Approximately 54,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel are stored at operating nuclear power plants and several decommissioned power plants throughout the country. Spent fuel storage at these sites was never intended to be permanent. The current Federal plan is to place the fuel in a repository for permanent disposal in Nevada at Yucca Mountain.

How to dispose of highly radioactive wastes from commercial nuclear power plants is a question that has remained unresolved in the face of rapidly changing technological, economic, and political requirements. In the three decades following World War II, two federal agencies--the Atomic Energy Commission and the Energy Research and Development Administration--tried unsuccessfully to develop a satisfactory plan for managing high level wastes.

Recognizing that Idaho has a major strategic and economic interest in maintaining INL’s leadership role and in helping
the nuclear energy industry successfully meet these broader challenges, Idaho governor C.L. “Butch” Otter established
the Leadership in Nuclear Energy or “LINE” Commission in February 2012.

The Governor recognized that recent national developments in the nuclear energy sector will cause the State of Idaho to
face important choices in the future and that he needed to understand the best options available.

The so-called nuclear renaissance has increased worldwide interest in nuclear power.
This potential growth also has increased, in some quarters, concern that nonproliferation
considerations are not being given sufficient attention. In particular, since the introduction of
many new power reactors will lead to requiring an increase in uranium enrichment services to
provide the reactor fuel, the proliferation risk of adding enrichment facilities in countries that do

This research examines the practice of equating the reactivity of spent fuel to that of fresh fuel for the purpose of performing burnup credit criticality safety analyses for PWR spent fuel pool (SFP) storage conditions. The investigation consists of comparing kf estimates based on reactivity "equivalent" fresh fuel enrichment (REFFE) to kl estimates using the actual spent fuel isotopics.

The success of the Civilian Radioactive Waste Management Program of the U.S.
Department of Energy (DOE) is critical to U.S. ability to manage and dispose of
nuclear waste safely--and to the reestablishment of confidence in the nuclear energy
option in the United States. The program must conform with all applicable standards
and, in fact, set the example for a national policy on the safe disposal of radioactive
waste.
The Secretary of Energy has recently completed an extensive review of the