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Reactor-specific spent fuel discharge projections, 1987-2020
Walling, R.C.; Heeb, C.M.; Purcell, W.L.
The creation of five reactor-specific spent fuel data bases that contain information on the projected amounts of spent fuel to be discharged from U.S. commercial nuclear reactors through the year 2020 is described. The data bases contain detailed spent fuel information from existing, planned, and projected pressurized water reactors (PWR) and boiling water eactors (BWR), and one existing high temperature gas reactor (HTGR). The projections are based on individual reactor information supplied by the U.S. reactor owners. The basic information is adjusted to conform to Energy Information Administration (EIA) forecasts for nuclear installed capacity, generation, and spent fuel discharged. The EIA cases considered are: No New Orders (assumes increasing burnup), No New Orders with No Increased Burnup, Upper Reference (assumes increasing burnup), Upper Reference with No Increased Burnup, and Lower Reference (assumes increasing burnup). Detailed, by-reactor tables are provided for annual discharged amounts of spent fuel, for storage requirements assuming maximum at-reactor storage, and for storage requirements assuming maximum at-reactor storage plus intra-utility transshipment of spent fuel. 8 refs., 8 figs., 10 tabs.
Reactor-specific spent fuel discharge projections: 1985 to 2020
Heeb, C.M.; Libby, R.A.; Walling, R.C.; Purcell, W.L.
The creation of four spent-fuel data bases that contain information on the projected amounts of spent fuel to be discharged from US commercial nuclear reactors through the year 2020 is described. The data bases contain detailed spent-fuel information from existing, planned, and projected pressurized water reactors (PWR) and boiling water reactors (BWR). The projections are based on individual reactor information supplied by the US reactor owners. The basic information is adjusted to conform to Energy Information Agency (EIA) forecasts for nuclear installed capacity, generation, and spent fuel discharged. The EIA cases considered are: (1) No New Orders with Extended Burnup, (2) No New Orders with Constant Burnup, (3) Middle Case with Extended Burnup, and (4) Middle Case with Constant Burnup. Detailed, by-reactor tables are provided for annual discharged amounts of spent fuel, for storage requirements assuming maximum-at-reactor storage, and for storage requirements assuming maximum-at-reactor plus intra-utility transshipment of spent fuel.
Spent nuclear fuel discharges from U.S. reactors 1994
Spent Nuclear Fuel Discharges from US Reactors 1994 provides current statistical data on fuel assemblies irradiated at commercial nuclear reactors operating in the US. This year`s report provides data on the current inventories and storage capacities at these reactors. Detailed statistics on the data are presented in four chapters that highlight 1994 spent fuel discharges, storage capacities and inventories, canister and nonfuel component data, and assembly characteristics. Five appendices, a glossary, and bibliography are also included. 10 figs., 34 tabs.
Development of Technical Nuclear Forensics for Spent Research Reactor Fuel
Sternat, Matthew Ryan 1982-
, an inverse analysis was developed to re-construct the burnup, initial uranium isotopic compositions, and cooling time of a research reactor spent fuel sample. A convergence acceleration technique was used that consisted of an analytical calculation to predict...
Spent nuclear fuel discharges from US reactors 1993
Not Available
The Energy Information Administration (EIA) of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) administers the Nuclear Fuel Data Survey, Form RW-859. This form is used to collect data on fuel assemblies irradiated at commercial nuclear reactors operating in the United States, and the current inventories and storage capacities of those reactors. These data are important to the design and operation of the equipment and facilities that DOE will use for the future acceptance, transportation, and disposal of spent fuels. The data collected and presented identifies trends in burnup, enrichment, and spent nuclear fuel discharged form commercial light-water reactor as of December 31, 1993. The document covers not only spent nuclear fuel discharges; but also site capacities and inventories; canisters and nonfuel components; and assembly type characteristics.
Advanced dry head-end reprocessing of light water reactor spent nuclear fuel
Collins, Emory D.; Delcul, Guillermo D.; Hunt, Rodney D.; Johnson, Jared A.; Spencer, Barry B.
A method for reprocessing spent nuclear fuel from a light water reactor includes the step of reacting spent nuclear fuel in a voloxidation vessel with an oxidizing gas having nitrogen dioxide and oxygen for a period sufficient to generate a solid oxidation product of the spent nuclear fuel. The reacting step includes the step of reacting, in a first zone of the voloxidation vessel, spent nuclear fuel with the oxidizing gas at a temperature ranging from 200-450.degree. C. to form an oxidized reaction product, and regenerating nitrogen dioxide, in a second zone of the voloxidation vessel, by reacting oxidizing gas comprising nitrogen monoxide and oxygen at a temperature ranging from 0-80.degree. C. The first zone and the second zone can be separate. A voloxidation system is also disclosed.
Advanced dry head-end reprocessing of light water reactor spent nuclear fuel
Collins, Emory D; Delcul, Guillermo D; Hunt, Rodney D; Johnson, Jared A; Spencer, Barry B
A method for reprocessing spent nuclear fuel from a light water reactor includes the step of reacting spent nuclear fuel in a voloxidation vessel with an oxidizing gas having nitrogen dioxide and oxygen for a period sufficient to generate a solid oxidation product of the spent nuclear fuel. The reacting step includes the step of reacting, in a first zone of the voloxidation vessel, spent nuclear fuel with the oxidizing gas at a temperature ranging from 200-450.degree. C. to form an oxidized reaction product, and regenerating nitrogen dioxide, in a second zone of the voloxidation vessel, by reacting oxidizing gas comprising nitrogen monoxide and oxygen at a temperature ranging from 0-80.degree. C. The first zone and the second zone can be separate. A voloxidation system is also disclosed.
The characteristic assessment of spent ion exchange resin from PUSPATI TRIGA REACTOR (RTP) for immobilization process
Wahida, Nurul [School of Applied Physics, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, 43600 Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia and Malaysian Nuclear Agency, Bangi 43000 Kajang, Selangor (Malaysia); Yasir, Muhamad Samudi; Majid, Amran Ab; Irwan, M. N. [School of Applied Physics, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, 43600 Bangi, Selangor (Malaysia); Wahab, Mohd Abd; Marzukee, Nik; Paulus, Wilfred; Phillip, Esther; Thanaletchumy [Malaysian Nuclear Agency, Bangi 43000 Kajang, Selangor (Malaysia)
In this paper, spent ion exchange resin generated from PUSPATI TRIGA reactor (RTP) in Malaysian Nuclear Agency were characterized based on the water content, radionuclide content and radionuclide leachability. The result revealed that the water content in the spent resin is 48%. Gamma spectrometry analysis indicated the presence of {sup 134}Cs, {sup 137}Cs, {sup 152}Eu, {sup 54}Mn, {sup 58}Co, {sup 60}Co and {sup 65}Zn. The leachability test shows a small concentrations (<1 Bq/l) of {sup 152}Eu and {sup 134}Cs were leached out from the spent resin while {sup 60}Co activity concentrations slightly exceeded the limit generally used for industrial wastewater i.e. 1 Bq/l. Characterization of spent ion exchange resin sampled from RTP show that this characterization is important as a basis to immobilize this radioactive waste using geopolymer technology.
Neutron Generators for Spent Fuel Assay
Ludewigt, Bernhard A
The Next Generation Safeguards Initiative (NGSI) of the U.S. DOE has initiated a multi-lab/university collaboration to quantify the plutonium (Pu) mass in, and detect the diversion of pins from, spent nuclear fuel (SNF) assemblies with non-destructive assay (NDA). The 14 NDA techniques being studied include several that require an external neutron source: Delayed Neutrons (DN), Differential Die-Away (DDA), Delayed Gammas (DG), and Lead Slowing-Down Spectroscopy (LSDS). This report provides a survey of currently available neutron sources and their underlying technology that may be suitable for NDA of SNF assemblies. The neutron sources considered here fall into two broad categories. The term 'neutron generator' is commonly used for sealed devices that operate at relatively low acceleration voltages of less than 150 kV. Systems that employ an acceleration structure to produce ion beam energies from hundreds of keV to several MeV, and that are pumped down to vacuum during operation, rather than being sealed units, are usually referred to as 'accelerator-driven neutron sources.' Currently available neutron sources and future options are evaluated within the parameter space of the neutron generator/source requirements as currently understood and summarized in section 2. Applicable neutron source technologies are described in section 3. Commercially available neutron generators and other source options that could be made available in the near future with some further development and customization are discussed in sections 4 and 5, respectively. The pros and cons of the various options and possible ways forward are discussed in section 6. Selection of the best approach must take a number of parameters into account including cost, size, lifetime, and power consumption, as well as neutron flux, neutron energy spectrum, and pulse structure that satisfy the requirements of the NDA instrument to be built.
Dry Storage of Research Reactor Spent Nuclear Fuel - 13321
Adams, T.M.; Dunsmuir, M.D.; Leduc, D.R.; Severynse, T.F.; Sindelar, R.L. [Savannah River National Laboratory (United States)] [Savannah River National Laboratory (United States); Moore, E.N. [Moore Nuclear Energy, LLC (United States)] [Moore Nuclear Energy, LLC (United States)
Spent fuel from domestic and foreign research reactors is received and stored at the Savannah River Site's L Area Material Storage (L Basin) Facility. This DOE-owned fuel consists primarily of highly enriched uranium in metal, oxide or silicide form with aluminum cladding. Upon receipt, the fuel is unloaded and transferred to basin storage awaiting final disposition. Disposition alternatives include processing via the site's H Canyon facility for uranium recovery, or packaging and shipment of the spent fuel to a waste repository. A program has been developed to provide a phased approach for dry storage of the L Basin fuel. The initial phase of the dry storage program will demonstrate loading, drying, and storage of fuel in twelve instrumented canisters to assess fuel performance. After closure, the loaded canisters are transferred to pad-mounted concrete overpacks, similar to those used for dry storage of commercial fuel. Unlike commercial spent fuel, however, the DOE fuel has high enrichment, very low to high burnup, and low decay heat. The aluminum cladding presents unique challenges due to the presence of an oxide layer that forms on the cladding surface, and corrosion degradation resulting from prolonged wet storage. The removal of free and bound water is essential to the prevention of fuel corrosion and radiolytic generation of hydrogen. The demonstration will validate models predicting pressure, temperature, gas generation, and corrosion performance, provide an engineering scale demonstration of fuel handling, drying, leak testing, and canister backfill operations, and establish 'road-ready' storage of fuel that is suitable for offsite repository shipment or retrievable for onsite processing. Implementation of the Phase I demonstration can be completed within three years. Phases II and III, leading to the de-inventory of L Basin, would require an additional 750 canisters and 6-12 years to complete. Transfer of the fuel from basin storage to dry storage requires integration with current facility operations, and selection of equipment that will allow safe operation within the constraints of existing facility conditions. Examples of such constraints that are evaluated and addressed by the dry storage program include limited basin depth, varying fuel lengths up to 4 m, (13 ft), fissile loading limits, canister closure design, post-load drying and closure of the canisters, instrument selection and installation, and movement of the canisters to storage casks. The initial pilot phase restricts the fuels to shorter length fuels that can be loaded to the canister directly underwater; subsequent phases will require use of a shielded transfer system. Removal of the canister from the basin, followed by drying, inerting, closure of the canister, and transfer of the canister to the storage cask are completed with remotely operated equipment and appropriate shielding to reduce personnel radiation exposure. (authors)
EA-0912: Urgent-Relief Acceptance of Foreign Research Reactor Spent Nuclear Fuel
Broader source: Energy.gov [DOE]
This EA evaluates the environmental impacts of a proposal to accept 409 spent fuel elements from eight foreign research reactors in seven European countries.� The spent fuel would be shipped across...
Distribution of characteristics of LWR [light water reactor] spent fuel
Reich, W.J.; Notz, K.J. [Oak Ridge National Lab., TN (USA); Moore, R.S. [Automated Sciences Group, Inc., Oak Ridge, TN (USA)
The purpose of this report is to develop a collective description of the entire spent fuel inventory in terms of various fuel properties relevant to Approved Testing Materials (ATMs) using information available from the Characteristics Data Base (CBD), which is sponsored by the US Department of Energy`s (DOE`s) Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management. A number of light-water reactor (LWR) characteristics were analyzed including assembly class representation, fuel burnup, enrichment, fuel fabrication data, defective fuel quantities, and, at PNL`s specific request, linear heat generation rate (LHGR) and the utilization of burnable poisons. A quantitative relationships was developed between burnup and enrichment for BWRs and PWRs. The relationship shows that the existing BWR ATM is near the center of the burnup-enrichment distribution, while the four PWR ATMs bracket the center of the burnup range but are on the low side of the enrichment range. Fuel fabrication data are based on vendor specifications for new fuel. Defective fuel distributions were analyzed in terms of assembly class and vendor design. LHGR values were calculated from utility data on burnup and effective full-power days; these calculations incorporate some unavoidable assumptions which may compromise the value of the results. Only a limited amount of data are available on burnable poisons at this time. Based on this distribution study, suggestions for additional ATMs are made. These are based on the class and design concepts and include BWR/2,3 barrier fuel, and the WE 17 {times} 17 class with integral burnable poison. Both should be at relatively high burnups. 16 refs., 5 figs., 15 tabs.
Nichols, T.; Beals, D.; Sternat, M.
Technical nuclear forensics (TNF) refers to the collection, analysis and evaluation of pre- and post-detonation radiological or nuclear materials, devices, and/or debris. TNF is an integral component, complementing traditional forensics and investigative work, to help enable the attribution of discovered radiological or nuclear material. Research is needed to improve the capabilities of TNF. One research area of interest is determining the isotopic signatures of research reactors. Research reactors are a potential source of both radiological and nuclear material. Research reactors are often the least safeguarded type of reactor; they vary greatly in size, fuel type, enrichment, power, and burn-up. Many research reactors are fueled with highly-enriched uranium (HEU), up to {approx}93% {sup 235}U, which could potentially be used as weapons material. All of them have significant amounts of radiological material with which a radioactive dispersal device (RDD) could be built. Therefore, the ability to attribute if material originated from or was produced in a specific research reactor is an important tool in providing for the security of the United States. Currently there are approximately 237 operating research reactors worldwide, another 12 are in temporary shutdown and 224 research reactors are reported as shut down. Little is currently known about the isotopic signatures of spent research reactor fuel. An effort is underway at Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) to analyze spent research reactor fuel to determine these signatures. Computer models, using reactor physics codes, are being compared to the measured analytes in the spent fuel. This allows for improving the reactor physics codes in modeling research reactors for the purpose of nuclear forensics. Currently the Oak Ridge Research reactor (ORR) is being modeled and fuel samples are being analyzed for comparison. Samples of an ORR spent fuel assembly were taken by SRNL for analytical and radiochemical analysis. The fuel assembly was modeled using MONTEBURNS(MCNP5/ ORIGEN2.2) and MCNPX/CINDER90. The results from the models have been compared to each other and to the measured data.
Determining Reactor Flux from Xenon-136 and Cesium-135 in Spent Fuel
A. C. Hayes; Gerard Jungman
The ability to infer the reactor flux from spent fuel or seized fissile material would enhance the tools of nuclear forensics and nuclear nonproliferation significantly. We show that reactor flux can be inferred from the ratios of xenon-136 to xenon-134 and cesium-135 to cesium-137. If the average flux of a reactor is known, the flux inferred from measurements of spent fuel could help determine whether that spent fuel was loaded as a blanket or close to the mid-plane of the reactor. The cesium ratio also provides information on reactor shutdowns during the irradiation of fuel, which could prove valuable for identifying the reactor in question through comparisons with satellite reactor heat monitoring data. We derive analytic expressions for these correlations and compare them to experimental data and to detailed reactor burn simulations. The enrichment of the original uranium fuel affects the correlations by up to 3 percent, but only at high flux.
Plutonium Discharge Rates and Spent Nuclear Fuel Inventory Estimates for Nuclear Reactors Worldwide
Brian K. Castle; Shauna A. Hoiland; Richard A. Rankin; James W. Sterbentz
This report presents a preliminary survey and analysis of the five primary types of commercial nuclear power reactors currently in use around the world. Plutonium mass discharge rates from the reactors� spent fuel at reload are estimated based on a simple methodology that is able to use limited reactor burnup and operational characteristics collected from a variety of public domain sources. Selected commercial reactor operating and nuclear core characteristics are also given for each reactor type. In addition to the worldwide commercial reactors survey, a materials test reactor survey was conducted to identify reactors of this type with a significant core power rating. Over 100 material or research reactors with a core power rating >1 MW fall into this category. Fuel characteristics and spent fuel inventories for these material test reactors are also provided herein.
Assessment of uranium-free nitride fuels for spent fuel transmutation in fast reactor systems�
Szakaly, Frank Joseph
The purpose of this work is to investigate the implementation of nitride fuels containing little or no uranium in a fast-spectrum nuclear reactor to reduce the amount of plutonium and minor actinides in spent nuclear fuel ...
Fast Reactor Spent Fuel Processing: Experience and Criticality Safety
Chad Pope
This paper discusses operational and criticality safety experience associated with the Idaho National Laboratory Fuel Conditioning Facility which uses a pyrometallurgical process to treat spent fast reactor metallic fuel. The process is conducted in an inert atmosphere hot cell. The process starts with chopping metallic fuel elements into a basket. The basket is lowered into molten salt (LiCl-KCl) along with a steel mandrel. Active metal fission products, transuranic metals and sodium metal in the spent fuel undergo chemical oxidation and form chlorides. Voltage is applied between the basket, which serves as an anode, and the mandrel, which serves as a cathode, causing metallic uranium in the spent fuel to undergo electro-chemical oxidation thereby forming uranium chloride. Simultaneously at the cathode, uranium chloride undergoes electro-chemical reduction and deposits uranium metal onto the mandrel. The uranium metal and accompanying entrained salt are placed in a distillation furnace where the uranium melts forming an ingot and the entrained salt boils and subsequently condenses in a separate crucible. The uranium ingots are placed in long term storage. During the ten year operating history, over one hundred criticality safety evaluations were prepared. All criticality safety related limits and controls for the entire process are contained in a single document which required over thirty revisions to accommodate the process changes. Operational implementation of the limits and controls includes use of a near real-time computerized tracking system. The tracking system uses an Oracle database coupled with numerous software applications. The computerized tracking system includes direct fuel handler interaction with every movement of material. Improvements to this system during the ten year history include introduction of web based operator interaction, tracking of moderator materials and the development of a plethora database queries to assist in day to day operations as well as obtaining historical information. Over 12,000 driver fuel elements have been processed resulting in the production of 2500 kg of 20% enriched uranium. Also, over one thousand blanket fuel elements have been processed resulting in the production of 2400 kg of depleted uranium. These operations required over 35,000 fissile material transfers between zones and over 6000 transfers between containers. Throughout all of these movements, no mass limit violations occurred. Numerous lessons were learned over the ten year operating history. From a criticality safety perspective, the most important lesson learned was the involvement of a criticality safety practitioner in daily operations. A criticality safety engineer was assigned directly to facility operations, and was responsible for implementation of limits and controls including upkeep of the associated computerized tracking files. The criticality safety engineer was also responsible for conducting fuel handler training activities including serving on fuel handler qualification oral boards, and continually assessing operations from a criticality control perspective. The criticality safety engineer also attended bimonthly project planning meetings to identify upcoming process changes that would require criticality safety evaluation. Finally, the excellent criticality safety record was due in no small part to the continual support, involvement, trust, and confidence of project and operations mana
Vinson, D.
