subcommittee to review and make a recommendation to the Commission regarding the co-mingling of defense and commercial waste.
This letter also serves to appoint Dr. Allison Macfarlane as the chair of the subcommittee and the membership of the subcommittee as identified in your letter to me dated October 31, 2011.
The OECD Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) Forum on Stakeholder Confidence (FSC) acts as a centre for informed exchange of knowledge and experience regarding stakeholder interaction and public participation in radioactive waste management. It promotes an open discussion among members and stakeholders, across institutional boundaries, and between technical and non-technical actors, in an atmosphere of trust and mutual respect. As such, the FSC is, first and foremost, a learning organisation.
Crystal River Unit 3 License Renewal Application being renewed by Florida Power Corporation, doing business as Progress Energy Florida, Inc.
This validation report supports the issuance of Version 6.0 of the Total System Model (TSM, BSC 2007a) that is described in the TSM User Manual (UM, BSC 2007b) and the TSM Preprocessor (TSMPP) User Manual (BSC 2007c). This report assumes the reader has detailed, working knowledge of the TSM functions and the Civilian Radioactive Waste Management System (CRWMS) operations. This report is based on an earlier document, Validation Report: Total System Model Version 5.0 Report Generators (BSC 2007d) that supported TSM Version 5.0.
Construction workers were and are considered temporary workers at many construction sites. Since WWII, large numbers of construction workers were employed at US DOE nuclear weapons sites for periods ranging from a few days to over 30 years. These workers performed tasks during new construction and maintenance, repair, renovation, and demolition of existing facilities.
This briefing paper is a component of the comprehensive briefing package developed for the Negotiator, and describes previous DOE experience in its attempt to site an MRS facility. The Background section highlights, in chronological order, significant events in DOE's MRS siting history from enactment of the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 to the issuance of the "Report to Congress on Reassessment of the Civilian Radioactive Waste Management Program" in November 1989.
Transport of the damaged core materials from the Unit 2 reactor of the Three
Mile Island Nuclear Power Station (TMI-2) to the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory
(INEL) for examination and storage presented many technical and institutional
challenges, including assessing the ability to transport the damaged core;
removing and packaging core debris in ways suitable for transport; developing a
transport package that could both meet Federal regulations and interface with the
This report attempts to summarize and consolidate the existing knowledge on axial
burnup distribution issues that are important to burnup credit criticality safety calculations.
Recently released Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) staff guidance permits limited burnup
credit, and thus, has prompted resolution of the axial burnup distribution issue. The reactivity
difference between the neutron multiplication factor (keff) calculated with explicit representation
The Centralized Interim Storage Facility (CISF) is designed as a temporary, above-ground away-from-reactor spent fuel storage installation for up to 40,000 metric tons of uranium (MTU). The design is non-site-specific but incorporates conservative environmental and design factors (e.g., 360 mph tornado and 0.75 g seismic loading) intended to be capable of bounding subsequent site-specific factors. Spent fuel is received in dual-purpose canister systems and/or casks already approved for transportation and storage by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC).
US policy for management of used nuclear fuel (UNF) and high level radioactive wastes (HLRW) is at a crossroads, and the success of new policy directions will depend in part on broad public acceptance and support. In this paper I provide an overview of the evidence concerning the beliefs and concerns of members of the American public regarding UNF and HLNW. I also characterize the evidence on American’s policy preferences for management of these materials.
This report summarizes the results of an initial investigation into the uncertainties associated with the burnup records maintained by nuclear power plants. The results indicate that there is an overall uncertainty of about 2 percent in the burnup records, which must be accounted for in spent fuel applications.
Direct disposal of the large canisters currently being used by the commercial nuclear power industry is beyond the current experience base domestically and internationally and potentially represents many other significant engineering and scientific challenges. Pragmatically, it is reasonable to assume that the packages that will be disposed of in the future may be significantly different from what is being used for storage today.
The member states of the Council of State Governments' Midwestern Radioactive Materials Transportation Committee feel that route selection for shipments under the Nuclear Waste Policy Act (NWPA) should begin with a regional review of available routes, since states are in a better position than the federal government to judge the quality of potential highway and rail routes through their jurisdictions. Through its cooperative agreement with the U.S.
Uncertainties in the predicted isotopic concentrations in spent nuclear fuel represent one of the largest
sources of overall uncertainty in criticality calculations that use burnup credit. The methods used to
propagate the uncertainties in the calculated nuclide concentrations to the uncertainty in the predicted
neutron multiplication factor (keff) of the system can have a significant effect on the uncertainty in the
safety margin in criticality calculations and ultimately affect the potential capacity of spent fuel transport
How to dispose of highly radioactive wastes from commercial nuclear power plants is a question that has remained unresolved in the face rapidly changing technological, economic, and political requirements. In the three decades following WWII, two federal agencies -- the Atomic Energy Commission and the Energy Research and Development Administration -- tried unsuccessfully to develop a satisfactory plan for managing high level wastes.
Burnup credit is an ongoing technical concern for many countries that operate commercial
nuclear power reactors. In a multinational cooperative effort to resolve burnup credit issues, a
Burnup Credit Working Group has been formed under the auspices of the Nuclear Energy Agency
of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. This working group has
established a set of well-defined calculational benchmarks designed to study significant aspects of
burnup credit computational methods. These benchmarks are intended to provide a means for the
This validation report supports the issuance of Version 6.0 of the Total System Model (TSM BSC-2007a) that is described in the TSM User’s Manual (UM) (BSC-2007b) and the TSM Preprocessor (TSMPP) UM (BSC 2007c). This report assumes the reader has detailed working knowledge of the TSM functions and Civilian Radioactive Waste Management System (CRWMS) operations.
This validation was performed in accordance with AP-ENG-006, Total System Model (TSM)- Changes to Configuration Items and Base Case.
The management of spent nuclear fuel (SNF) and defense high level waste (HLW) is a complex sociotechnical
systems challenge. Coordinated, reliable, and safe performance will be required over very long
periods of time within evolving social and technical contexts. To accomplish these goals, a waste
management system will involve a host of facilities for interim storage and longterm disposal, a
transportation infrastructure, and research and development centers. The complexity of SNF and HLW