The Industry Spent Fuel Storage Handbook (“the Handbook”) addresses the relevant aspects of at-reactor spent (or used) nuclear fuel (SNF) storage in the United States. With the prospect of SNF being stored at reactor sites for the foreseeable future, it is expected that all U.S. nuclear power plants will have to implement at-reactor dry storage by 2025 or shortly thereafter. The Handbook provides a broad overview of recent developments for storing SNF at U.S. reactor sites, focusing primarily on at-reactor dry storage of SNF.

Slides - National Tranpsortation Stakeholders Forum, Minneapolis, MN, May, 14, 2014

Presentation by Ron Pope and Yung Liu of Argonne National Laboratory to the World Institute for Nuclear Security (WINS) Workshop on Security of Dry Storage of Spent Nuclear Fuel

Understanding the changing nuclear and mechanical characteristics of used nuclear fuel (UNF) over time and how these changing characteristics affect storage, transportation, and disposal options can require many tools and types of data. To streamline analysis capabilities for the waste management system, a comprehensive, integrated data and analysis tool has been assembled—UNF-Storage, Transportation & Disposal Analysis Resource and Data System (UNF-ST&DARDS).

Slides - 2014 National Tranpsortation Stakeholders Forum, Bloomington, MN, May 13-15, 2104

This report summarizes the results of EPRI’s multi-year research effort to assess cladding
performance under normal and hypothetical accident conditions of spent nuclear fuel
transportation.

Authority for licensees to transport radioactive material comes from 10 CFR Part 71. Licensees
are authorized to transport Type B quantities and fissile materials in NRC-certified packages
under the general license in 71.17. Unlike 10 CFR Part 72, Part 71 does not include change
authority, that is, there is no specific Part 71 regulation that allows licensees to make changes in
the design or operation of an NRC-certified package without prior NRC approval. However,

The staff has broadened the technical basis for the storage of spent fuel including assemblies
with average burnups exceeding 45 GWd/MTU. This revision to Interim Staff Guidance No. 11
(ISG-11) addresses the technical review aspects of and specifies the acceptance criteria for
limiting spent fuel reconfiguration in storage casks. It modifies the previous revision of the ISG
in three ways: (1) by clarifying the meaning of some of the acceptance criteria contained in

Title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR) Part 71, Packaging and Transportation of
Radioactive Material, and 10 CFR Part 72, Licensing Requirements for the Independent
Storage of Spent Nuclear Fuel, High-Level Radioactive Waste, and Reactor-Related Greater
Than Class C Waste, require that spent nuclear fuel (SNF) remain subcritical in transportation
and storage, respectively. Unirradiated reactor fuel has a well-specified nuclide composition
that provides a straightforward and bounding approach to the criticality safety analysis of

Staff raised two major issues concerning the adverse effects of fission gases to the gas-mixture
thermal conductivity in a spent fuel canister in a post accident environment. The two major
concerns were: (1) the reduction of the thermal conductivity of the canister gas by the mixing of
fission gases expelled from failed fuel pins and (2) the resultant temperature and pressure rise
within the canister. Since the fission gas is typically of a lower conductivity than the cover gas,