The Department of Energy's Environmental Management (DOE-EM) Program is responsible for the receipt and storage of aluminum research reactor spent nuclear fuel or used fuel until ultimate disposition. Aluminum research reactor used fuel is currently being stored or is anticipated to be returned to the U.S. and stored at DOE-EM storage facilities at the Savannah River Site and the Idaho Nuclear Technology and Engineering Center. This paper assesses the technologies and the options for safe transportation/receipt and interim storage of aluminum research reactor spent fuel and reviews the comprehensive strategy for its management. The U.S. Department of Energy uses the Appendix A, Spent Nuclear Fuel Acceptance Criteria, to identify the physical, chemical, and isotopic characteristics of spent nuclear fuel to be returned to the United States under the Foreign Research Reactor Spent Nuclear Fuel Acceptance Program. The fuel is further evaluated for acceptance through assessments of the fuel at the foreign sites that include corrosion damage and handleability. Transport involves use of commercial shipping casks with defined leakage rates that can provide containment of the fuel, some of which are breached. Options for safe storage include wet storage and dry storage. Both options must fully address potential degradation of the aluminum during the storage period. This paper focuses on the various options for safe transport and storage with respect to technology maturity and application.
Environmental Assessment of Urgent-Relief Acceptance of Foreign Research Reactor Spent Nuclear Fuel
Not Available
The Department of Energy has completed the Environmental Assessment (EA) of Urgent-Relief Acceptance of Foreign Research Reactor Spent Nuclear Fuel and issued a Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) for the proposed action. The EA and FONSI are enclosed for your information. The Department has decided to accept a limited number of spent nuclear fuel elements (409 elements) containing uranium that was enriched in the United States from eight research reactors in Austria, Denmark, Germany, Greece, the Netherlands, Sweden, and Switzerland. This action is necessary to maintain the viability of a major US nuclear weapons nonproliferation program to limit or eliminate the use of highly enriched uranium in civil programs. The purpose of the EA is to maintain the cooperation of the foreign research reactor operators with the nonproliferation program while a more extensive Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) is prepared on a proposed broader policy involving the acceptance of up to 15,000 foreign research reactor spent fuel elements over a 10 to 15 year period. Based on an evaluation of transport by commercial container liner or chartered vessel, five eastern seaboard ports, and truck and train modes of transporting the spent fuel overland to the Savannah River Sits, the Department has concluded that no significant impact would result from any combination of port and made of transport. In addition, no significant impacts were found from interim storage of spent fuel at the Savannah River Site.
Fresh and Spent Nuclear Fuel Repatriation from the IRT-2000 Research Reactor Facility, Sofia, Bulgaria
K. J. Allen; T. G. Apostolov; I. S. Dimitrov
The IRT 2000 research reactor, operated by the Bulgarian Institute for Nuclear Research and Nuclear Energy (INRNE), safely shipped all of their Russian-origin nuclear fuel from the Republic of Bulgaria to the Russian Federation beginning in 2003 and completing in 2008. These fresh and spent fuel shipments removed all highly enriched uranium (HEU) from Bulgaria. The fresh fuel was shipped by air in December 2003 using trucks and a commercial cargo aircraft. One combined spent fuel shipment of HEU and low enriched uranium (LEU) was completed in July 2008 using high capacity VPVR/M casks transported by truck, barge, and rail. The HEU shipments were assisted by the Russian Research Reactor Fuel Return Program (RRRFR) and the LEU spent fuel shipment was funded by Bulgaria. This report describes the work, approvals, organizations, equipment, and agreements required to complete these shipments and concludes with several major lessons learned.
Assessment of uranium-free nitride fuels for spent fuel transmutation in fast reactor systems
Szakaly, Frank Joseph
The purpose of this work is to investigate the implementation of nitride fuels containing little or no uranium in a fast-spectrum nuclear reactor to reduce the amount of plutonium and minor actinides in spent nuclear fuel destined for the Yucca...
Spent nuclear fuel discharges from US reactors 1992
Not Available
This report provides current statistical data on every fuel assembly irradiated in commercial nuclear reactors operating in the United States. It also provides data on the current inventories and storage capacities of those reactors to a wide audience, including Congress, Federal and State agencies, the nuclear and electric industries and the general public. It uses data from the mandatory, ``Nuclear Fuel Data`` survey, Form RW-859 for 1992 and historical data collected by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) on previous Form RW-859 surveys. The report was prepared by the EIA under a Memorandum of Understanding with the Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management.
Melt-Dilute Treatment Technology for Aluminum Based Research Reactor Spent Fuel
Adams, T.
The United States Department of Energy has selected the Savannah River Site (SRS) as the location to consolidate and store Aluminum Spent Nuclear Fuel (SNF), originating in the United States, from Foreign Research Reactor (FRR) and Domestic Research Reactor (DRR) through the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) process. These SNF are either in service, being stored in water basins or in dry storage casks at the reactor sites, or have been transferred to SRS and stored in water basins. A portion of this inventory contains HEU. Since the fuel receipts would continue for several decades beyond projected SRS canyon operations, it is anticipated that it will be necessary to develop disposal technologies that do not rely on reprocessing. The Research Reactor Spent Nuclear Fuel Task Team, appointed by the Office of Spent Fuel Management of DOE, assessed and identified the most promising technology options for the alternative disposition of aluminum based domestic and foreign research reactor SNF in a geologic repository. The most promising options identified by the task team were direct/ co-disposal and melt-dilute technologies. The DOE through the SRS has evaluated the two options and has identified Melt-Dilute Treatment Technology as the preferred alternative in the Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the ultimate disposal of Al-SNF in the Mined Geologic Disposal System.
Possible effects of UO/sub 2/ oxidation on light water reactor spent fuel performance in long-term geologic disposal
Almassy, M.Y.; Woodley, R.E.
Disposal of spent nuclear fuel in a conventionally mined geologic formation is the nearest-term option for permanently isolating radionuclides from the biosphere. Because irradiated uranium dioxide (UO/sub 2/) fuel pellets retain 95 to 99% of the radionuclides generated during normal light water reactor operation, they may represent a significant barrier to radionuclide release. This document presents a technical assessment of published literature representing the current level of understanding of spent fuel characteristics and conditions that may degrade pellet integrity during a geologic disposal sequence. A significant deterioration mechanism is spent UO/sub 2/ oxidation with possible consequences identified as fission gas release, rod diameter increases, cladding breach extension, and release of solid fuel particles containing radionuclides. Areas requiring further study to support development of a comprehensive spent fuel performance prediction model are highlighted. A program and preliminary schedule to obtain the information needed to develop model correlations are also presented.
Intact and Degraded Component Criticality Calculations of N Reactors Spent Nuclear Fuel
L. Angers
The objective of this calculation is to perform intact and degraded mode criticality evaluations of the Department of Energy's (DOE) N Reactor Spent Nuclear Fuel codisposed in a 2-Defense High-Level Waste (2-DHLW)/2-Multi-Canister Overpack (MCO) Waste Package (WP) and emplaced in a monitored geologic repository (MGR) (see Attachment I). The scope of this calculation is limited to the determination of the effective neutron multiplication factor (k{sub eff}) for both intact and degraded mode internal configurations of the codisposal waste package. This calculation will support the analysis that will be performed to demonstrate the technical viability for disposing of U-metal (N Reactor) spent nuclear fuel in the potential MGR.
Waste Generated from LMR-AMTEC Reactor Concept
Hasan, Ahmed; Mohamed, Yasser, T.; Mohammaden, Tarek, F.
The candidate Liquid Metal Reactor-Alkali Metal Thermal -to- Electric Converter (LMR-AMTEC) is considered to be the first reactor that would use pure liquid potassium as a secondary coolant, in which potassium vapor aids in the conversion of thermal energy to electric energy. As with all energy production, the thermal generation of electricity produces wastes. These wastes must be managed in ways which safeguard human health and minimize their impact on the environment. Nuclear power is the only energy industry, which takes full responsibility for all its wastes. Based on the candidate design of the LMR-AMTEC components and the coolant types, different wastes will be generated from LMR. These wastes must be classified and characterized according to the U.S. Code of Federal Regulation, CFR. This paper defines the waste generation and waste characterization from LMR-AMTEC and reviews the applicable U.S. regulations that govern waste transportation, treatment, storage and final disposition. The wastes generated from LMR-AMTEC are characterized as: (1) mixed waste which is generated from liquid sodium contaminated by fission products and activated corrosion products; (2) hazardous waste which is generated from liquid potassium contaminated by corrosion products; (3) spent nuclear fuel; and (4) low-level radioactive waste which is generated from the packing materials (e.g. activated carbon in cold trap and purification units). The regulations and management of these wastes are summarized in this paper.
High Temperature Gas Reactors The Next Generation ?
-Proof Advanced Reactor and Gas Turbine #12;Flow through Power Conversion Vessel 8 #12;9 TRISO Fuel Particle1 High Temperature Gas Reactors The Next Generation ? Professor Andrew C Kadak Massachusetts of Brayton vs. Rankine Cycle · High Temperature Helium Gas (900 C) · Direct or Indirect Cycle · Originally
Nuclide Composition Benchmark Data Set for Verifying Burnup Codes on Spent Light Water Reactor Fuels
Nakahara, Yoshinori; Suyama, Kenya; Inagawa, Jun; Nagaishi, Ryuji; Kurosawa, Setsumi; Kohno, Nobuaki; Onuki, Mamoru; Mochizuki, Hiroki [Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute (Japan)
To establish a nuclide composition benchmark data set for the verification of burnup codes, destructive analyses of light water reactor spent-fuel samples, which were cut out from several heights of spent-fuel rods, were carried out at the analytical laboratory at the Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute. The 16 samples from three kinds of pressurized water reactor (PWR) fuel rods and the 18 samples from two boiling water reactor (BWR) fuel rods were examined. Their initial {sup 235}U enrichments and burnups were from 2.6 to 4.1% and from 4 to 50 GWd/t, respectively. One PWR fuel rod and one BWR fuel rod contained gadolinia as a burnable poison. The measurements for more than 40 nuclides of uranium, transuranium, and fission product elements were performed by destructive analysis using mass spectrometry, and alpha-ray and gamma-ray spectrometry. Burnup for each sample was determined by the {sup 148}Nd method. The analytical methods and the results as well as the related irradiation condition data are compiled as a complete benchmark data set.
Testing of a Transport Cask for Research Reactor Spent Fuel - 13003
Mourao, Rogerio P.; Leite da Silva, Luiz [Centro de Desenvolvimento da Tecnologia Nuclear, Belo Horizonte (Brazil)] [Centro de Desenvolvimento da Tecnologia Nuclear, Belo Horizonte (Brazil); Miranda, Carlos A.; Mattar Neto, Miguel [Instituto de Pesquisas Energeticas e Nucleares, Sao Paulo (Brazil)] [Instituto de Pesquisas Energeticas e Nucleares, Sao Paulo (Brazil); Quintana, Jose F.A.; Saliba, Roberto O. [Comision Nacional de Energia Atomica, Bariloche (Argentina)] [Comision Nacional de Energia Atomica, Bariloche (Argentina); Novara, Oscar E. [Comision Nacional de Energia Atomica, Buenos Aires (Argentina)] [Comision Nacional de Energia Atomica, Buenos Aires (Argentina)
Since the beginning of the last decade three Latin American countries that operate research reactors - Argentina, Brazil and Chile - have been joining efforts to improve the regional capability in the management of spent fuel elements from the TRIGA and MTR reactors operated in the region. A main drive in this initiative, sponsored by the International Atomic Energy Agency, is the fact that no definite solution regarding the back end of the research reactor fuel cycle has been taken by any of the participating country. However, any long-term solution - either disposition in a repository or storage away from reactor - will involve at some stage the transportation of the spent fuel through public roads. Therefore, a licensed cask that provides adequate shielding, assurance of subcriticality, and conformance to internationally accepted safety, security and safeguards regimes is considered a strategic part of any future solution to be adopted at a regional level. As a step in this direction, a packaging for the transport of irradiated fuel for MTR and TRIGA research reactors was designed by the tri-national team and a half-scale model equipped with the MTR version of the internal basket was constructed in Argentina and Brazil and tested in Brazil. Three test campaigns have been carried out so far, covering both normal conditions of transportation and hypothetical accident conditions. After failing the tests in the first two test series, the specimen successfully underwent the last test sequence. A second specimen, incorporating the structural improvements in view of the previous tests results, will be tested in the near future. Numerical simulations of the free drop and thermal tests are being carried out in parallel, in order to validate the computational modeling that is going to be used as a support for the package certification. (authors)
Characteristics of potential repository wastes: Volume 4, Appendix 4A, Nuclear reactors at educational institutions of the United States; Appendix 4B, Data sheets for nuclear reactors at educational institutions; Appendix 4C, Supplemental data for Fort St. Vrain spent fuel; Appendix 4D, Supplemental data for Peach Bottom 1 spent fuel; Appendix 4E, Supplemental data for Fast Flux Test Facility
Not Available
Volume 4 contains the following appendices: nuclear reactors at educational institutions in the United States; data sheets for nuclear reactors at educational institutions in the United States(operational reactors and shut-down reactors); supplemental data for Fort St. Vrain spent fuel; supplemental data for Peach Bottom 1 spent fuel; and supplemental data for Fast Flux Test Facility.
Analysis of spent, highly enriched reactor fuel by delayed neutron interrogation
Piper, T.C.; Kirkham, R.J. (Westinghouse Idaho Nuclear Co., Inc., Idaho Falls, ID (United States)); Eccleston, G.W.; Menlove, H.O. (Los Alamos National Lab., NM (United States))
Design aspects are given of a neutron shuffler designed to measure fissile material content of spent, highly enriched reactor fuel. The mode of operation used, results of analyzing 176 fuel packages and recommended system improvements are also discussed. Four measurements were made on each of the fuel packages with the mean of the 176 standard deviations being 1.7 percent of value. The maximum individual standard deviation was 6.3%. Use of a stronger neutron source, an improved neutron source shuffler, an improved fuel package motion system and modernized computer system should permit significant improvement of present performance. 2 refs.
Analysis of Experimental Data for High Burnup PWR Spent Fuel Isotopic Validation - Vandellos II Reactor
Ilas, Germina [ORNL; Gauld, Ian C [ORNL
This report is one of the several recent NUREG/CR reports documenting benchmark-quality radiochemical assay data and the use of the data to validate computer code predictions of isotopic composition for spent nuclear fuel, to establish the uncertainty and bias associated with code predictions. The experimental data analyzed in the current report were acquired from a high-burnup fuel program coordinated by Spanish organizations. The measurements included extensive actinide and fission product data of importance to spent fuel safety applications, including burnup credit, decay heat, and radiation source terms. Six unique spent fuel samples from three uranium oxide fuel rods were analyzed. The fuel rods had a 4.5 wt % {sup 235}U initial enrichment and were irradiated in the Vandellos II pressurized water reactor operated in Spain. The burnups of the fuel samples range from 42 to 78 GWd/MTU. The measurements were used to validate the two-dimensional depletion sequence TRITON in the SCALE computer code system.
Reduction of the Radiotoxicity of Spent Nuclear Fuel Using a Two-Tiered System Comprising Light Water Reactors and Accelerator-Driven Systems
H.R. Trellue
Two main issues regarding the disposal of spent nuclear fuel from nuclear reactors in the United States in the geological repository Yucca Mountain are: (1) Yucca Mountain is not designed to hold the amount of fuel that has been and is proposed to be generated in the next few decades, and (2) the radiotoxicity (i.e., biological hazard) of the waste (particularly the actinides) does not decrease below that of natural uranium ore for hundreds of thousands of years. One solution to these problems may be to use transmutation to convert the nuclides in spent nuclear fuel to ones with shorter half-lives. Both reactor and accelerator-based systems have been examined in the past for transmutation; there are advantages and disadvantages associated with each. By using existing Light Water Reactors (LWRs) to burn a majority of the plutonium in spent nuclear fuel and Accelerator-Driven Systems (ADSs) to transmute the remainder of the actinides, the benefits of each type of system can be realized. The transmutation process then becomes more efficient and less expensive. This research searched for the best combination of LWRs with multiple recycling of plutonium and ADSs to transmute spent nuclear fuel from past and projected nuclear activities (assuming little growth of nuclear energy). The neutronic design of each system is examined in detail although thermal hydraulic performance would have to be considered before a final system is designed. The results are obtained using the Monte Carlo burnup code Monteburns, which has been successfully benchmarked for MOX fuel irradiation and compared to other codes for ADS calculations. The best combination of systems found in this research includes 41 LWRs burning mixed oxide fuel with two recycles of plutonium ({approx}40 years operation each) and 53 ADSs to transmute the remainder of the actinides from spent nuclear fuel over the course of 60 years of operation.
Combined cooling and purification system for nuclear reactor spent fuel pit, refueling cavity, and refueling water storage tank
Corletti, Michael M. (New Kensington, PA); Lau, Louis K. (Monroeville, PA); Schulz, Terry L. (Murrysville Boro, PA)
The spent fuel pit of a pressured water reactor (PWR) nuclear power plant has sufficient coolant capacity that a safety rated cooling system is not required. A non-safety rated combined cooling and purification system with redundant branches selectively provides simultaneously cooling and purification for the spent fuel pit, the refueling cavity, and the refueling water storage tank, and transfers coolant from the refueling water storage tank to the refueling cavity without it passing through the reactor core. Skimmers on the suction piping of the combined cooling and purification system eliminate the need for separate skimmer circuits with dedicated pumps.
Combined cooling and purification system for nuclear reactor spent fuel pit, refueling cavity, and refueling water storage tank
Corletti, M.M.; Lau, L.K.; Schulz, T.L.
The spent fuel pit of a pressured water reactor (PWR) nuclear power plant has sufficient coolant capacity that a safety rated cooling system is not required. A non-safety rated combined cooling and purification system with redundant branches selectively provides simultaneously cooling and purification for the spent fuel pit, the refueling cavity, and the refueling water storage tank, and transfers coolant from the refueling water storage tank to the refueling cavity without it passing through the reactor core. Skimmers on the suction piping of the combined cooling and purification system eliminate the need for separate skimmer circuits with dedicated pumps. 1 figures.
