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

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

At the request of the U.S. Congress, the National Academies assessed the safety and
security of spent nuclear fuel stored in pools and dry casks at commercial nuclear power
plants in the United States. The public report can be viewed on the National Academies
Press website at http://books.nap.edu/catalog/11263.html.

In the 1980s, a series of critical experiments referred to as the Haut Taux de Combustion (HTC)
experiments was conducted by the Institut de Radioprotection et de Sûreté Nucléaire (IRSN) at the
experimental criticality facility in Valduc, France. The plutonium-to- uranium ratio and the isotopic
compositions of both the uranium and plutonium used in the simulated fuel rods were designed to be
similar to what would be found in a typical pressurized-water reactor fuel assembly that initially had an

Taking credit for the reduced reactivity of spent nuclear fuel (SNF) in criticality analyses is referred to as burnup credit (BUC). Criticality safety evaluations require validation of the computational methods with critical experiments that are as similar as possible to the safety analysis models, and for which the keff values are known. This poses a challenge for validation of BUC criticality analyses, as critical experiments with actinide and fission product (FP)

This Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS) provides an analysis of the potential
environmental impacts of the proposed Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP) program,
which is a United States (U.S.) Department of Energy (DOE) program intended to support a safe,
secure, and sustainable expansion of nuclear energy, both
domestically and internationally. Domestically, the
GNEP Program would promote technologies that support
economic, sustained production of nuclear-generated
electricity, while reducing the impacts associated with

NRC initiated a research activity with the Center for Nuclear Waste Regulatory Analyses (CNWRA®) to develop a conceptual test plan for measuring the quantity of residual water remaining in a canister following vacuum drying to the criterion referenced in NUREG–1536 (NRC, 2010). The test plan will be used to help NRC assess options for independently performing an experimental program or to support engagements with industry or the Department of Energy should they undertake a similar effort.

STARBUCS is a new prototypic analysis sequence for performing automated criticality safety analyses of spent fuel systems employing burnup credit. A depletion analysis calculation for each of the burnup-dependent regions of a spent fuel assembly, or other system containing spent fuel, is performed using the ORIGEN-ARP sequence of SCALE. The spent fuel compositions are then used to generate resonance self-shielded cross sections for each region of the problem, which are applied in a three-dimensional criticality safety calculation using the KENO V.a code.

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 Nuclear Waste Administration Act of 2013 discussion draft is intended to implement the recommendations of the Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future to establish a nuclear waste administration and create a consent-based process for siting nuclear waste facilities. The bill enables the federal government to fulfill its commitment to managing nuclear waste, ending the costly liability the government bears for its failure to dispose of commercial spent fuel.