Interim Storage of Spent Nuclear Fuel A Safe, Flexible, and Cost-Effective Near-Term Approach to Spent Fuel Management

The management of spent fuel from nuclear power
plants has become a major policy issue for virtually every
nuclear power program in the world. For the nuclear industry, finding sufficient capacity for storage and processing or
disposal of spent fuel is essential if nuclear power plants are
to be allowed to continue to operate. At the same time, the
options chosen for spent fuel management can have a substantial impact on the political controversies, proliferation
risks, environmental hazards, and economic costs of the
nuclear fuel cycle.
Interim storage of spent fuel offers a safe, flexible,
and cost-effective near-term approach to spent fuel management that may be attractive regardless of a particular
country’s perspective on the continuing debate over
whether spent fuel should ultimately be reprocessed or disposed of as waste. Today, in fact, there is less divergence
among countries in what is actually done with spent fuel
than official policy statements concerning reprocessing and
direct disposal might suggest. With most of the spent fuel
generated each year remaining in storage, a quiet consensus
has developed that for the near term, simply storing spent
fuel while continuing to develop more permanent solutions
is an attractive approach.