The U.S.-Russian joint studies on using power reactors to disposition surplus weapon plutonium as spent fuel
Chebeskov, A.; Kalashnikov, A. [State Scientific Center, Obninsk (Russian Federation). Inst. of Physics and Power Engineering; Bevard, B.; Moses, D. [Oak Ridge National Lab., TN (United States); Pavlovichev, A. [State Scientific Center, Moscow (Russian Federation). Kurchatov Inst.
In 1996, the US and the Russian Federation completed an initial joint study of the candidate options for the disposition of surplus weapons plutonium in both countries. The options included long term storage, immobilization of the plutonium in glass or ceramic for geologic disposal, and the conversion of weapons plutonium to spent fuel in power reactors. For the latter option, the US is only considering the use of existing light water reactors (LWRs) with no new reactor construction for plutonium disposition, or the use of Canadian deuterium uranium (CANDU) heavy water reactors. While Russia advocates building new reactors, the cost is high, and the continuing joint study of the Russian options is considering only the use of existing VVER-1000 LWRs in Russia and possibly Ukraine, the existing BN-60O fast neutron reactor at the Beloyarsk Nuclear Power Plant in Russia, or the use of the Canadian CANDU reactors. Six of the seven existing VVER-1000 reactors in Russia and the eleven VVER-1000 reactors in Ukraine are all of recent vintage and can be converted to use partial MOX cores. These existing VVER-1000 reactors are capable of converting almost 300 kg of surplus weapons plutonium to spent fuel each year with minimum nuclear power plant modifications. Higher core loads may be achievable in future years.
Tools Developed to Prepare and Stabilize Reactor Spent Fuel for Retrieval from Tile Holes - 12251
Horne, Michael; Clough, Malcolm [Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (Canada)
Spent fuel from the Chalk River Laboratories (CRL) nuclear reactors is stored in the waste management areas on site. This fuel is contained within carbon steel spent fuel cans that are stored inside vertical carbon steel lined concrete pipes in the ground known as tile holes. The fuel cans have been stored in the tile holes for greater than 30 years. Some of the fuel cans have experienced corrosion which may have affected their structural integrity as well as the potential to form hydrogen gas. In addition to these potential hazards, there was a need to clean contaminated surfaces inside of and around the exposed upper surface of the tile holes. As part of the site waste management remediation plan spent fuel will be retrieved from degraded tile holes, dried, and relocated to a new purpose built above ground storage facility. There have been a number of tools that are required to be developed to ensure spent fuel cans are in a safe condition prior to retrieval and re-location. A series of special purpose tools have been designed and constructed to stabilize the contents of the tile holes, to determine the integrity of the fuel containers and to decontaminate inside and around the tile holes. Described herein are the methods and types of tools used. Tools that have been presented here have been used, or will be used in the near future, in the waste management areas of the CRL Site in preparation for storage of spent fuel in a new above ground facility. The stabilization tools have been demonstrated on mock-up facilities prior to successful use in the field to remove hydrogen gas and uranium hydrides from the fuel cans. A lifting tool has been developed and used successfully in the field to confirm the integrity of the fuel cans for future relocation. A tool using a commercial dry ice blaster has been developed and is ready to start mock-up trials and is scheduled to be used in the field during the summer of 2012. (authors)
An experiment to simulate the heat transfer properties of a dry, horizontal spent nuclear fuel assembly
Lovett, Phyllis Maria
Nuclear power reactors generate highly radioactive spent fuel assemblies. Initially, the spent fuel assemblies are stored for a period of several years in an on-site storage facility to allow the radioactivity levels of ...
Radiation Exposures Associated with Shipments of Foreign Research Reactor Spent Nuclear Fuel
Experience has shown that the analyses of marine transport of spent fuel in the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) were conservative. It is anticipated that for most shipments. The external dose rate for the loaded transportation cask will be more in line with recent shipments. At the radiation levels associated with these shipments, we would not expect any personnel to exceed radiation exposure limits for the public. Package dose rates usually well below the regulatory limits and personnel work practices following ALARA principles are keeping human exposures to minimal levels. However, the potential for Mure shipments with external dose rates closer to the exclusive-use regulatory limit suggests that DOE should continue to provide a means to assure that individual crew members do not receive doses in excess of the public dose limits. As a minimum, the program will monitor cask dose rates and continue to implement administrative procedures that will maintain records of the dose rates associated with each shipment, the vessel used, and the crew list for the vessel. DOE will continue to include a clause in the contract for shipment of the foreign research reactor spent nuclear fuel requiring that the Mitigation Action Plan be followed.
Categorization of failed and damaged spent LWR (light-water reactor) fuel currently in storage
Bailey, W.J.
The results of a study that was jointly sponsored by the US Department of Energy and the Electric Power Research Institute are described in this report. The purpose of the study was to (1) estimate the number of failed fuel assemblies and damaged fuel assemblies (i.e., ones that have sustained mechanical or chemical damage but with fuel rod cladding that is not breached) in storage, (2) categorize those fuel assemblies, and (3) prepare this report as an authoritative, illustrated source of information on such fuel. Among the more than 45,975 spent light-water reactor fuel assemblies currently in storage in the United States, it appears that there are nearly 5000 failed or damaged fuel assemblies. 78 refs., 23 figs., 19 tabs.
Fast Reactor Subassembly Design Modifications for Increasing Electricity Generation Efficiency
R. Wigeland; K. Hamman
Suggested for Track 7: Advances in Reactor Core Design and In-Core Management _____________________________________________________________________________________ Fast Reactor Subassembly Design Modifications for Increasing Electricity Generation Efficiency R. Wigeland and K. Hamman Idaho National Laboratory Given the ability of fast reactors to effectively transmute the transuranic elements as are present in spent nuclear fuel, fast reactors are being considered as one element of future nuclear power systems to enable continued use and growth of nuclear power by limiting high-level waste generation. However, a key issue for fast reactors is higher electricity cost relative to other forms of nuclear energy generation. The economics of the fast reactor are affected by the amount of electric power that can be produced from a reactor, i.e., the thermal efficiency for electricity generation. The present study is examining the potential for fast reactor subassembly design changes to improve the thermal efficiency by increasing the average coolant outlet temperature without increasing peak temperatures within the subassembly, i.e., to make better use of current technology. Sodium-cooled fast reactors operate at temperatures far below the coolant boiling point, so that the maximum coolant outlet temperature is limited by the acceptable peak temperatures for the reactor fuel and cladding. Fast reactor fuel subassemblies have historically been constructed using a large number of small diameter fuel pins contained within a tube of hexagonal cross-section, or hexcan. Due to this design, there is a larger coolant flow area next to the hexcan wall as compared to flow area in the interior of the subassembly. This results in a higher flow rate near the hexcan wall, overcooling the fuel pins next to the wall, and a non-uniform coolant temperature distribution. It has been recognized for many years that this difference in sodium coolant temperature was detrimental to achieving greater thermal efficiency, since it causes the fuel pins in the center of the subassembly to operate at higher temperatures than those near the hexcan walls, and it is the temperature limit(s) for those fuel pins that limits the average coolant outlet temperature. Fuel subassembly design changes are being investigated using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) to quantify the effect that the design changes have on reducing the intra-subassembly coolant flow and temperature distribution. Simulations have been performed for a 19-pin test subassembly geometry using typical fuel pin diameters and wire wrap spacers. The results have shown that it may be possible to increase the average coolant outlet temperature by 20 C or more without changing the peak temperatures within the subassembly. These design changes should also be effective for reactor designs using subassemblies with larger numbers of fuel pins. R. Wigeland, Idaho National Laboratory, P.O. Box 1625, Mail Stop 3860, Idaho Falls, ID, U.S.A., 83415-3860 email � email@example.com fax (U.S.) � 208-526-2930
Plasma generators, reactor systems and related methods
Kong, Peter C. (Idaho Falls, ID); Pink, Robert J. (Pocatello, ID); Lee, James E. (Idaho Falls, ID)
A plasma generator, reactor and associated systems and methods are provided in accordance with the present invention. A plasma reactor may include multiple sections or modules which are removably coupled together to form a chamber. Associated with each section is an electrode set including three electrodes with each electrode being coupled to a single phase of a three-phase alternating current (AC) power supply. The electrodes are disposed about a longitudinal centerline of the chamber and are arranged to provide and extended arc and generate an extended body of plasma. The electrodes are displaceable relative to the longitudinal centerline of the chamber. A control system may be utilized so as to automatically displace the electrodes and define an electrode gap responsive to measure voltage or current levels of the associated power supply.
Spent fuel storage requirements 1993--2040
Not Available
Historical inventories of spent fuel are combined with U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) projections of future discharges from commercial nuclear reactors in the United States to provide estimates of spent fuel storage requirements through the year 2040. The needs are estimated for storage capacity beyond that presently available in the reactor storage pools. These estimates incorporate the maximum capacities within current and planned in-pool storage facilities and any planned transshipments of spent fuel to other reactors or facilities. Existing and future dry storage facilities are also discussed. The nuclear utilities provide historical data through December 1992 on the end of reactor life are based on the DOE/Energy Information Administration (EIA) estimates of future nuclear capacity, generation, and spent fuel discharges.
Expert System analysis of non-fuel assembly hardware and spent fuel disassembly hardware: Its generation and recommended disposal
Williamson, D.A.
Almost all of the effort being expended on radioactive waste disposal in the United States is being focused on the disposal of spent Nuclear Fuel, with little consideration for other areas that will have to be disposed of in the same facilities. one area of radioactive waste that has not been addressed adequately because it is considered a secondary part of the waste issue is the disposal of the various Non-Fuel Bearing Components of the reactor core. These hardware components fall somewhat arbitrarily into two categories: Non-Fuel Assembly (NFA) hardware and Spent Fuel Disassembly (SFD) hardware. This work provides a detailed examination of the generation and disposal of NFA hardware and SFD hardware by the nuclear utilities of the United States as it relates to the Civilian Radioactive Waste Management Program. All available sources of data on NFA and SFD hardware are analyzed with particular emphasis given to the Characteristics Data Base developed by Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the characterization work performed by Pacific Northwest Laboratories and Rochester Gas & Electric. An Expert System developed as a portion of this work is used to assist in the prediction of quantities of NFA hardware and SFD hardware that will be generated by the United States` utilities. Finally, the hardware waste management practices of the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Sweden, and Japan are studied for possible application to the disposal of domestic hardware wastes. As a result of this work, a general classification scheme for NFA and SFD hardware was developed. Only NFA and SFD hardware constructed of zircaloy and experiencing a burnup of less than 70,000 MWD/MTIHM and PWR control rods constructed of stainless steel are considered Low-Level Waste. All other hardware is classified as Greater-ThanClass-C waste.
Summary engineering description of underwater fuel storage facility for foreign research reactor spent nuclear fuel
Dahlke, H.J.; Johnson, D.A.; Rawlins, J.K.; Searle, D.K.; Wachs, G.W.
This document is a summary description for an Underwater Fuel Storage Facility (UFSF) for foreign research reactor (FRR) spent nuclear fuel (SNF). A FRR SNF environmental Impact Statement (EIS) is being prepared and will include both wet and dry storage facilities as storage alternatives. For the UFSF presented in this document, a specific site is not chosen. This facility can be sited at any one of the five locations under consideration in the EIS. These locations are the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory, Savannah River Site, Hanford, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and Nevada Test Site. Generic facility environmental impacts and emissions are provided in this report. A baseline fuel element is defined in Section 2.2, and the results of a fission product analysis are presented. Requirements for a storage facility have been researched and are summarized in Section 3. Section 4 describes three facility options: (1) the Centralized-UFSF, which would store the entire fuel element quantity in a single facility at a single location, (2) the Regionalized Large-UFSF, which would store 75% of the fuel element quantity in some region of the country, and (3) the Regionalized Small-UFSF, which would store 25% of the fuel element quantity, with the possibility of a number of these facilities in various regions throughout the country. The operational philosophy is presented in Section 5, and Section 6 contains a description of the equipment. Section 7 defines the utilities required for the facility. Cost estimates are discussed in Section 8, and detailed cost estimates are included. Impacts to worker safety, public safety, and the environment are discussed in Section 9. Accidental releases are presented in Section 10. Standard Environmental Impact Forms are included in Section 11.
Monthly Nuclear Utility Generation by State and Reactor, 2007
U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) Indexed Site
applicationvnd.ms-excel X-Translator-Status: translating " Worksheet" "Monthly Nuclear Utility Generation by State and Reactor, 2007" "January through December 2007"...
Monthly Nuclear Utility Generation by State and Reactor, 2004
U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) Indexed Site
applicationvnd.ms-excel X-Translator-Status: translating " Worksheet" "Monthly Nuclear Utility Generation by State and Reactor, 2004" "January through December 2004"...
Monthly Nuclear Utility Generation by State and Reactor, 2005
U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) Indexed Site
applicationvnd.ms-excel X-Translator-Status: translating " Worksheet" "Monthly Nuclear Utility Generation by State and Reactor, 2005" "January through December 2005"...
Monthly Nuclear Utility Generation by State and Reactor, 2003
U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) Indexed Site
applicationvnd.ms-excel X-Translator-Status: translating " Worksheet" "Monthly Nuclear Utility Generation by State and Reactor, 2003" "January through December 2003"...
Monthly Nuclear Utility Generation by State and Reactor, 2008
U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) Indexed Site
applicationvnd.ms-excel X-Translator-Status: translating " Worksheet" "Monthly Nuclear Utility Generation by State and Reactor, 2008" "January through December 2008"...
Simulated Performance of the Integrated Passive Neutron Albedo Reactivity and Self-Interrogation Neutron Resonance Densitometry Detector Designed for Spent Fuel Measurement at the Fugen Reactor in Japan
Ulrich, Timothy J. II [Los Alamos National Laboratory; Lafleur, Adrienne M. [Los Alamos National Laboratory; Menlove, Howard O. [Los Alamos National Laboratory; Swinhoe, Martyn T. [Los Alamos National Laboratory; Tobin, Stephen J. [Los Alamos National Laboratory; Seya, Michio [Los Alamos National Laboratory; Bolind, Alan M. [Los Alamos National Laboratory
An integrated nondestructive assay instrument, which combined the Passive Neutron Albedo Reactivity (PNAR) and the Self-Interrogation Neutron Resonance Densitometry (SINRD) techniques, is the research focus for a collaborative effort between Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) and the Japanese Atomic Energy Agency as part of the Next Generation Safeguard Initiative. We will quantify the anticipated performance of this experimental system in two physical environments: (1) At LANL we will measure fresh Low Enriched Uranium (LEU) assemblies for which the average enrichment can be varied from 0.2% to 3.2% and for which Gd laced rods will be included. (2) At Fugen we will measure spent Mixed Oxide (MOX-B) and LEU spent fuel assemblies from the heavy water moderated Fugen reactor. The MOX-B assemblies will vary in burnup from {approx}3 GWd/tHM to {approx}20 GWd/tHM while the LEU assemblies ({approx}1.9% initial enrichment) will vary from {approx}2 GWd/tHM to {approx}7 GWd/tHM. The estimated count rates will be calculated using MCNPX. These preliminary results will help the finalization of the hardware design and also serve a guide for the experiment. The hardware of the detector is expected to be fabricated in 2012 with measurements expected to take place in 2012 and 2013. This work is supported by the Next Generation Safeguards Initiative, Office of Nuclear Safeguards and Security, National Nuclear Security Administration.
Examination of Spent Pressurized Water Reactor Fuel Rods After 15 Years in Dry Storage
Einziger, Robert E. [Argonne National Laboratory (United States); Tsai Hanchung [Argonne National Laboratory (United States); Billone, Michael C. [Argonne National Laboratory (United States); Hilton, Bruce A. [Argonne National Laboratory-West (United States)
For [approximately equal to]15 yr Dominion Generation's Surry Nuclear Station 15 x 15 Westinghouse pressurized water reactor (PWR) fuel was stored in a dry inert-atmosphere Castor V/21 cask at the Idaho National Environmental and Engineering Laboratory at peak cladding temperatures that decreased from {approx}350 to 150 deg. C. Before storage, the loaded cask was subjected to thermal-benchmark tests, during which time the peak temperatures were greater than 400 deg. C. The cask was opened to examine the fuel rods for degradation and to determine if they were suitable for extended storage. No fuel rod breaches and no visible degradation or crud/oxide spallation from the fuel rod surface were observed. The results from profilometry, gas release measurements, metallographic examinations, microhardness determination, and cladding hydrogen behavior are reported in this paper.It appears that little or no fission gas was released from the fuel pellets during either the thermal-benchmark tests or the long-term storage. In the central region of the fuel column, where the axial temperature gradient in storage is small, the measured hydrogen content in the cladding is consistent with the thickness of the oxide layer. At {approx}1 m above the fuel midplane, where a steep temperature gradient existed in the cask, less hydrogen is present than would be expected from the oxide thickness that developed in-reactor. Migration of hydrogen during dry storage probably occurred and may signal a higher-than-expected concentration at the cooler ends of the rod. The volume of hydrides varies azimuthally around the cladding, and at some elevations, the hydrides appear to have segregated somewhat to the inner and outer cladding surfaces. It is, however, impossible to determine if this segregation occurred in-reactor or during transportation, thermal-benchmark tests, or the dry storage period. The hydrides retained the circumferential orientation typical of prestorage PWR fuel rods. Little or no cladding creep occurred during thermal-benchmark testing and dry storage. It is anticipated that the creep would not increase significantly during additional storage because of the lower temperature after 15 yr, continual decrease in temperature from the reduction in decay heat, and concurrent reductions in internal rod pressure and stress. This paper describes the results of the characterization of the fuel and intact cladding, as well as the implications of these results for long-term (i.e., beyond 20 yr) dry-cask storage.
Raytheon explores thorium for next generation nuclear reactor
Crawford, M.
Few new orders for nuclear power plants have been placed anywhere in the world in the last 20 years, but that is not discouraging Raytheon Engineers Constructors from making plans to explore new light water reactor technologies for commercial markets. The Lexington, Mass.-based company, which has extensive experience in nuclear power engineering and construction, has a vision for the light water reactor of the future - one that is based on the use of thorium-232, an element that decays over several steps to uranium-233. The use of thorium and a small amount of uranium that is 20 percent enriched is seen as providing operational, environmental, and safety advantages over reactors using the standard fuel mixture of uranium-238 and enriched uranium-235. According to Raytheon, the system could improve the economics of some reactors' operations by reducing fuel costs and lowering related waste volumes. At the same time, reactor safety could be improved by simpler control rod systems and the absence from reactor coolant of corrosive boric acid, which is used to slow neutrons in order to enhance reactions. Using thorium is also attractive because more of the fuel is burned up by the reactor, an estimated 12 percent as compared to about 4 percent for U-235. However, the technology's greatest attraction may well be its implications for nuclear proliferation. Growing plutonium inventories embedded in spent fuel rods from light water reactors have sparked concern worldwide. But according to Raytheon, using a thorium-based fuel core would alleviate this concern because it would produce only small quantities of plutonium. A thorium-based fuel system would produce 12 kilograms of plutonium over a decade versus 2,235 kilograms for an equivalent reactor operating with conventional uranium fuel.
