Evaluation of Codisposal Viability for Aluminum-Clad DOE-Owned Spent Fuel: Phase ll Degraded Codisposal Canister Internal Criticality
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| BBA000000-01717-5705-00017_MOL.19980616.0098.pdf (5.37 MB) | 5.37 MB |
This report presents the analysis and conclusions with respect to disposal criticality for canisters containing aluminum-based fuels from research reactors. The analysis has been divided into three phases. Phase I, dealt with breached and flooded waste packages containing relatively intact canisters and intact internal (basket) structures; Phase II, the subject of this report, covers the degradation of the spent nuclear fuel (SNF) and structures internal to the codisposal waste package including high level waste (HLW), canisters, and criticality control material. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) uranium aluminide (U-Al) fuel with 93.5% enriched uranium and Oak Ridge Research Reactor (ORR) uranium silicide (U-Si-Al) fuel with 20.56% enriched uranium were selected by the Alternative Technology Program of the Westinghouse Savannah River Company (SRS) as being representative of the high enriched uranium (HEU) and medium enriched uranium (MEU) fuel inventories, respectively. Phase ill will consider the possibility of external criticality, which can arise from a flow of water carrying fissile material out of the waste package.
The objectives of this work are to:
I) develop canister designs for codisposal of HEU and MEU SNF,
2) show that these designs meet the regulatory requirements for emplacement in the
repository, and
3) demonstrate that the degraded configurations will meet the criticality requirements for
long-term disposal.
The first two objectives were met in the Phase I report and the third is addressed in this report.
