A program leading to the establishment in FY I983 of a pilot plant for storing radioactive wastes in bedded salt is described. The program consists of laboratory and field investigations of factors affecting the suitability of a specific site in southeastern New Mexico; of more generally applicable problems associated with geohydrology and rock mechanics; and of considerations bearing on the operational safety of a pilot plant repository. Tasks concerned with the engineering development and design of the facility are also included.
A summary of the radioactive waste management program in Germany as of 2013, including the national nuclear energy context; sources, types, and quantities of waste; radioactive waste management policies and programs; research and development; decommissioning and dismantling policies and projects; transport; competent authorities; financing; and public information.
Tenth annual report by the U.K.'s Committee on Radioactive Waste Management discuss the events of the previous year.
A joint Oak Ridge - Roane County citizen task force (TF) evaluated the<br/>Department of Energy's (DOE) proposal to site a Monitored Retrievable Storage<br/>facility in Tennessee in terms of environmental, transportation and socioeconomic<br/>impacts. The case study examines how the TF used mitigation, compensation and<br/>incentives (economic and non-economic) to address the problem of distrust of DOE<br/>and to change the net local impact balance from negative to positive.
This report discusses the status of the commercial spent nuclear fuel (SNF) inventory in the United States, at both decommissioned and operating commercial nuclear power reactor sites; summarizes the contractual arrangement the government and utilities have under the Standard Contract for Disposal of Spent Nuclear Fuel and/or High-Level Radioactive Waste (10 CFR Part 961) (Standard Contract), related litigation, and the financial liabilities resulting from the Department’s delay in performance under these contracts; provides a history of interim storage policy as it relates to commercial SN
The United States makes decisions regarding the domestic uses of nuclear energy and the nuclear fuel cycle primarily based economic considerations, domestic political constraints, and environmental impact concerns. Such factors influence U.S. foreign policy decisions as well, but foreign policy decisions are often more strongly determined by national security considerations, including concerns about nuclear weapons proliferation and nuclear terrorism.
This report, commissioned by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), provides a comprehensive set of cost data supporting a cost analysis for the relative economic comparison of options for use in the Advanced Fuel Cycle Initiative (AFCI) Program. The report describes the AFCI cost basis development process, reference information on AFCI cost modules, a procedure for estimating fuel cycle costs, economic evaluation guidelines, and a discussion on the integration of cost data into economic computer models.
Over the past few years a number of important studies have been executed to identify and define the necessary nuclear energy research, development and demonstration (RD&D) infrastructure that must be sustained or developed.
Target accuracy on LWR neutronics parameters is 2 to 5 times lower than the a priori uncertainty (1σ)
due to nuclear data. This paper summarizes the experimental facilities and the integral measurements that are required
for code qualification. The rigorous use of integral information through trend analysis method is described. Trends
on JEF2 data from Keff measurements and P.I.Es are presented. These trends were accounted for in the new JEFF3
evaluations. The role of fundamental experiments, such as worth measurement of separated isotopes, is emphasized.
The purpose of this analysis is to provide input on the criticality potential of various degraded configurations to an analysis on the probability of a criticality event in a Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR) Advanced Uncanistered Fuel (AUCF) Waste Package (WP).
The purpose of this engineering calculation is to estimate the frequency of misloading spent nuclear fuel (SNF) assemblies that would result in exceeding the criticality design basis of a waste package (WP). This type of misload - a reactivity misload - results from the incorrect placement of one or more fuel assemblies into a waste package such that the criticality controls do not match the required controls for the fuel assemblies. An actual criticality event can not occur in a WP unless a moderator (e.g. water) is present.
The amount of spent fuel stored on-site at commercial nuclear reactors will continue to accumulate—increasing by about 2,000 metric tons per year and likely more than doubling to about 140,000 metric tons—before it can be moved off-site, because storage or disposal facilities may take decades to develop. In examining centralized storage or permanent disposal options, GAO found that new facilities may take from 15 to 40 years before they are ready to begin accepting spent fuel. Once an off-site facility is available, it will take several more decades to ship spent fuel to that facility.
The requirements of ANSI/ANS 8.1 specify that calculational methods for away-from-reactor
(AFR) criticality safety analyses be validated against experimental measurements. If credit for the
negative reactivity of the depleted (or spent) fuel isotopics is desired, it is necessary to benchmark
computational methods against spent fuel critical configurations. This report summarizes a portion
of the ongoing effort to benchmark AFR criticality analysis methods using selected critical
configurations from commercial pressurized-water reactors (PWR).