Process and apparatus for recovery of fissionable materials from spent reactor fuel by anodic dissolution
Tomczuk, Zygmunt (Orland Park, IL); Miller, William E. (Naperville, IL); Wolson, Raymond D. (Lockport, IL); Gay, Eddie C. (Park Forest, IL)
An electrochemical process and apparatus for the recovery of uranium and plutonium from spent metal clad fuel pins is disclosed. The process uses secondary reactions between U.sup.+4 cations and elemental uranium at the anode to increase reaction rates and improve anodic efficiency compared to prior art processes. In another embodiment of the process, secondary reactions between Cd.sup.+2 cations and elemental uranium to form uranium cations and elemental cadmium also assists in oxidizing the uranium at the anode.
C Produced by Nuclear Power Reactors Generation and Characterization of
Haviland, David
14 C Produced by Nuclear Power Reactors Generation and Characterization of Gaseous, Liquid and process water from nuclear reactors A method for quantitative determination of organic and inorganic and Solid Waste �?sa Magnusson Division of Nuclear Physics Department of Physics 2007 Akademisk avhandling
Systems report on the analysis of spent, highly enriched U-235 reactor fuel by delayed neutron interrogation
Piper, T.C.; Kirkham, R.J.
Design aspects are briefly given of a neutron source shuffler used to measure fissile material content of spent, highly enriched reactor fuel. The mode of operation used, results of analyzing 176 fuel packages and recommended system improvements are discussed. Four measurements were made on each of the fuel packages with the mean of the 176 standard deviations being 2.03 percent of value. The maximum individual standard deviation was 9.27 percent. Appendixes concerning imprecisions introduced by counting statistics and crane speed irregularities are given. Use of an improved neutron source shuffler, an improved fuel package motion system and modernized computer system should permit system performance to be limited mainly by counting statistics, to about 1.5 percent of measured value. A stronger source could then be installed to further enhance system operation. 16 figs., 3 tabs.
Shielding analysis for the 300 area light water reactor spent nuclear fuel within a modified multi-canister overpack canister in a modified multi-canister overpack cask
Gedeon, S.R.
Spent light water reactor fuel is to be moved out of the 324 Building. It is anticipated that intact fuel assemblies will be loaded in a modified Multi-Canister Overpack Canister, which in turn will be placed in an Overpack Transportation Cask. An estimate of gamma ray dose rates from a transportation cask is desired.
Haire, M.J.; Forsberg, C.W.; Matveev, V.Z.; Shapovalov, V.I.
The design of spent nuclear fuel (SNF) casks used in the present SNF disposition systems has evolved from early concepts about the nuclear fuel cycle. The reality today is much different from that envisioned by early nuclear scientists. Most SNF is placed in pool storage, awaiting reprocessing (as in Russia) or disposal at a geologic SNF repository (as in the United States). Very little transport of SNF occurs. This paper examines the requirements for SNF casks from today's perspective and attempts to answer this question: What type of SNF cask would be produced if we were to start over and design SNF casks based on today's requirements? The characteristics for a next-generation SNF cask system are examined and are found to be essentially the same in Russia and the United States. It appears that the new depleted uranium dioxide (DUO2)-steel cermet material will enable these requirements to be met. Depleted uranium (DU) is uranium in which a portion of the 235U isotope has been removed during a uranium enrichment process. The DUO2-steel cermet material is described. The United States and Russia are cooperating toward the development of a next-generation, dual-purpose, storage and transport SNF system.
Electrochemical separation of aluminum from uranium for research reactor spent nuclear fuel applications.
Slater, S. A.; Willit, J. L.; Gay, E. C.; Chemical Engineering
Researchers at Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) are developing an electrorefining process to treat aluminum-based spent nuclear fuel by electrochemically separating aluminum from uranium. The aluminum electrorefiner is modeled after the high-throughput electrorefiner developed at ANL. Aluminum is electrorefined, using a fluoride salt electrolyte, in a potential range of -0.1 V to -0.2 V, while uranium is electrorefined in a potential range of -0.3 V to -0.4 V; therefore, aluminum can be selectively separated electrochemically from uranium. A series of laboratory-scale experiments was performed to demonstrate the aluminum electrorefining concept. These experiments involved selecting an electrolyte (determining a suitable fluoride salt composition); selecting a crucible material for the electrochemical cell; optimizing the operating conditions; determining the effect of adding alkaline and rare earth elements to the electrolyte; and demonstrating the electrochemical separation of aluminum from uranium, using a U-Al-Si alloy as a simulant for aluminum-based spent nuclear fuel. Results of the laboratory-scale experiments indicate that aluminum can be selectively electrotransported from the anode to the cathode, while uranium remains in the anode basket.
Operating strategy generators for nuclear reactors
Solovyev, D. A., E-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com; Semenov, A. A.; Shchukin, N. V. [National Research Nuclear University MEPhI (Russian Federation)
Operating strategy generators, i.e., the software intended for increasing the efficiency of work of nuclear power plant operators, are discussed. The possibilities provided by the domestic and foreign operating-strategy generators are analyzed.
Dewes, J.
The shipment of spent nuclear fuel is usually done by a combination of rail, road or sea, as the high activity of the SNF needs heavy shielding. Air shipment has advantages, e.g. it is much faster than any other shipment and therefore minimizes the transit time as well as attention of the public. Up to now only very few and very special SNF shipments were done by air, as the available container (TUK6) had a very limited capacity. Recently Sosny developed a Type C overpack, the TUK-145/C, compliant with IAEA Standard TS-R-1 for the VPVR/M type Skoda container. The TUK-145/C was first used in Vietnam in July 2013 for a single cask. In October and November 2013 a total of six casks were successfully shipped from Hungary in three air shipments using the TUK-145/C. The present paper describes the details of these shipments and formulates the lessons learned.
US Spent (Used) Fuel Status, Management and Likely Directions- 12522
Jardine, Leslie J. [L. J. Jardine Services, Consultant, Dublin CA, 94568 (United States)
As of 2010, the US has accumulated 65,200 MTU (42,300 MTU of PWR's; 23,000 MTU of BWR's) of spent (irradiated or used) fuel from 104 operating commercial nuclear power plants situated at 65 sites in 31 States and from previously shutdown commercial nuclear power plants. Further, the Department of Energy (DOE) has responsibility for an additional 2458 MTU of DOE-owned defense and non defense spent fuel from naval nuclear power reactors, various non-commercial test reactors and reactor demonstrations. The US has no centralized large spent fuel storage facility for either commercial spent fuel or DOE-owned spent fuel. The 65,200 MTU of US spent fuel is being safely stored by US utilities at numerous reactor sites in (wet) pools or (dry) metal or concrete casks. As of November 2010, the US had 63 'independent spent fuel storage installations' (or ISFSI's) licensed by the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission located at 57 sites in 33 states. Over 1400 casks loaded with spent fuel for dry storage are at these licensed ISFSI's; 47 sites are located at commercial reactor sites and 10 are located 'away' from a reactor (AFR's) site. DOE's small fraction of a 2458 MTU spent fuel inventory, which is not commercial spent fuel, is with the exception of 2 MTU, being stored at 4 sites in 4 States. The decades old US policy of a 'once through' fuel cycle with no recycle of spent fuel was set into a state of 'mass confusion or disruption' when the new US President Obama's administration started in early 2010 stopping the only US geologic disposal repository at the Yucca Mountain site in the State of Nevada from being developed and licensed. The practical result is that US nuclear power plant operators will have to continue to be responsible for managing and storing their own spent fuel for an indefinite period of time at many different sites in order to continue to generate electricity because there is no current US government plan, schedule or policy for taking possession of accumulated spent fuel from the utilities. There are technical solutions for continuing the safe storage of spent fuel for 100 years or more and these solutions will be implemented by the US utilities that need to keep their nuclear power plants operating while the unknown political events are played out to establish future US policy decisions that can remain in place long enough regarding accumulated spent fuel inventories to implement any new US spent fuel centralized storage or disposition policy by the US government. (author)
Steam generator for liquid metal fast breeder reactor
Gillett, James E. (Greensburg, PA); Garner, Daniel C. (Murrysville, PA); Wineman, Arthur L. (Greensburg, PA); Robey, Robert M. (North Huntingdon, PA)
Improvements in the design of internal components of J-shaped steam generators for liquid metal fast breeder reactors. Complex design improvements have been made to the internals of J-shaped steam generators which improvements are intended to reduce tube vibration, tube jamming, flow problems in the upper portion of the steam generator, manufacturing complexities in tube spacer attachments, thermal stripping potentials and difficulties in the weld fabrication of certain components.
Successful Completion of the Largest Shipment of Russian Research Reactor High-Enriched Uranium Spent Nuclear Fuel from Czech Republic to Russian Federation
Michael Tyacke; Dr. Igor Bolshinsky; Jeff Chamberlin
On December 8, 2007, the largest shipment of high-enriched uranium spent nuclear fuel was successfully made from a Russian-designed nuclear research reactor in the Czech Republic to the Russian Federation. This accomplishment is the culmination of years of planning, negotiations, and hard work. The United States, Russian Federation, and the International Atomic Energy Agency have been working together on the Russian Research Reactor Fuel Return (RRRFR) Program in support of the Global Threat Reduction Initiative. In February 2003, RRRFR Program representatives met with the Nuclear Research Institute in Re�, Czech Republic, and discussed the return of their high-enriched uranium spent nuclear fuel to the Russian Federation for reprocessing. Nearly 5 years later, the shipment was made. This paper discusses the planning, preparations, coordination, and cooperation required to make this important international shipment.
State of Nevada comments on the OCRWM from-reactor spent fuel shipping cask preliminary design reports
Halstead, R.J.; Audin, L.; Hoskins, R.E.; Snedeker, D.F.
The design of spent fuels shipping casks is described. Two casks from two different contractors are presented. The design needs are based on the OCRWM'S program specifications. (CBS)
Wastes associated with recycling spent MOX fuel into fast reactor oxide fuel
Foare, G.; Meze, F. [AREVA EP, SGN - 1, rue des Herons, 18182 Montigny-le-Bretonneux (France); McGee, D.; Murray, P.; Bader, S. [AREVA Federal Services LLC - 7207 IBM Drive, Charlotte, NC 28262 (United States)
A study sponsored by the DOE has been performed by AREVA to estimate the process and secondary wastes produced from an 800 MTIHM/yr (initial metric tons heavy metal a year) recycling plant proposed to be built in the U.S. utilizing the COEX process and utilized some DOE defined assumptions and constraints. In this paper, this plant has been analyzed for a recycling campaign that included 89% UO{sub x} and 11% MOX UNF to estimate process and secondary waste quantities produced while manufacturing 28 MTIHM/yr of SFR fuel. AREVA utilized operational data from its backend facilities in France (La Hague and MELOX), and from recent advances in waste treatment technology to estimate the waste quantities. A table lists the volumes and types of the different final wastes for a recycling plant. For instance concerning general fission products the form of the final wastes is vitrified glass and its volume generation rate is 135 l/MTHM, concerning Iodine 129 waste its final form is synthetic rock and its volume generation rate is 0.625 l/MTIHM.
Generation IV Reactors Integrated Materials Technology Program Plan: Focus on Very High Temperature Reactor Materials
Corwin, William R [ORNL; Burchell, Timothy D [ORNL; Katoh, Yutai [ORNL; McGreevy, Timothy E [ORNL; Nanstad, Randy K [ORNL; Ren, Weiju [ORNL; Snead, Lance Lewis [ORNL; Wilson, Dane F [ORNL
Since 2002, the Department of Energy's (DOE's) Generation IV Nuclear Energy Systems (Gen IV) Program has addressed the research and development (R&D) necessary to support next-generation nuclear energy systems. The six most promising systems identified for next-generation nuclear energy are described within this roadmap. Two employ a thermal neutron spectrum with coolants and temperatures that enable hydrogen or electricity production with high efficiency (the Supercritical Water Reactor-SCWR and the Very High Temperature Reactor-VHTR). Three employ a fast neutron spectrum to enable more effective management of actinides through recycling of most components in the discharged fuel (the Gas-cooled Fast Reactor-GFR, the Lead-cooled Fast Reactor-LFR, and the Sodium-cooled Fast Reactor-SFR). The Molten Salt Reactor (MSR) employs a circulating liquid fuel mixture that offers considerable flexibility for recycling actinides and may provide an alternative to accelerator-driven systems. At the inception of DOE's Gen IV program, it was decided to significantly pursue five of the six concepts identified in the Gen IV roadmap to determine which of them was most appropriate to meet the needs of future U.S. nuclear power generation. In particular, evaluation of the highly efficient thermal SCWR and VHTR reactors was initiated primarily for energy production, and evaluation of the three fast reactor concepts, SFR, LFR, and GFR, was begun to assess viability for both energy production and their potential contribution to closing the fuel cycle. Within the Gen IV Program itself, only the VHTR class of reactors was selected for continued development. Hence, this document will address the multiple activities under the Gen IV program that contribute to the development of the VHTR. A few major technologies have been recognized by DOE as necessary to enable the deployment of the next generation of advanced nuclear reactors, including the development and qualification of the structural materials needed to ensure their safe and reliable operation. The focus of this document will be the overall range of DOE's structural materials research activities being conducted to support VHTR development. By far, the largest portion of material's R&D supporting VHTR development is that being performed directly as part of the Next-Generation Nuclear Plant (NGNP) Project. Supplementary VHTR materials R&D being performed in the DOE program, including university and international research programs and that being performed under direct contracts with the American Society for Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code, will also be described. Specific areas of high-priority materials research that will be needed to deploy the NGNP and provide a basis for subsequent VHTRs are described, including the following: (1) Graphite: (a) Extensive unirradiated materials characterization and assessment of irradiation effects on properties must be performed to qualify new grades of graphite for nuclear service, including thermo-physical and mechanical properties and their changes, statistical variations from billot-to-billot and lot-to-lot, creep, and especially, irradiation creep. (b) Predictive models, as well as codification of the requirements and design methods for graphite core supports, must be developed to provide a basis for licensing. (2) Ceramics: Both fibrous and load-bearing ceramics must be qualified for environmental and radiation service as insulating materials. (3) Ceramic Composites: Carbon-carbon and SiC-SiC composites must be qualified for specialized usage in selected high-temperature components, such as core stabilizers, control rods, and insulating covers and ducting. This will require development of component-specific designs and fabrication processes, materials characterization, assessment of environmental and irradiation effects, and establishment of codes and standards for materials testing and design requirements. (4) Pressure Vessel Steels: (a) Qualification of short-term, high-temperature properties of light water rea
State of Nevada comments on the OCRWM from-reactor spent fuel shipping cask preliminary design reports
Halstead, R.J.; Audin, L.; Hoskins, R.E.; Snedeker, D.F.
The design of spent fuels shipping casks is described. Two casks from two different contractors are presented. The design needs are based on the OCRWM`S program specifications. (CBS)
Spent Fuel Working Group report on inventory and storage of the Department`s spent nuclear fuel and other reactor irradiated nuclear materials and their environmental, safety and health vulnerabilities. Volume 3, Site team reports
Not Available
A self assessment was conducted of those Hanford facilities that are utilized to store Reactor Irradiated Nuclear Material, (RINM). The objective of the assessment is to identify the Hanford inventories of RINM and the ES & H concerns associated with such storage. The assessment was performed as proscribed by the Project Plan issued by the DOE Spent Fuel Working Group. The Project Plan is the plan of execution intended to complete the Secretary`s request for information relevant to the inventories and vulnerabilities of DOE storage of spent nuclear fuel. The Hanford RINM inventory, the facilities involved and the nature of the fuel stored are summarized. This table succinctly reveals the variety of the Hanford facilities involved, the variety of the types of RINM involved, and the wide range of the quantities of material involved in Hanford`s RINM storage circumstances. ES & H concerns are defined as those circumstances that have the potential, now or in the future, to lead to a criticality event, to a worker radiation exposure event, to an environmental release event, or to public announcements of such circumstances and the sensationalized reporting of the inherent risks.
Granular flow in pebble-bed nuclear reactors: Scaling, Dust Generation, and Stress
Rycroft, Chris H.
Granular flow in pebble-bed nuclear reactors: Scaling, Dust Generation, and Stress Chris H. Keywords: granular flow, dust generation, numerical methods 1. Introduction Pebble-bed nuclear reactors prototypes of pebble-bed reactors, significant quantities of graphite dust have been observed due to rubbing
Teaching Sodium Fast Reactor Technology and Operation for the Present and Future Generations of SFR Users
Paris-Sud XI, Universit� de
Teaching Sodium Fast Reactor Technology and Operation for the Present and Future Generations of SFR or development of sodium fast reactors and related experimental facilities. The sum of courses provided by CEA on sodium fast reactor design, technology, safety and operation experience, decommissioning aspects
Decision-support tool for assessing future nuclear reactor generation portfolios.
Oosterlee, Cornelis W. "Kees"
Decision-support tool for assessing future nuclear reactor generation portfolios. Shashi Jain, where especially capital costs are known to be highly uncertain. Differ- ent nuclear reactor types uncertainties in the cost elements of a nuclear power plant, to provide an optimal portfolio of nuclear reactors
Selection of materials for sodium fast reactor steam generators
Dubiez-Le Goff, S.; Garnier, S.; Gelineau, O. [AREVA (France); Dalle, F. [Commissariat a l'energie atomique et aux energies alternatives - CEA (France); Blat-Yrieix, M.; Augem, J. M. [Electricite de France - EDF (France)
Sodium Fast Reactor (SFR) is considered in France as the most mature technology of the different Generation IV systems. In the short-term the designing work is focused on the identification of the potential tracks to demonstrate licensing capability, availability, in-service inspection capability and economical performance. In that frame materials selection for the major components, as the steam generator, is a particularly key point managed within a French Research and Development program launched by AREVA, CEA and EDF. The choice of the material for the steam generator is indeed complex because various aspects shall be considered like mechanical and thermal properties at high temperature, interaction with sodium on one side and water and steam on the other side, resistance to wastage, procurement, fabrication, weldability and ability for inspection and in-situ intervention. The following relevant options are evaluated: the modified 9Cr1Mo ferritic-martensitic grade and the Alloy 800 austenitic grade. The objective of this paper is to assess for both candidates their abilities to reach the current SFR needs regarding material design data, from AFCEN RCC-MRx Code in particular, compatibility with environments and manufacturability. (authors)
Water chemistry of breeder reactor steam generators. [LMFBR
Simpson, J.L.; Robles, M.N.; Spalaris, C.N.; Moss, S.A.
