Title: Technical issue resolution associated with spent-fuel cask development
Abstract: The US Department of Energy's (DOE's) Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management (OCRWM) is in the process of developing a new generation of high-capacity casks to transport spent fuel from commercial nuclear reactor facilities to federal waste facilities. The DOE's role in the Federal Waste Management System is defined in the Nuclear Waste Policy Act (NWPA) and its 1987 amendment (NWPAA). The NWPAA requires DOE to use spent-fuel and high-level radioactive waste casks certified by the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). Because of the high shipping rates anticipated and since cooling times of spent fuel that will be shipped exceed the design cooling times of existing casks, a decision was made to develop new casks. In evaluating the needs of the cask development program, a number of technical issues were identified. Some of these broad technical issues were expected to affect a number of cask designs; therefore, a decision was made to address these broad technical issues separately from the cask design effort. Sandia National Laboratories was chosen to conduct these technical issue resolution activities for OCRWM. Three specific examples of technical issues currently being pursued are addressed in this paper:(1) burnup credit; (2) containment source term evaluation; and (3)more » weeping.« less
Publication Year: 1991
Publication Date: 1991-11-01
Language: en
Type: article
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