Abstract
The inventory of commercial spent nuclear fuel (SNF) dry storage is diverse and growing. Utilities are currently loading large canisters with high thermal loads to optimize storage capacity while minimizing cost and operational impacts. These high-capacity canisters may be required to remain in onsite storage for many years before they meet thermal and dose rate transportation limits. Also, the designs of these canisters and materials of construction take into consideration storage and transportation performance requirements, but not disposal. The US Department of Energy (DOE) is studying multiple geologies and repository concepts for disposal of SNF. For some geologies and repository concepts, disposal of high-capacity canisters could require extremely long cooling times due to the high thermal load as well as challenging performance analysis approaches due to materials of construction. If direct disposal of high-capacity canisters were not viable, they would require repackaging. A standardized transportation, aging, and disposal (STAD) canister system is an approach being studied by DOE as a potential way to provide integration between storage, transportation, and disposal so as to minimize repackaging of SNF prior to disposal. This paper discusses one aspect of DOE’s studies: the development of a performance specification [1] for a potential STAD canister system.
The STAD canister system performance specification document (STAD Spec) was developed to support STAD canister system studies and potential research, development, and demonstration activities that could support future decision making by DOE. Requirements in the STAD Spec may evolve with time based on results from analyses, experiments, design studies, system evaluations, demonstrations, and other factors. No inferences should be drawn from this paper regarding future actions by DOE.