The water quality requirements will be described for breeder reactor steam generators, as well as specifications for balance of plant protection. Water chemistry details will be discussed for the following power plant conditions: feedwater and recirculation water at above and below 5% plant power, refueling or standby, makeup water, and wet layup. Experimental data will be presented from tests which included a departure from nucleate boiling experiment, the Few Tube Test, with a seven tube evaporator and three tube superheater, and a verification of control and on-line measurement of sodium ion in the ppB range. Sampling and instrumentation requirements to insure adherence to the specified water quality will be described. Evaporator cleaning criteria and data from laboratory testing of chemical cleaning solutions with emphasis on flow, chemical composition, and temperature will be discussed.
Spent fuel and fuel pool component integrity. Annual report, FY 1980
Johnson, A.B. Jr.; Bailey, W.J.; Bradley, E.R.; Bruemmer, S.M.; Langstaff, D.C.
During program FY 1980 staff members of the Spent Fuel and Fuel Pool Component Integrity Program at Pacific Northwest Laboratory (PNL) completed the following major tasks: represented DOE on the international Behavior of Fuel Assemblies in Storage (BEFAST) Committee; the program manager, A.B. Johnson, Jr., participated in an International Survey of Water Reactor Spent Fuel Storage Experience, which was conducted jointly by the International Atomic Energy Agency (Vienna) and the Nuclear Energy Agency (Paris); provided written testimony and cross statement for the Proposed Rulemaking on Storage and Disposal of Nuclear Waste; acquired and began examination of the world's oldest pool-stored Zircaloy-clad fuel from the Shippingport reactor, stored approx. 21 years in deionized water; acquired and began examination of stainless-clad spent fuel from the Connecticut Yankee Reactor (PWR); negotiated for specimens from components stored in spent fuel pools at fuel storage facilities from the Savannah River Plant, Aiken, South Carolina, Zion (PWR) spent fuel pool, Zion, Illinois, and La Crosse (BWR) spent fuel pool, La Crosse, Wisconsin; planned for examinations in FY 81 of specimens from the three spent fuel pools; investigated a low-temperature stress corrosion cracking mechanism that developed in piping at a few PWR spent fuel pools. This report summarizes the results of these activities and investigations. Details are provided in the presentationsand publications generated under this program and summarized in Appendix A.
Radiological consequences of ship collisions that might occur in U.S. Ports during the shipment of foreign research reactor spent nuclear fuel to the United States in break-bulk freighters
Sprung, J.L.; Bespalko, S.J.; Massey, C.D.; Yoshimura, R. [Sandia National Laboratory, Albuquerque, NM (United States); Johnson, J.D. [GRAM Inc., Albuquerque, NM (United States); Reardon, P.C. [PCRT Technologies, Albuquerque, NM (United States); Ebert, M.W.; Gallagher D.W. [Science Applications International Corp., Reston, VA (United States)
Accident source terms, source term probabilities, consequences, and risks are developed for ship collisions that might occur in U.S. ports during the shipment of spent fuel from foreign research reactors to the United States in break-bulk freighters.
Cross section generation strategy for high conversion light water reactors
Herman, Bryan R. (Bryan Robert)
High conversion water reactors (HCWR), such as the Resource-renewable Boiling Water Reactor (RBWR), are being designed with axial heterogeneity of alternating fissile and blanket zones to achieve a conversion ratio of ...
Recommended temperature limits for dry storage of spent light water reactor Zircaloy-clad fuel rods in inert gas
Levy, I.S.; Chin, B.A.; Simonen, E.P.; Beyer, C.E.; Gilbert, E.R.; Johnson, A.B. Jr.
It is concluded that the recommendation of a single-valued temperature limit of 380/sup 0/C should be replaced by multiple limits to account for variations in fuel design, burnup level, spent fuel age, and storage cask design. A single-valued limit to account for these factors would, in some situations, impose unnecessary conservatisms and, potentially, economic penalties for utilities and storage cask vendors. The technical validity and conservatism of the CSFM model should assure acceptance by the NRC for utility and cask vendor use.
324 Building B-Cell Pressurized Water Reactor Spent Fuel Packaging & Shipment RL Readiness Assessment Final Report [SEC 1 Thru 3
A parallel readiness assessment (RA) was conducted by independent Fluor Hanford (FH) and U. S. Department of Energy, Richland Operations Office (RL) team to verify that an adequate state of readiness had been achieved for activities associated with the packaging and shipping of pressurized water reactor fuel assemblies from B-Cell in the 324 Building to the interim storage area at the Canister Storage Building in the 200 Area. The RL review was conducted in parallel with the FH review in accordance with the Joint RL/FH Implementation Plan (Appendix B). The RL RA Team members were assigned a FH RA Team counterpart for the review. With this one-on-one approach, the RL RA Team was able to assess the FH Team's performance, competence, and adherence to the implementation plan and evaluate the level of facility readiness. The RL RA Team agrees with the FH determination that startup of the 324 Building B-Cell pressurized water reactor spent nuclear fuel packaging and shipping operations can safely proceed, pending completion of the identified pre-start items in the FH final report (see Appendix A), completion of the manageable list of open items included in the facility's declaration of readiness, and execution of the startup plan to operations.
Validation Work to Support the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory Calculational Burnup Methodology Using Shippingport Light Water Breeder Reactor (LWBR) Spent Fuel Assay Data
J. W. Sterbentz
Six uranium isotopes and fourteen fission product isotopes were calculated on a mass basis at end-of-life (EOL) conditions for three fuel rods from different Light Water Breeder Reactor (LWBR) measurements. The three fuel rods evaluated here were taken from an LWBR seed module, a standard blanket module, and a reflector (Type IV) module. The calculated results were derived using a depletion methodology previously employed to evaluate many of the radionuclide inventories for spent nuclear fuels at the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory. The primary goal of the calculational task was to further support the validation of this particular calculational methodology and its application to diverse reactor types and fuels. Result comparisons between the calculated and measured mass concentrations in the three rods indicate good agreement for the three major uranium isotopes (U-233, U-234, U-235) with differences of less than 20%. For the seed and standard blanket rod, the U-233 and U-234 differences were within 5% of the measured values (these two isotopes alone represent greater than 97% of the EOL total uranium mass). For the major krypton and xenon fission product isotopes, differences of less than 20% and less than 30% were observed, respectively. In general, good agreement was obtained for nearly all the measured isotopes. For these isotopes exhibiting significant differences, possible explanations are discussed in terms of measurement uncertainty, complex transmutations, etc.
Spent Fuel Working Group report on inventory and storage of the Department`s spent nuclear fuel and other reactor irradiated nuclear materials and their environmental, safety and health vulnerabilities. Volume 2, Working Group Assessment Team reports; Vulnerability development forms; Working group documents
Not Available
The Secretary of Energy`s memorandum of August 19, 1993, established an initiative for a Department-wide assessment of the vulnerabilities of stored spent nuclear fuel and other reactor irradiated nuclear materials. A Project Plan to accomplish this study was issued on September 20, 1993 by US Department of Energy, Office of Environment, Health and Safety (EH) which established responsibilities for personnel essential to the study. The DOE Spent Fuel Working Group, which was formed for this purpose and produced the Project Plan, will manage the assessment and produce a report for the Secretary by November 20, 1993. This report was prepared by the Working Group Assessment Team assigned to the Hanford Site facilities. Results contained in this report will be reviewed, along with similar reports from all other selected DOE storage sites, by a working group review panel which will assemble the final summary report to the Secretary on spent nuclear fuel storage inventory and vulnerability.
EIS-0015: U.S. Spent Fuel Policy
Broader source: Energy.gov [DOE]
Subsumed DOE/EIS-0040 and DOE/EIS-0041. The Savannah River Laboratory prepared this EIS to analyze the impacts of implementing or not implementing the policy for interim storage of spent power reactor fuel. This Final EIS is a compilation of three Draft EISs and one Supplemental Draft EIS: DOE/EIS-0015-D, Storage of U.S. Spent Power Reactor Fuel; DOE/EIS-0015-DS, Storage of U.S. Spent Power Reactor Fuel - Supplement; DOE/EIS-0040-D, Storage of Foreign Spent Power Reactor Fuel; and DOE/EIS-0041-D, Charge for Spent Fuel Storage.
Choe, JongSoo 1985-
expects to operate the VHTR by 2021 (NGNP, A Report to Congress, 2008). Advanced Burner 3 Reactors (ABR) are Sodium-Cooled Fast Reactors (SFR) which are fast neutron spectrum and closed fuel cycle system reactors. Its management of actinides... enriched uranium dioxide(UO2 ) less than 5 wt% and gadolinia-uranium dioxide(Gd,UO2). The cladding material is ZIRLO which is a zirconium based alloy for improved corrosion resistance (US-APWR, 2011). The operation power of the ABWR is 3926 MWth. Its...
Mitigation of steam generator tube rupture in a pressurized water reactor with passive safety systems
McDermott, Daniel J. (Export, PA); Schrader, Kenneth J. (Penn Hills, PA); Schulz, Terry L. (Murrysville Boro, PA)
The effects of steam generator tube ruptures in a pressurized water reactor are mitigated by reducing the pressure in the primary loop by diverting reactor coolant through the heat exchanger of a passive heat removal system immersed in the in containment refueling water storage tank in response to a high feed water level in the steam generator. Reactor coolant inventory is maintained by also in response to high steam generator level introducing coolant into the primary loop from core make-up tanks at the pressure in the reactor coolant system pressurizer. The high steam generator level is also used to isolate the start-up feed water system and the chemical and volume control system to prevent flooding into the steam header. 2 figures.
Feasibility of risk-informed regulation for Generation-IV reactors
Matos, Craig H
With the advent of new and innovative Generation-IV reactor designs, new regulations must be developed to assure the safety of these plants. In the past a purely deterministic way of developing design basis accidents was ...
Mitigation of steam generator tube rupture in a pressurized water reactor with passive safety systems
McDermott, D.J.; Schrader, K.J.; Schulz, T.L.
The effects of steam generator tube ruptures in a pressurized water reactor are mitigated by reducing the pressure in the primary loop by diverting reactor coolant through the heat exchanger of a passive heat removal system immersed in the in containment refueling water storage tank in response to a high feed water level in the steam generator. Reactor coolant inventory is maintained by also in response to high steam generator level introducing coolant into the primary loop from core make-up tanks at the pressure in the reactor coolant system pressurizer. The high steam generator level is also used to isolate the start-up feed water system and the chemical and volume control system to prevent flooding into the steam header. 2 figures.
Overview of the spent nuclear fuel project at Hanford
Daily, J.L. [Dept. of Energy, Richland, WA (United States). Richland Operations Office; Fulton, J.C.; Gerber, E.W.; Culley, G.E. [Westinghouse Hanford Co., Richland, WA (United States)
The Spent Nuclear Fuel Project`s mission at Hanford is to {open_quotes}Provide safe, economic and environmentally sound management of Hanford spent nuclear fuel in a manner which stages it to final disposition.{close_quotes} The inventory of spent nuclear fuel (SNF) at the Hanford Site covers a wide variety of fuel types (production reactor to space reactor) in many facilities (reactor fuel basins to hot cells) at locations all over the Site. The 2,129 metric tons of Hanford SNF represents about 80% of the total US Department of Energy (DOE) inventory. About 98.5% of the Hanford SNF is 2,100 metric tons of metallic uranium production reactor fuel currently stored in the 1950s vintage K Basins in the 100 Area. This fuel has been slowly corroding, generating sludge and contaminating the basin water. This condition, coupled with aging facilities with seismic vulnerabilities, has been identified by several groups, including stakeholders, as being one of the most urgent safety and environmental concerns at the Hanford Site. As a direct result of these concerns, the Spent Nuclear Fuel Project was recently formed to address spent fuel issues at Hanford. The Project has developed the K Basins Path Forward to remove fuel from the basins and place it in dry interim storage. Alternatives that addressed the requirements were developed and analyzed. The result is a two-phased approach allowing the early removal of fuel from the K Basins followed by its stabilization and interim storage consistent with the national program.
Spent graphite fuel element processing
Holder, N.D.; Olsen, C.W.
The Department of Energy currently sponsors two programs to demonstrate the processing of spent graphite fuel elements. General Atomic in San Diego operates a cold pilot plant to demonstrate the processing of both US and German high-temperature reactor fuel. Exxon Nuclear Idaho Company is demonstrating the processing of spent graphite fuel elements from Rover reactors operated for the Nuclear Rocket Propulsion Program. This work is done at Idaho National Engineering Laboratory, where a hot facility is being constructed to complete processing of the Rover fuel. This paper focuses on the graphite combustion process common to both programs.
Updated Generation IV Reactors Integrated Materials Technology Program Plan, Revision 2
Corwin, William R [ORNL; Burchell, Timothy D [ORNL; Halsey, William [Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL); Hayner, George [Idaho National Laboratory (INL); Katoh, Yutai [ORNL; Klett, James William [ORNL; McGreevy, Timothy E [ORNL; Nanstad, Randy K [ORNL; Ren, Weiju [ORNL; Snead, Lance Lewis [ORNL; Stoller, Roger E [ORNL; Wilson, Dane F [ORNL
The Department of Energy's (DOE's) Generation IV Nuclear Energy Systems Program will address the research and development (R&D) necessary to support next-generation nuclear energy systems. Such R&D will be guided by the technology roadmap developed for the Generation IV International Forum (GIF) over two years with the participation of over 100 experts from the GIF countries. The roadmap evaluated over 100 future systems proposed by researchers around the world. The scope of the R&D described in the roadmap covers the six most promising Generation IV systems. The effort ended in December 2002 with the issue of the final Generation IV Technology Roadmap [1.1]. The six most promising systems identified for next generation nuclear energy are described within the roadmap. Two employ a thermal neutron spectrum with coolants and temperatures that enable hydrogen or electricity production with high efficiency (the Supercritical Water Reactor - SCWR and the Very High Temperature Reactor - VHTR). Three employ a fast neutron spectrum to enable more effective management of actinides through recycling of most components in the discharged fuel (the Gas-cooled Fast Reactor - GFR, the Lead-cooled Fast Reactor - LFR, and the Sodium-cooled Fast Reactor - SFR). The Molten Salt Reactor (MSR) employs a circulating liquid fuel mixture that offers considerable flexibility for recycling actinides, and may provide an alternative to accelerator-driven systems. A few major technologies have been recognized by DOE as necessary to enable the deployment of the next generation of advanced nuclear reactors, including the development and qualification of the structural materials needed to ensure their safe and reliable operation. Accordingly, DOE has identified materials as one of the focus areas for Gen IV technology development.
Improved method for calculating the radiation heat generation in the BOR-60 reactor
Varivtsev, A. V., E-mail: email@example.com; Zhemkov, I. Yu. [JSC �SSC RIAR,� Dimitrovgrad-10 (Russian Federation)
The results of theoretical and experimental studies aimed at determining the radiation heat generation in the BOR-60 reactor reveal the drawbacks of the computational methods used at present. An algorithm that is free from these drawbacks and allows one to determine the radiation heat generation computationally is proposed.
High Performance Fuel Desing for Next Generation Pressurized Water Reactors
Mujid S. Kazimi; Pavel Hejzlar
The use of internally and externally cooled annular fule rods for high power density Pressurized Water Reactors is assessed. The assessment included steady state and transient thermal conditions, neutronic and fuel management requirements, mechanical vibration issues, fuel performance issues, fuel fabrication methods and econmic assessment. The investigation was donducted by a team from MIT, Westinghouse, Gamma Engineering, Framatome ANP, and AECL. The analyses led to the conclusion that raising the power density by 50% may be possible with this advanced fuel. Even at the 150% power level, the fuel temperature would be a few hundred degrees lower than the current fuel temperatre. Significant economic and safety advantages can be obtained by using this fuel in new reactors. Switching to this type of fuel for existing reactors would yield safety advantages, but the economic return is dependent on the duration of plant shutdown to accommodate higher power production. The main feasiblity issue for the high power performance appears to be the potential for uneven splitting of heat flux between the inner and outer fuel surfaces due to premature closure of the outer fuel-cladding gap. This could be overcome by using a very narrow gap for the inner fuel surface and/or the spraying of a crushable zirconium oxide film at the fuel pellet outer surface. An alternative fuel manufacturing approach using vobropacking was also investigated but appears to yield lower than desirable fuel density.
Composite Materials under Extreme Radiation and Temperature Environments of the Next Generation Nuclear Reactors
Simos, N.
In the nuclear energy renaissance, driven by fission reactor concepts utilizing very high temperatures and fast neutron spectra, materials with enhanced performance that exceeds are expected to play a central role. With the operating temperatures of the Generation III reactors bringing the classical reactor materials close to their performance limits there is an urgent need to develop and qualify new alloys and composites. Efforts have been focused on the intricate relations and the high demands placed on materials at the anticipated extreme states within the next generation fusion and fission reactors which combine high radiation fluxes, elevated temperatures and aggressive environments. While nuclear reactors have been in operation for several decades, the structural materials associated with the next generation options need to endure much higher temperatures (1200 C), higher neutron doses (tens of displacements per atom, dpa), and extremely corrosive environments, which are beyond the experience on materials accumulated to-date. The most important consideration is the performance and reliability of structural materials for both in-core and out-of-core functions. While there exists a great body of nuclear materials research and operating experience/performance from fission reactors where epithermal and thermal neutrons interact with materials and alter their physio-mechanical properties, a process that is well understood by now, there are no operating or even experimental facilities that will facilitate the extreme conditions of flux and temperature anticipated and thus provide insights into the behaviour of these well understood materials. Materials, however, still need to be developed and their interaction and damage potential or lifetime to be quantified for the next generation nuclear energy. Based on material development advances, composites, and in particular ceramic composites, seem to inherently possess properties suitable for key functions within the operating envelope of both fission and fusion reactors. In advanced fission reactors composite materials are being designed in an effort to extend the life and improve the reliability of fuel rod cladding as well as structural materials. Composites are being considered for use as core internals in the next generation of gas-cooled reactors. Further, next-generation plasma-fusion reactors, such as the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) will rely on the capabilities of advanced composites to safely withstand extremely high neutron fluxes while providing superior thermal shock resistance.
Capabilities and Facilities Available at the Advanced Test Reactor to Support Development of the Next Generation Reactors
S. Blaine Grover; Raymond V. Furstenau
The ATR is one of the world�s premiere test reactors for performing long term, high flux, and/or large volume irradiation test programs. It is a very versatile facility with a wide variety of experimental test capabilities for providing the environment needed in an irradiation experiment. These different capabilities include passive sealed capsule experiments, instrumented and/or temperature-controlled experiments, and pressurized water loop experiment facilities. The Irradiation Test Vehicle (ITV) installed in 1999 enhanced these capabilities by providing a built in experiment monitoring and control system for instrumented and/or temperature controlled experiments. This built in control system significantly reduces the cost for an actively monitored/temperature controlled experiments by providing the thermocouple connections, temperature control system, and temperature control gas supply and exhaust systems already in place at the irradiation position. Although the ITV in-core hardware was removed from the ATR during the last core replacement completed in early 2005, it (or a similar facility) could be re-installed for an irradiation program when the need arises. The proposed Gas Test Loop currently being designed for installation in the ATR will provide additional capability for testing of not only gas reactor materials and fuels but will also include enhanced fast flux rates for testing of materials and fuels for other next generation reactors including preliminary testing for fast reactor fuels and materials. This paper discusses the different irradiation capabilities available and the cost benefit issues related to each capability.
A thermally efficient micro-reactor for thermophotovoltaic power generation
Nielsen, Ole Mattis, 1977-
Hydrocarbon fuels exhibit very high energy densities, and micro-generators converting the stored chemical energy into electrical power are interesting alternatives to batteries in certain applications. The increasing demands ...
1 hour, 59 minutes ago President Jacques Chirac announced plans to build a prototype fourth-generation nuclear reactor by 2020 as well as symbolic targets
-generation nuclear reactor by 2020 as well as symbolic targets for cutting France's reliance on oil in the coming and is conducting research into several new models of nuclear reactor. Business leaders in the French energy sector-generation nuclear reactor 1/5/06 3:19 PMPrint Story: France to develop fourth-generation nuclear reactor on Yahoo
Considerations Associated with Reactor Technology Selection for the Next Generation Nuclear Plant Project
L.E. Demick
At the inception of the Next Generation Nuclear Plant Project and during predecessor activities, alternative reactor technologies have been evaluated to determine the technology that best fulfills the functional and performance requirements of the targeted energy applications and market. Unlike the case of electric power generation where the reactor performance is primarily expressed in terms of economics, the targeted energy applications involve industrial applications that have specific needs in terms of acceptable heat transport fluids and the associated thermodynamic conditions. Hence, to be of interest to these industrial energy applications, the alternative reactor technologies are weighed in terms of the reactor coolant/heat transport fluid, achievable reactor outlet temperature, and practicality of operations to achieve the very high reliability demands associated with the petrochemical, petroleum, metals and related industries. These evaluations have concluded that the high temperature gas-cooled reactor (HTGR) can uniquely provide the required ranges of energy needs for these target applications, do so with promising economics, and can be commercialized with reasonable development risk in the time frames of current industry interest � i.e., within the next 10-15 years.
Actinide removal from spent salts
Hsu, Peter C. (Pleasanton, CA); von Holtz, Erica H. (Livermore, CA); Hipple, David L. (Livermore, CA); Summers, Leslie J. (Livermore, CA); Adamson, Martyn G. (Danville, CA)
A method for removing actinide contaminants (uranium and thorium) from the spent salt of a molten salt oxidation (MSO) reactor is described. Spent salt is removed from the reactor and analyzed to determine the contaminants present and the carbonate concentration. The salt is dissolved in water, and one or more reagents are added to precipitate the thorium as thorium oxide and/or the uranium as either uranium oxide or as a diuranate salt. The precipitated materials are filtered, dried and packaged for disposal as radioactive waste. About 90% of the thorium and/or uranium present is removed by filtration. After filtration, salt solutions having a carbonate concentration >20% can be dried and returned to the reactor for re-use. Salt solutions containing a carbonate concentration <20% require further clean-up using an ion exchange column, which yields salt solutions that contain less than 0.1 ppm of thorium or uranium.
Metals removal from spent salts
Hsu, Peter C. (Pleasanton, CA); Von Holtz, Erica H. (Livermore, CA); Hipple, David L. (Livermore, CA); Summers, Leslie J. (Livermore, CA); Brummond, William A. (Livermore, CA); Adamson, Martyn G. (Danville, CA)
A method and apparatus for removing metal contaminants from the spent salt of a molten salt oxidation (MSO) reactor is described. Spent salt is removed from the reactor and analyzed to determine the contaminants present and the carbonate concentration. The salt is dissolved in water, and one or more reagents may be added to precipitate the metal oxide and/or the metal as either metal oxide, metal hydroxide, or as a salt. The precipitated materials are filtered, dried and packaged for disposal as waste or can be immobilized as ceramic pellets. More than about 90% of the metals and mineral residues (ashes) present are removed by filtration. After filtration, salt solutions having a carbonate concentration >20% can be spray-dried and returned to the reactor for re-use. Salt solutions containing a carbonate concentration <20% require further clean-up using an ion exchange column, which yields salt solutions that contain less than 1.0 ppm of contaminants.
Conceptual design of a lead-bismuth cooled fast reactor with in-vessel direct-contact steam generation
Buongiorno, Jacopo, 1971-
The feasibility of a lead-bismuth (Pb-Bi) cooled fast reactor that eliminates the need for steam generators and coolant pumps was explored. The working steam is generated by direct contact vaporization of water and liquid ...
Conceptual Design of a Lead-Bismuth Cooled Fast Reactor with In-Vessel Direct-Contact Steam Generation
Buongiorno, J.
The feasibility of a lead-bismuth (Pb-Bi) cooled fast reactor that eliminates the need for steam generators and coolant pumps was explored. The working steam is generated by direct contact vaporization of water and liquid ...
The Next Generation Nuclear Plant/Advanced Gas Reactor Fuel Irradiation Experiments in the Advanced Test Reactor
S. Blaine Grover
The United States Department of Energy�s Next Generation Nuclear Plant (NGNP) Program will be irradiating eight separate low enriched uranium (LEU) tri-isotopic (TRISO) particle fuel (in compact form) experiments in the Advanced Test Reactor (ATR) located at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL). The ATR has a long history of irradiation testing in support of reactor development and the INL has been designated as the new United States Department of Energy�s lead laboratory for nuclear energy development. The ATR is one of the world�s premiere test reactors for performing long term, high flux, and/or large volume irradiation test programs. These irradiations and fuel development are being accomplished to support development of the next generation reactors in the United States, and will be irradiated over the next ten years to demonstrate and qualify new particle fuel for use in high temperature gas reactors. The goals of the irradiation experiments are to provide irradiation performance data to support fuel process development, to qualify fuel for normal operating conditions, to support development and validation of fuel performance and fission product transport models and codes, and to provide irradiated fuel and materials for post irradiation examination (PIE) and safety testing. The experiments, which will each consist of at least six separate capsules, will be irradiated in an inert sweep gas atmosphere with individual on-line temperature monitoring and control of each capsule. The sweep gas will also have on-line fission product monitoring on its effluent to track performance of the fuel in each individual capsule during irradiation. The first experiment (designated AGR-1) started irradiation in December 2006, and the second experiment (AGR-2) is currently in the design phase. The design of test trains, as well as the support systems and fission product monitoring system that will monitor and control the experiment during irradiation will be discussed. In addition, the purpose and differences between the two experiments will be compared and the irradiation results to date on the first experiment will be presented.
HFIR spent fuel management alternatives
Begovich, J.M.; Green, V.M.; Shappert, L.B.; Lotts, A.L.
The High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR) at Martin Marietta Energy Systems' Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) has been unable to ship its spent fuel to Savannah River Site (SRS) for reprocessing since 1985. The HFIR storage pools are expected to fill up in the February 1994 to February 1995 time frame. If a management altemative to existing HFIR pool storage is not identified and implemented before the HFIR pools are full, the HFIR will be forced to shut down. This study investigated several alternatives for managing the HFIR spent fuel, attempting to identify options that could be implemented before the HFIR pools are full. The options investigated were: installing a dedicated dry cask storage facility at ORNL, increasing HFIR pool storage capacity by clearing the HFIR pools of debris and either close-packing or stacking the spent fuel elements, storing the spent fuel at another ORNL pool, storing the spent fuel in one or more hot cells at ORNL, and shipping the spent fuel offsite for reprocessing or storage elsewhere.
HFIR spent fuel management alternatives
Begovich, J.M.; Green, V.M.; Shappert, L.B.; Lotts, A.L.
The High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR) at Martin Marietta Energy Systems` Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) has been unable to ship its spent fuel to Savannah River Site (SRS) for reprocessing since 1985. The HFIR storage pools are expected to fill up in the February 1994 to February 1995 time frame. If a management altemative to existing HFIR pool storage is not identified and implemented before the HFIR pools are full, the HFIR will be forced to shut down. This study investigated several alternatives for managing the HFIR spent fuel, attempting to identify options that could be implemented before the HFIR pools are full. The options investigated were: installing a dedicated dry cask storage facility at ORNL, increasing HFIR pool storage capacity by clearing the HFIR pools of debris and either close-packing or stacking the spent fuel elements, storing the spent fuel at another ORNL pool, storing the spent fuel in one or more hot cells at ORNL, and shipping the spent fuel offsite for reprocessing or storage elsewhere.
Magnetic Field Generation in Planets and Satellites by Natural Nuclear Fission Reactors
J. Marvin Herndon
One of the most fundamental problems in physics has been to understand the nature of the mechanism that generates the geomagnetic field and the magnetic fields of other planets and satellites. For decades, the dynamo mechanism, thought to be responsible for generating the geomagnetic field and other planetary magnetic fields, has been ascribed to convection in each planet's iron-alloy core. Recently, I described the problems inherent in Earth-core convection and proposed instead that the geomagnetic field is produced by a dynamo mechanism involving convection, not in the fluid core, but in the electrically conductive, fluid, fission-product sub-shell of a natural nuclear fission reactor at the center of the Earth, called the georeactor. Here I set forth in detail the commonality in the Solar System of the matter like that of the inside of the Earth, which is my basis for generalizing the concept of planetary magnetic field generation by natural planetocentric nuclear fission reactors.
Mynatt Fred R.; Townsend, L.W.; Williamson, Martin; Williams, Wesley; Miller, Laurence W.; Khan, M. Khurram; McConn, Joe; Kadak, Andrew C.; Berte, Marc V.; Sawhney, Rapinder; Fife, Jacob; Sedler, Todd L.; Conway, Larry E.; Felde, Dave K.
The purpose of this research project is to develop compact (100 to 400 MWe) Generation IV nuclear power plant design and layout concepts that maximize the benefits of factory-based fabrication and optimal packaging, transportation and siting. The reactor concepts selected were compact designs under development in the 2000 to 2001 period. This interdisciplinary project was comprised of three university-led nuclear engineering teams identified by reactor coolant type (water, gas, and liquid metal) and a fourth Industrial Engineering team. The reactors included a Modular Pebble Bed helium-cooled concept being developed at MIT, the IRIS water-cooled concept being developed by a team led by Westinghouse Electric Company, and a Lead-Bismuth-cooled concept developed by UT. In addition to the design and layout concepts this report includes a section on heat exchanger manufacturing simulations and a section on construction and cost impacts of proposed modular designs.
Preliminary materials selection issues for the next generation nuclear plant reactor pressure vessel.
Natesan, K.; Majumdar, S.; Shankar, P. S.; Shah, V. N.; Nuclear Engineering Division
In the coming decades, the United States and the entire world will need energy supplies to meet the growing demands due to population increase and increase in consumption due to global industrialization. One of the reactor system concepts, the Very High Temperature Reactor (VHTR), with helium as the coolant, has been identified as uniquely suited for producing hydrogen without consumption of fossil fuels or the emission of greenhouse gases [Generation IV 2002]. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has selected this system for the Next Generation Nuclear Plant (NGNP) Project, to demonstrate emissions-free nuclear-assisted electricity and hydrogen production within the next 15 years. The NGNP reference concepts are helium-cooled, graphite-moderated, thermal neutron spectrum reactors with a design goal outlet helium temperature of {approx}1000 C [MacDonald et al. 2004]. The reactor core could be either a prismatic graphite block type core or a pebble bed core. The use of molten salt coolant, especially for the transfer of heat to hydrogen production, is also being considered. The NGNP is expected to produce both electricity and hydrogen. The process heat for hydrogen production will be transferred to the hydrogen plant through an intermediate heat exchanger (IHX). The basic technology for the NGNP has been established in the former high temperature gas reactor (HTGR) and demonstration plants (DRAGON, Peach Bottom, AVR, Fort St. Vrain, and THTR). In addition, the technologies for the NGNP are being advanced in the Gas Turbine-Modular Helium Reactor (GT-MHR) project, and the South African state utility ESKOM-sponsored project to develop the Pebble Bed Modular Reactor (PBMR). Furthermore, the Japanese HTTR and Chinese HTR-10 test reactors are demonstrating the feasibility of some of the planned components and materials. The proposed high operating temperatures in the VHTR place significant constraints on the choice of material selected for the reactor pressure vessel for both the PBMR and prismatic design. The main focus of this report is the RPV for both design concepts with emphasis on material selection.
Worldwide assessment of steam-generator problems in pressurized-water-reactor nuclear power plants
Woo, H.H.; Lu, S.C.
Objective is to assess the reliability of steam generators of pressurized water reactor (PWR) power plants in the United States and abroad. The assessment is based on operation experience of both domestic and foreign PWR plants. The approach taken is to collect and review papers and reports available from the literature as well as information obtained by contacting research institutes both here and abroad. This report presents the results of the assessment. It contains a general background of PWR plant operations, plant types, and materials used in PWR plants. A review of the worldwide distribution of PWR plants is also given. The report describes in detail the degradation problems discovered in PWR steam generators: their causes, their impacts on the performance of steam generators, and the actions to mitigate and avoid them. One chapter is devoted to operating experience of PWR steam generators in foreign countries. Another discusses the improvements in future steam generator design.
Husain, A.; Lewis, Brent J.
Radioactive waste packages containing water and/or organic substances have the potential to radiolytically generate hydrogen and other combustible gases. Typically, the radiolytic gas generation rate is estimated from the energy deposition rate and the radiolytic gas yield. Estimation of the energy deposition rate must take into account the contributions from all radionuclides. While the contributions from non-gamma emitting radionuclides are relatively easy to estimate, an average geometry factor must be computed to determine the contribution from gamma emitters. Hitherto, no satisfactory method existed for estimating the geometry factors for a cylindrical package. In the present study, a formulation was developed taking into account the effect of photon buildup. A prototype code, called PC-CAGE, was developed to numerically solve the integrals involved. Based on the selected dimensions for a cylinder, the specified waste material, the photon energy of interest and a value for either the absorption or attenuation coefficient, the code outputs values for point and average geometry factors. These can then be used to estimate the internal dose rate to the material in the cylinder and hence to calculate the radiolytic gas generation rate. Besides the ability to estimate the rates of radiolytic gas generation, PC-CAGE can also estimate the dose received by the container material. This is based on values for the point geometry factors at the surface of the cylinder. PC-CAGE was used to calculate geometry factors for a number of cylindrical geometries. Estimates for the absorbed dose rate in container material were also obtained. The results for Ontario Power Generation's 3 m3 resin containers indicate that about 80% of the source gamma energy is deposited internally. In general, the fraction of gamma energy deposited internally depends on the dimensions of the cylinder, the material within it and the photon energy; the fraction deposited increases with increasing dimensions of the cylinder and decreases with increasing photon energy.
Thermomechanical modeling of the Spent Fuel Test-Climax
Butkovich, T.R.; Patrick, W.C.
The Spent Fuel Test-Climax (SFT-C) was conducted to evaluate the feasibility of retrievable deep geologic storage of commercially generated spent nuclear-reactor fuel assemblies. One of the primary aspects of the test was to measure the thermomechanical response of the rock mass to the extensive heating of a large volume of rock. Instrumentation was emplaced to measure stress changes, relative motion of the rock mass, and tunnel closures during three years of heating from thermally decaying heat sources, followed by a six-month cooldown period. The calculations reported here were performed using the best available input parameters, thermal and mechanical properties, and power levels which were directly measured or inferred from measurements made during the test. This report documents the results of these calculations and compares the results with selected measurements made during heating and cooling of the SFT-C.
Confirmatory Survey Results for the Reactor Building Dome Upper Surfaces, Rancho Saco Nuclear Generating Station
Wade C. Adams
Results from a confirmatory survey of the upper structural surfaces of the Reactor Building Dome at the Rancho Seco Nuclear Generating Station (RSNGS) performed by the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education for the NRC. Also includes results of interlaboratory comparison analyses on several archived soil samples that would be provided by RSNGS personnel. The confirmatory surveys were performed on June 7 and 8, 2006.
Development and Transient Analysis of a Helical-coil Steam Generator for High Temperature Reactors
Nathan V. Hoffer; Nolan A. Anderson; Piyush Sabharwall
A high temperature gas-cooled reactor (HTGR) is under development by the Next Generation Nuclear Plant (NGNP) Project at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL). Its design emphasizes electrical power production which may potentially be coupled with process heat for hydrogen production and other industrial applications. NGNP is considering a helical-coil steam generator for the primary heat transport loop heat exchanger based on its increased heat transfer and compactness when compared to other steam generators. The safety and reliability of the helical-coil steam generator is currently under evaluation as part of the development of NGNP. Transients, such as loss of coolant accidents (LOCA), are of interest in evaluating the safety of steam generators. In this study, a complete steam generator inlet pipe break (double ended pipe break) LOCA was simulated by an exponential loss of primary side pressure. For this analysis, a model of the helical-coil steam generator was developed using RELAP5-3D, an INL inhouse systems analysis code. The steam generator model behaved normally during the transient simulating the complete steam generator inlet pipe break LOCA. Further analysis is required to comprehensively evaluate the safety and reliability of the helical-coil steam generator design in the NGNP setting.
Evaluation of an Integrated Gas-Cooled Reactor Simulator and Brayton Turbine-Generator
Hissam, D. Andy; Stewart, Eric [National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Marshall Space Flight Center, ER34, Huntsville, AL 35812 (United States)
A closed-loop Brayton cycle, powered by a fission reactor, offers an attractive option for generating both planetary and in-space electric power. Non-nuclear testing of this type of system provides the opportunity to safely work out integration and system control challenges for a modest investment. Recognizing this potential, a team at Marshall Space Flight Center has evaluated the viability of integrating and testing an existing gas-cooled reactor simulator and a modified, commercially available, Brayton turbine-generator. Since these two systems were developed independently of one another, this evaluation sought to determine if they could be operated together at acceptable power levels, temperatures, and pressures. Thermal, fluid, and structural analyses show that this combined system can operate at acceptable power levels and temperatures. In addition, pressure drops across the reactor simulator, although higher than desired, are also viewed as acceptable. Three potential working fluids for the system were evaluated: N{sub 2}, He/Ar, and He/Xe. Other technical issues, such as electrical breakdown in the generator and the operation of the Brayton foil bearings using various gas mixtures, were also investigated. (authors)
Spent fuel integrity during transportation
Funk, C.W.; Jacobson, L.D.
The conditions of recent shipments of light water reactor spent fuel were surveyed. The radioactivity level of cask coolant was examined in an attempt to find the effects of transportation on LWR fuel assemblies. Discussion included potential cladding integrity loss mechanisms, canning requirements, changes of radioactivity levels, and comparison of transportation in wet or dry media. Although integrity loss or degradation has not been identified, radioactivity levels usually increase during transportation, especially for leaking assemblies.
A Project Management and Systems Engineering Structure for a Generation IV Very High Temperature Reactor
Ed Gorski; Dennis Harrell; Finis Southworth
The Very High Temperature Reactor (VHTR) will be an advanced, very high temperature (approximately 1000o C. coolant outlet temperature), gas cooled nuclear reactor and is the nearest term of six Generation IV reactor technologies for nuclear assisted hydrogen production. In 2001, the Generation IV International Forum (GIF), a ten nation international forum working together with the Department of Energy�s (DOE) Nuclear Energy Research Advisory Committee (NERAC), agreed to proceed with the development of a technology roadmap and identified the next generation of nuclear reactor systems for producing new sources of power. Since a new reactor has not been licensed in the United States since the 1970s, the risks are too large for a single utility to assume in the development of an unprecedented Generation IV reactor. The government must sponsor and invest in the research to resolve major first of a kind (FOAK) issues through a full-scale demonstration prior to industry implementation. DOE�s primary mission for the VHTR is to demonstrate nuclear reactor assisted cogeneration of electricity and hydrogen while meeting the Generation IV goals for safety, sustainability, proliferation resistance and physical security and economics. The successful deployment of the VHTR as a demonstration project will aid in restarting the now atrophied U.S. nuclear power industry infrastructure. It is envisioned that VHTR project participants will include DOE Laboratories, industry partners such as designers, constructors, manufacturers, utilities, and Generation IV international countries. To effectively mange R&D, engineering, procurement, construction, and operation for this multi-organizational and technologically complex project, systems engineering will be used extensively to ensure delivery of the final product. Although the VHTR is an unprecedented FOAK system, the R&D, when assessed using the Office of Science and Technology Gate Model, falls primarily in the 3rd - Exploratory Development, 4th � Advanced Development, and 5th- Engineering Development stages of maturity rather than in the basic and viability stages. Therefore the R&D must be controlled and project driven from the top down to address specific issues of feasibility, proof of design or support of engineering. The design evolution must be through the systems approach including an iterative process of high-level requirements definition, engineering to focus R&D to verify feasibility, requirements development and conceptual design, R&D to verify design and refine detailed requirements for final detailed design. This paper will define a framework for project management and application of systems engineering at the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (INEEL). The VHTR Project includes an overall reactor design and construction activity and four major supporting activities: fuel development and qualification, materials selection and qualification, NRC licensing and regulatory support, and the hydrogen production plant.
Uncertainties in source term calculations generated by the ORIGEN2 computer code for Hanford Production Reactors
Heeb, C.M.
The ORIGEN2 computer code is the primary calculational tool for computing isotopic source terms for the Hanford Environmental Dose Reconstruction (HEDR) Project. The ORIGEN2 code computes the amounts of radionuclides that are created or remain in spent nuclear fuel after neutron irradiation and radioactive decay have occurred as a result of nuclear reactor operation. ORIGEN2 was chosen as the primary code for these calculations because it is widely used and accepted by the nuclear industry, both in the United States and the rest of the world. Its comprehensive library of over 1,600 nuclides includes any possible isotope of interest to the HEDR Project. It is important to evaluate the uncertainties expected from use of ORIGEN2 in the HEDR Project because these uncertainties may have a pivotal impact on the final accuracy and credibility of the results of the project. There are three primary sources of uncertainty in an ORIGEN2 calculation: basic nuclear data uncertainty in neutron cross sections, radioactive decay constants, energy per fission, and fission product yields; calculational uncertainty due to input data; and code uncertainties (i.e., numerical approximations, and neutron spectrum-averaged cross-section values from the code library). 15 refs., 5 figs., 5 tabs.
The Long-Life Core Encapsulated Nuclear Heat Source (ENHS) Generation IV Reactor
Greenspan, E.; Barak, A.; Saphier, D. [Department of Nuclear Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720 (United States); Buongiorno, J. [Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory, P.O. Box 1625, Idaho Falls, ID 83415 (United States); Brown, N.W.; Hossain, Q. [Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, 7000 East Avenue, Livermore, CA 94550 (United States); Carelli, M.D.; Conway, L.; Dzodzo, M. [Westinghouse Electric Co., Sci. and Tech., 1344 Beulah Rd., Pittsburgh, PA 15235 (United States); Feldman, E.; Sienicki, J.J.; Sofu, T.; Wade, D.C. [Argonne National Laboratory, 9700 South Cass Avenue, Argonne, IL 60439 (United States); Hong, S.G.; Kim, Y.I. [Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, Yusong, Taejon 305-600, Rep. of Korea (Korea, Republic of)
The long-life core for the Encapsulated Nuclear Heat Source (ENHS) reactor has been redesigned so as to provide for fuel rod clad integrity up to the discharge burnup design goal. It was found feasible to design a nearly zero burnup reactivity swing long-life core that will maintain the fuel rod integrity up to the peak discharge burnup while enabling to handle the rated power using natural circulation. The core life is limited by radiation damage to its structural material. The core power shape is exceptionally constant throughout the core life. The new reference core design can deliver 125 MW{sub th} while having very generous margins for maximum acceptable temperatures or temperature differences. Using a cover-gas lift-pump it may be possible to design an ENHS module to deliver {approx}50% more power than the set goal. Briefly reviewed are unique features of the ENHS reactor along with the potential of this reactor to meet the goals set for Generation IV reactors. (authors)
Laser or charged-particle-beam fusion reactor with direct electric generation by magnetic flux compression
Lasche, G.P.
The invention is a laser or particle-beam-driven fusion reactor system which takes maximum advantage of both the very short pulsed nature of the energy release of inertial confinement fusion (ICF) and the very small volumes within which the thermonuclear burn takes place. The pulsed nature of ICF permits dynamic direct energy conversion schemes such as magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) generation and magnetic flux compression; the small volumes permit very compact blanket geometries. By fully exploiting these characteristics of ICF, it is possible to design a fusion reactor with exceptionally high power density, high net electric efficiency, and low neutron-induced radioactivity. The invention includes a compact blanket design and method and apparatus for obtaining energy utilizing the compact blanket.
Development of Liquid-Vapor Core Reactors with MHD Generator for Space Power and Propulsion Applications
Samim Anghaie
Any reactor that utilizes fuel consisting of a fissile material in a gaseous state may be referred to as a gaseous core reactor (GCR). Studies on GCRs have primarily been limited to the conceptual phase, mostly due to budget cuts and program cancellations in the early 1970's. A few scientific experiments have been conducted on candidate concepts, primarily of static pressure fissile gas filling a cylindrical or spherical cavity surrounded by a moderating shell, such as beryllium, heavy water, or graphite. The main interest in this area of nuclear power generation is for space applications. The interest in space applications has developed due to the promise of significant enhancement in fuel utilization, safety, plant efficiency, special high-performance features, load-following capabilities, power conversion optimization, and other key aspects of nuclear power generation. The design of a successful GCR adapted for use in space is complicated. The fissile material studied in the pa st has been in a fluorine compound, either a tetrafluoride or a hexafluoride. Both of these molecules have an impact on the structural material used in the making of a GCR. Uranium hexafluoride as a fuel allows for a lower operating temperature, but at temperatures greater than 900K becomes essentially impossible to contain. This difficulty with the use of UF6 has caused engineers and scientists to use uranium tetrafluoride, which is a more stable molecule but has the disadvantage of requiring significantly higher operating temperatures. Gas core reactors have traditionally been studied in a steady state configuration. In this manner a fissile gas and working fluid are introduced into the core, called a cavity, that is surrounded by a reflector constructed of materials such as Be or BeO. These reactors have often been described as cavity reactors because the density of the fissile gas is low and criticality is achieved only by means of the reflector to reduce neutron leakage from the core. Still there are problems of containment since many of the proposed vessel materials such as W or Mo have high neutron cross sections making the design of a critical system difficult. There is also the possibility for a GCR to remain in a subcritical state, and by the use of a shockwave mechanism, increase the pressure and temperature inside the core to achieve criticality. This type of GCR is referred to as a shockwave-driven pulsed gas core reactor. These two basic designs were evaluated as advance concepts for space power and propulsion.
Modification to ORIGEN2 for generating N Reactor source terms. Volume 1
Schwarz, R.A.
This report discusses work that has been done to upgrade the ORIGEN2 code cross sections to be compatible with the WIMS computer code data. Because of the changes in the ORIGEN2 calculations. Details on changes made to the ORIGEN2 computer code and the Radnuc code will be discussed along with additional work that should be done in the future to upgrade both ORIGEN2 and Radnuc. A detailed historical description of how source terms have been generated for N Reactor fuel stored in the K Basins has been generated. The neutron source discussed in this description was generated by the WIMS computer code (Gubbins et al. 1982) because of known shortcomings in the ORIGEN2 (Croff 1980) cross sections. Another document includes a discussion of the ORIGEN2 cross sections.
System and method for generating steady state confining current for a toroidal plasma fusion reactor
Bers, Abraham (Arlington, MA)
A system for generating steady state confining current for a toroidal plasma fusion reactor providing steady-state generation of the thermonuclear power. A dense, hot toroidal plasma is initially prepared with a confining magnetic field with toroidal and poloidal components. Continuous wave RF energy is injected into said plasma to estalish a spectrum of traveling waves in the plasma, where the traveling waves have momentum components substantially either all parallel, or all anti-parallel to the confining magnetic field. The injected RF energy is phased to couple to said traveling waves with both a phase velocity component and a wave momentum component in the direction of the plasma traveling wave components. The injected RF energy has a predetermined spectrum selected so that said traveling waves couple to plasma electrons having velocities in a predetermined range .DELTA.. The velocities in the range are substantially greater than the thermal electron velocity of the plasma. In addition, the range is sufficiently broad to produce a raised plateau having width .DELTA. in the plasma electron velocity distribution so that the plateau electrons provide steady-state current to generate a poloidal magnetic field component sufficient for confining the plasma. In steady state operation of the fusion reactor, the fusion power density in the plasma exceeds the power dissipated inthe plasma.
System and method for generating steady state confining current for a toroidal plasma fusion reactor
Fisch, Nathaniel J. (Cambridge, MA)
A system for generating steady state confining current for a toroidal plasma fusion reactor providing steady-state generation of the thermonuclear power. A dense, hot toroidal plasma is initially prepared with a confining magnetic field with toroidal and poloidal components. Continuous wave RF energy is injected into said plasma to establish a spectrum of traveling waves in the plasma, where the traveling waves have momentum components substantially either all parallel, or all anti-parallel to the confining magnetic field. The injected RF energy is phased to couple to said traveling waves with both a phase velocity component and a wave momentum component in the direction of the plasma traveling wave components. The injected RF energy has a predetermined spectrum selected so that said traveling waves couple to plasma electrons having velocities in a predetermined range .DELTA.. The velocities in the range are substantially greater than the thermal electron velocity of the plasma. In addition, the range is sufficiently broad to produce a raised plateau having width .DELTA. in the plasma electron velocity distribution so that the plateau electrons provide steady-state current to generate a poloidal magnetic field component sufficient for confining the plasma. In steady state operation of the fusion reactor, the fusion power density in the plasma exceeds the power dissipated in the plasma.
A Monte Carlo based spent fuel analysis safeguards strategy assessment
Fensin, Michael L [Los Alamos National Laboratory; Tobin, Stephen J [Los Alamos National Laboratory; Swinhoe, Martyn T [Los Alamos National Laboratory; Menlove, Howard O [Los Alamos National Laboratory; Sandoval, Nathan P [Los Alamos National Laboratory
Safeguarding nuclear material involves the detection of diversions of significant quantities of nuclear materials, and the deterrence of such diversions by the risk of early detection. There are a variety of motivations for quantifying plutonium in spent fuel assemblies by means of nondestructive assay (NDA) including the following: strengthening the capabilities of the International Atomic Energy Agencies ability to safeguards nuclear facilities, shipper/receiver difference, input accountability at reprocessing facilities and burnup credit at repositories. Many NDA techniques exist for measuring signatures from spent fuel; however, no single NDA technique can, in isolation, quantify elemental plutonium and other actinides of interest in spent fuel. A study has been undertaken to determine the best integrated combination of cost effective techniques for quantifying plutonium mass in spent fuel for nuclear safeguards. A standardized assessment process was developed to compare the effective merits and faults of 12 different detection techniques in order to integrate a few techniques and to down-select among the techniques in preparation for experiments. The process involves generating a basis burnup/enrichment/cooling time dependent spent fuel assembly library, creating diversion scenarios, developing detector models and quantifying the capability of each NDA technique. Because hundreds of input and output files must be managed in the couplings of data transitions for the different facets of the assessment process, a graphical user interface (GUI) was development that automates the process. This GUI allows users to visually create diversion scenarios with varied replacement materials, and generate a MCNPX fixed source detector assessment input file. The end result of the assembly library assessment is to select a set of common source terms and diversion scenarios for quantifying the capability of each of the 12 NDA techniques. We present here the generalized assessment process, the techniques employed to automate the coupled facets of the assessment process, and the standard burnup/enrichment/cooling time dependent spent fuel assembly library. We also clearly define the diversion scenarios that will be analyzed during the standardized assessments. Though this study is currently limited to generic PWR assemblies, it is expected that the results of the assessment will yield an adequate spent fuel analysis strategy knowledge that will help the down-select process for other reactor types.
Characteristics of spent nuclear fuel
Notz, K.J.
The Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management (OCRWM) is responsible for the spent fuels and other wastes that will, or may, eventually be disposed of in a geological repository. The two major sources of these materials are commercial light-water reactor (LWR) spent fuel and immobilized high-level waste (HLW). Other wastes that may require long-term isolation include non-LWR spent fuels and miscellaneous sources such as activated metals. This report deals with spent fuels, but for completeness, the other sources are described briefly. Detailed characterizations are required for all of these potential repository wastes. These characteristics include physical, chemical, and radiological properties. The latter must take into account decay as a function of time. In addition, the present inventories and projected quantities of the various wastes are needed. This information has been assembled in a Characteristics Data Base which provides data in four formats: hard copy standard reports, menu-driven personal computer (PC) data bases, program-level PC data bases, and mainframe computer files. 5 refs., 3 figs., 4 tabs.
Next Generation Nuclear Plant Reactor Pressure Vessel Materials Research and Development Plan (PLN-2803)
J. K. Wright; R. N. Wright
The U.S. Department of Energy has selected the High Temperature Gas-cooled Reactor design for the Next Generation Nuclear Plant (NGNP) Project. The NGNP will demonstrate the use of nuclear power for electricity and hydrogen production. It will have an outlet gas temperature in the range of 900�C and a plant design service life of 60 years. The reactor design will be a graphite moderated, helium-cooled, prismatic, or pebble-bed reactor and use low-enriched uranium, Tri-Isotopic-coated fuel. The plant size, reactor thermal power, and core configuration will ensure passive decay heat removal without fuel damage or radioactive material releases during accidents. The NGNP Materials Research and Development Program is responsible for performing research and development on likely NGNP materials in support of the NGNP design, licensing, and construction activities. Selection of the technology and design configuration for the NGNP must consider both the cost and risk profiles to ensure that the demonstration plant establishes a sound foundation for future commercial deployments. The NGNP challenge is to achieve a significant advancement in nuclear technology while setting the stage for an economically viable deployment of the new technology in the commercial sector soon after 2020. Studies of potential Reactor Pressure Vessel (RPV) steels have been carried out as part of the pre-conceptual design studies. These design studies generally focus on American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Code status of the steels, temperature limits, and allowable stresses. Three realistic candidate materials have been identified by this process: conventional light water reactor RPV steels A508/533, 2�Cr-1Mo in the annealed condition, and modified 9Cr 1Mo ferritic martenistic steel. Based on superior strength and higher temperature limits, the modified 9Cr-1Mo steel has been identified by the majority of design engineers as the preferred choice for the RPV. All of the vendors have concluded, however, that with adequate engineered cooling of the vessel, the A508/533 steels are also acceptable.
Next Generation Nuclear Plant Reactor Pressure Vessel Materials Research and Development Plan (PLN-2803)
J. K. Wright; R. N. Wright
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has selected the High-Temperature Gas-cooled Reactor (HTGR) design for the Next Generation Nuclear Plant (NGNP) Project. The NGNP will demonstrate the use of nuclear power for electricity and hydrogen production, with an outlet gas temperature in the range of 750�C, and a design service life of 60 years. The reactor design will be a graphite-moderated, helium-cooled, prismatic, or pebble bed reactor and use low-enriched uranium, Tri-Isotopic (TRISO)-coated fuel. The plant size, reactor thermal power, and core configuration will ensure passive decay heat removal without fuel damage or radioactive material releases during accidents. Selection of the technology and design configuration for the NGNP must consider both the cost and risk profiles to ensure that the demonstration plant establishes a sound foundation for future commercial deployments. The NGNP challenge is to achieve a significant advancement in nuclear technology while setting the stage for an economically viable deployment of the new technology in the commercial sector soon after 2020. This technology development plan details the additional research and development (R&D) required to design and license the NGNP RPV, assuming that A 508/A 533 is the material of construction. The majority of additional information that is required is related to long-term aging behavior at NGNP vessel temperatures, which are somewhat above those commonly encountered in the existing database from LWR experience. Additional data are also required for the anticipated NGNP environment. An assessment of required R&D for a Grade 91 vessel has been retained from the first revision of the R&D plan in Appendix B in somewhat less detail. Considerably more development is required for this steel compared to A 508/A 533 including additional irradiation testing for expected NGNP operating temperatures, high-temperature mechanical properties, and extensive studies of long-term microstructural stability.
Report to Congress on Plan for Interim Storage of Spent Nuclear...
Broader source: Energy.gov (indexed) [DOE]
Report to Congress on Plan for Interim Storage of Spent Nuclear Fuel from Decommissioned Reactors More Documents & Publications Information Request, "THE REPORT TO THE PRESIDENT...
Accelerator-driven transmutation of spent fuel elements
Venneri, Francesco (Los Alamos, NM); Williamson, Mark A. (Los Alamos, NM); Li, Ning (Los Alamos, NM)
An apparatus and method is described for transmuting higher actinides, plutonium and selected fission products in a liquid-fuel subcritical assembly. Uranium may also be enriched, thereby providing new fuel for use in conventional nuclear power plants. An accelerator provides the additional neutrons required to perform the processes. The size of the accelerator needed to complete fuel cycle closure depends on the neutron efficiency of the supported reactors and on the neutron spectrum of the actinide transmutation apparatus. Treatment of spent fuel from light water reactors (LWRs) using uranium-based fuel will require the largest accelerator power, whereas neutron-efficient high temperature gas reactors (HTGRs) or CANDU reactors will require the smallest accelerator power, especially if thorium is introduced into the newly generated fuel according to the teachings of the present invention. Fast spectrum actinide transmutation apparatus (based on liquid-metal fuel) will take full advantage of the accelerator-produced source neutrons and provide maximum utilization of the actinide-generated fission neutrons. However, near-thermal transmutation apparatus will require lower standing
Inventory of LWR spent nuclear fuel in the 324 Building
Jenquin, U.P.
This document contains the results of calculations to estimate the decay heat, neutron source term, photon source term, and radioactive inventory of light-water-reactor spent nuclear fuel in the 324 Building at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.
Wiersma, B.; Serrato, M.; Langton, C.
The R- and P-reactor vessels at the Savannah River Site (SRS) are being prepared for deactivation and decommissioning (D&D). D&D activities will consist primarily of physically isolating and stabilizing the reactor vessel by filling it with a grout material. The reactor vessels contain aluminum alloy materials, which pose a concern in that aluminum corrodes rapidly when it comes in contact with the alkaline grout. A product of the corrosion reaction is hydrogen gas and therefore potential flammability issues were assessed. A model was developed to calculate the hydrogen generation rate as the reactor is being filled with the grout material. Three options existed for the type of grout material for D&D of the reactor vessels. The grout formulation options included ceramicrete (pH 6-8), a calcium aluminate sulfate (CAS) based cement (pH 10), or Portland cement grout (pH 12.4). Corrosion data for aluminum in concrete were utilized as input for the model. The calculations considered such factors as the surface area of the aluminum components, the open cross-sectional area of the reactor vessel, the rate at which the grout is added to the reactor vessel, and temperature. Given the hydrogen generation rate, the hydrogen concentration in the vapor space of the reactor vessel above the grout was calculated. This concentration was compared to the lower flammability limit for hydrogen. The assessment concluded that either ceramicrete or the CAS grout may be used to safely grout the P-reactor vessel. The risk of accumulation of a flammable mixture of hydrogen between the grout-air interface and the top of the reactor is very low. Portland cement grout, on the other hand, for the same range of process parameters did not provide a margin of safety against the accumulation of flammable gas in the reactor vessel during grouting operations in the P-reactor vessel. Therefore, it was recommended that this grout not be utilized for this task. On the other hand, the R-reactor vessel contained significantly less aluminum surface area that the P-reactor vessel based on current facility process knowledge, surface observations, and drawings. Therefore, a Portland cement grout may be considered for grouting operations as well as the other grout formulations.
Analysis of the risk of transporting spent nuclear fuel by train
Elder, H.K.
This report uses risk analyses to analyze the safety of transporting spent nuclear fuel for commercial rail shipping systems. The rail systems analyzed are those expected to be used in the United States when the total electricity-generating capacity by nuclear reactors is 100 GW in the late 1980s. Risk as used in this report is the product of the probability of a release of material to the environment and the consequences resulting from the release. The analysis includes risks in terms of expected fatalities from release of radioactive materials due to transportation accidents involving PWR spent fuel shipped in rail casks. The expected total risk from such shipments is 1.3 x 10/sup -4/ fatalities per year. Risk spectrums are developed for shipments of spent fuel that are 180 days and 4 years out-of-reactor. The risk from transporting spent fuel by train is much less (by 2 to 4 orders of magnitude) than the risk to society from other man-caused events such as dam failure.
Ozone generation by negative direct current corona discharges in dry air fed coaxial wire-cylinder reactors
Yehia, Ashraf [Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, Assiut University, Assiut 71516, Egypt and Department of Physics, College of Science and Humanitarian Studies in Alkharj, Salman bin Abdulaziz University, P.O. Box 83, Alkharj 11942 (Saudi Arabia)] [Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, Assiut University, Assiut 71516, Egypt and Department of Physics, College of Science and Humanitarian Studies in Alkharj, Salman bin Abdulaziz University, P.O. Box 83, Alkharj 11942 (Saudi Arabia); Mizuno, Akira [Department of Environmental and Life Sciences, Toyohashi University of Technology, Tempaku-cho, Toyohashi 441-8580 (Japan)] [Department of Environmental and Life Sciences, Toyohashi University of Technology, Tempaku-cho, Toyohashi 441-8580 (Japan)
An analytical study was made in this paper for calculating the ozone generation by negative dc corona discharges. The corona discharges were formed in a coaxial wire-cylinder reactor. The reactor was fed by dry air flowing with constant rates at atmospheric pressure and room temperature, and stressed by a negative dc voltage. The current-voltage characteristics of the negative dc corona discharges formed inside the reactor were measured in parallel with concentration of the generated ozone under different operating conditions. An empirical equation was derived from the experimental results for calculating the ozone concentration generated inside the reactor. The results, that have been recalculated by using the derived equation, have agreed with the experimental results over the whole range of the investigated parameters, except in the saturation range for the ozone concentration. Therefore, the derived equation represents a suitable criterion for expecting the ozone concentration generated by negative dc corona discharges in dry air fed coaxial wire-cylinder reactors under any operating conditions in range of the investigated parameters.
Miley, Don
The Advanced Test Reactor at Idaho National Laboratory is the foremost nuclear materials test reactor in the world. This virtual tour describes the reactor, how experiments are conducted, and how spent nuclear fuel is handled and stored. For more information about INL research, visit http://www.facebook.com/idahonationallaboratory.
Miley, Don
The Advanced Test Reactor at Idaho National Laboratory is the foremost nuclear materials test reactor in the world. This virtual tour describes the reactor, how experiments are conducted, and how spent nuclear fuel is handled and stored. For more information about INL research, visit http://www.facebook.com/idahonationallaboratory.
Uncertainty Quantification in the Reliability and Risk Assessment of Generation IV Reactors: Final Scientific/Technical Report
Vierow, Karen; Aldemir, Tunc
The project entitled, �Uncertainty Quantification in the Reliability and Risk Assessment of Generation IV Reactors�, was conducted as a DOE NERI project collaboration between Texas A&M University and The Ohio State University between March 2006 and June 2009. The overall goal of the proposed project was to develop practical approaches and tools by which dynamic reliability and risk assessment techniques can be used to augment the uncertainty quantification process in probabilistic risk assessment (PRA) methods and PRA applications for Generation IV reactors. This report is the Final Scientific/Technical Report summarizing the project.
Fundamental Understanding of Crack Growth in Structural Components of Generation IV Supercritical Light Water Reactors
Iouri I. Balachov; Takao Kobayashi; Francis Tanzella; Indira Jayaweera; Palitha Jayaweera; Petri Kinnunen; Martin Bojinov; Timo Saario
This work contributes to the design of safe and economical Generation-IV Super-Critical Water Reactors (SCWRs) by providing a basis for selecting structural materials to ensure the functionality of in-vessel components during the entire service life. During the second year of the project, we completed electrochemical characterization of the oxide film properties and investigation of crack initiation and propagation for candidate structural materials steels under supercritical conditions. We ranked candidate alloys against their susceptibility to environmentally assisted degradation based on the in situ data measure with an SRI-designed controlled distance electrochemistry (CDE) arrangement. A correlation between measurable oxide film properties and susceptibility of austenitic steels to environmentally assisted degradation was observed experimentally. One of the major practical results of the present work is the experimentally proven ability of the economical CDE technique to supply in situ data for ranking candidate structural materials for Generation-IV SCRs. A potential use of the CDE arrangement developed ar SRI for building in situ sensors monitoring water chemistry in the heat transport circuit of Generation-IV SCWRs was evaluated and proved to be feasible.
Divertor conditions relevant for fusion reactors achieved with linear plasma generator
Eck, H. J. N. van; Lof, A.; Meiden, H. J. van der; Rooij, G. J. van; Scholten, J.; Zeijlmans van Emmichoven, P. A. [FOM Institute DIFFER - Dutch Institute For Fundamental Energy Research, Association EURATOM-FOM, Trilateral Euregio Cluster, P.O. Box 1207, 3430 BE Nieuwegein (Netherlands); Kleyn, A. W. [FOM Institute DIFFER - Dutch Institute For Fundamental Energy Research, Association EURATOM-FOM, Trilateral Euregio Cluster, P.O. Box 1207, 3430 BE Nieuwegein (Netherlands); Van't Hoff Institute for Molecular Sciences, Faculty of Science, University of Amsterdam, P.O. Box 94157, 1090 GD Amsterdam (Netherlands)
Intense magnetized hydrogen and deuterium plasmas have been produced with electron densities up to 3.6 Multiplication-Sign 10{sup 20} m{sup -3} and electron temperatures up to 3.7 eV with a linear plasma generator. Exposure of a W target has led to average heat and particle flux densities well in excess of 4 MW m{sup -2} and 10{sup 24} m{sup -2} s{sup -1}, respectively. We have shown that the plasma surface interactions are dominated by the incoming ions. The achieved conditions correspond very well to the projected conditions at the divertor strike zones of fusion reactors such as ITER. In addition, the machine has an unprecedented high gas efficiency.
Regulatory Concerns on the In-Containment Water Storage System of the Korean Next Generation Reactor
Ahn, Hyung-Joon; Lee, Jae-Hun; Bang, Young-Seok; Kim, Hho-Jung [Korea Institute of Nuclear Safety (Korea, Republic of)
The in-containment water storage system (IWSS) is a newly adopted system in the design of the Korean Next Generation Reactor (KNGR). It consists of the in-containment refueling water storage tank, holdup volume tank, and cavity flooding system (CFS). The IWSS has the function of steam condensation and heat sink for the steam release from the pressurizer and provides cooling water to the safety injection system and containment spray system in an accident condition and to the CFS in a severe accident condition. With the progress of the KNGR design, the Korea Institute of Nuclear Safety has been developing Safety and Regulatory Requirements and Guidances for safety review of the KNGR. In this paper, regarding the IWSS of the KNGR, the major contents of the General Safety Criteria, Specific Safety Requirements, Safety Regulatory Guides, and Safety Review Procedures were introduced, and the safety review items that have to be reviewed in-depth from the regulatory viewpoint were also identified.
Spent Fuel Background Report Volume I
Abbott, D.
This report is an overview of current spent nuclear fuel management in the DOE complex. Sources of information include published literature, internal DOE documents, interviews with site personnel, and information provided by individual sites. Much of the specific information on facilities and fuels was provided by the DOE sites in response to the questionnaire for data for spent fuels and facilities data bases. This information is as accurate as is currently available, but is subject to revision pending results of further data calls. Spent fuel is broadly classified into three categories: (a) production fuels, (b) special fuels, and (c) naval fuels. Production fuels, comprising about 80% of the total inventory, are those used at Hanford and Savannah River to produce nuclear materials for defense. Special fuels are those used in a wide variety of research, development, and testing activities. Special fuels include fuel from DOE and commercial reactors used in research activities at DOE sites. Naval fuels are those developed and used for nuclear-powered naval vessels and for related research and development. Given the recent DOE decision to curtail reprocessing, the topic of main concern in the management of spent fuel is its storage. Of the DOE sites that have spent nuclear fuel, the vast majority is located at three sites-Hanford, INEL, and Savannah River. Other sites with spent fuel include Oak Ridge, West Valley, Brookhaven, Argonne, Los Alamos, and Sandia. B&W NESI Lynchburg Technology Center and General Atomics are commercial facilities with DOE fuel. DOE may also receive fuel from foreign research reactors, university reactors, and other commercial and government research reactors. Most DOE spent fuel is stored in water-filled pools at the reactor facilities. Currently an engineering study is being performed to determine the feasibility of using dry storage for DOE-owned spent fuel currently stored at various facilities. Delays in opening the deep geologic repository and the decision to phase out reprocessing of production fuels are extending the need for interim storage. The report describes the basic storage conditions and the general SNF inventory at individual DOE facilities.
Generation IV Nuclear Energy Systems Construction Cost Reductions through the Use of Virtual Environments - Task 5 Report: Generation IV Reactor Virtual Mockup Proof-of-Principle Study
Timothy Shaw; Anthony Baratta; Vaughn Whisker
Task 5 report is part of a 3 year DOE NERI-sponsored effort evaluating immersive virtual reality (CAVE) technology for design review, construction planning, and maintenance planning and training for next generation nuclear power plants. Program covers development of full-scale virtual mockups generated from 3D CAD data presented in a CAVE visualization facility. Created a virtual mockup of PBMR reactor cavity and discussed applications of virtual mockup technology to improve Gen IV design review, construction planning, and maintenance planning.
Preliminary study on direct recycling of spent PWR fuel in PWR system
Waris, Abdul; Nuha; Novitriana; Kurniadi, Rizal; Su'ud, Zaki [Nuclear Physics and Biophysics Research Division, Department of Physics, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Institut Teknologi Bandung, Jalan Ganesa 10 Bandung 40132 (Indonesia)
Preliminary study on direct recycling of PWR spent fuel to support SUPEL (Straight Utilization of sPEnt LWR fuel in LWR system) scenario has been conducted. Several spent PWR fuel compositions in loaded PWR fuel has been evaluated to obtain the criticality of reactor. The reactor can achieve it criticality for U-235 enrichment in the loaded fresh fuel is at least 4.0 a% with the minimum fraction of the spent fuel in the core is 15.0 %. The neutron spectra become harder with the escalating of U-235 enrichment in the loaded fresh fuel as well as the amount of the spent fuel in the core.
Waste Stream Generated and Waste Disposal Plans for Molten Salt Reactor Experiment at Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Haghighi, M. H.; Szozda, R. M.; Jugan, M. R.
The Molten Salt Reactor Experiment (MSRE) site is located in Tennessee, on the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Oak Ridge Reservation (ORR), south of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) main plant across Haw Ridge in Melton Valley. The MSRE was run by ORNL to demonstrate the desirable features of the molten-salt concept in a practical reactor that could be operated safely and reliably. It introduced the idea of a homogeneous reactor using fuel salt media and graphite moderation for power and breeder reactors. The MSRE reactor and associated components are located in cells beneath the floor in the high-bay area of Building 7503 (Figure 1). The reactor was operated from June 1965 to December 1969. When the reactor was shut down, fuel salt was drained from the reactor circuit to two drain tanks. A ''clean'' salt was then circulated through the reactor as a decontamination measure and drained to a third drain tank. When operations ceased, the fuel and flush salts were allowed t o cool and solidify in the drain tanks. At shutdown, the MSRE facility complex was placed in a surveillance and maintenance program. As a result of the S&M program, it was discovered in 1994 that gaseous uranium (233U/232U) hexafluoride (UF6) had moved throughout the MSRE process systems. The UF6 was generated when radiolysis of the fluorine salts caused the individual constituents to dissociate to their component atoms, including free fluorine.Some of the free fluorine combined with uranium fluorides (UF4) in the salt to form UF6. UF6 is gaseous at slightly above ambient temperatures; thus, periodic heating of the fuel salts (which was intended to remedy the radiolysis problems) and simple diffusion had allowed the UF6 to move out of the salt and into the process systems of MSRE.
Testing the improved method for calculating the radiation heat generation at the periphery of the BOR-60 reactor core
Varivtsev, A. V., E-mail: email@example.com; Zhemkov, I. Yu. [JSC �SSC RIAR,� Dimitrovgrad-10 (Russian Federation)
The application of the improved method for calculating the radiation heat generation in the elements of an experimental device located at the periphery of the BOR-60 reactor core results in a significant reduction in the discrepancies between the calculated and the experimental data. This allows us to conclude that the improved method has an advantage over the one used earlier.
Status of advanced fuel candidates for Sodium Fast Reactor within the Generation IV International Forum
F. Delage; J. Carmack; C. B. Lee; T. Mizuno; M. Pelletier; J. Somers
The main challenge for fuels for future Sodium Fast Reactor systems is the development and qualification of a nuclear fuel sub-assembly which meets the Generation IV International Forum goals. The Advanced Fuel project investigates high burn-up minor actinide bearing fuels as well as claddings and wrappers to withstand high neutron doses and temperatures. The R&D outcome of national and collaborative programs has been collected and shared between the AF project members in order to review the capability of sub-assembly material and fuel candidates, to identify the issues and select the viable options. Based on historical experience and knowledge, both oxide and metal fuels emerge as primary options to meet the performance and the reliability goals of Generation IV SFR systems. There is a significant positive experience on carbide fuels but major issues remain to be overcome: strong in-pile swelling, atmosphere required for fabrication as well as Pu and Am losses. The irradiation performance database for nitride fuels is limited with longer term R&D activities still required. The promising core material candidates are Ferritic/Martensitic (F/M) and Oxide Dispersed Strengthened (ODS) steels.
Investigation of the condition of spent-fuel pool components
Kustas, F.M.; Bates, S.O.; Opitz, B.E.; Johnson, A.B. Jr.; Perez, J.M. Jr.; Farnsworth, R.K.
It is currently projected that spent nuclear fuel, which is discharged from the reactor and then stored in water pools, may remain in those pools for several decades. Other studies have addressed the expected integrity of the spent fuel during extended water storage; this study assesses the integrity of metallic spent fuel pool components. Results from metallurgical examinations of specimens taken from stainless steel and aluminum components exposed in spent fuel pools are presented. Licensee Event Reports (LERs) relating to problems with spent fuel components were assessed and are summarized to define the types of operational problems that have occurred. The major conclusions of this study are: aluminum and stainless steel spent fuel pool components have a good history of performance in both deionized and borated water pools. Although some operational problems involving pool components have occurred, these problems have had minimal impacts.
Wiersma, B.
The R- and P-reactor buildings were retired from service and are now being prepared for deactivation and decommissioning (D&D). D&D activities will consist primarily of immobilizing contaminated components and structures in a grout-like formulation. Aluminum corrodes very rapidly when it comes in contact with the alkaline grout materials and as a result produces hydrogen gas. To address this potential deflagration/explosion hazard, the Materials Science and Technology Directorate (MS&T) of the Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) has been requested to review and evaluate existing experimental and analytical studies of this issue to determine if any process constraints on the chemistry of the fill material and the fill operation are necessary. Various options exist for the type of grout material that may be used for D&D of the reactor vessels. The grout formulation options include ceramicrete (pH 6-8), low pH portland cement + silica fume grout (pH 10.4), or Portland cement grout (pH 12.5). The assessment concluded that either ceramicrete or the silica fume grout may be used to safely grout the P-reactor vessel. The risk of accumulation of a flammable mixture of hydrogen between the grout-air interface and the top of the reactor is very low. Portland cement grout, on the other hand, for the same range of process parameters does not provide a significant margin of safety against the accumulation of flammable gas in the reactor vessel during grouting operations in the P-reactor vessel. It is recommended that this grout not be utilized for this task. The R-reactor vessel contains significantly less aluminum and thus a Portland cement grout may be considered as well. For example, if the grout fill rate is less than 1 inch/min and the grout temperature is maintained at 70 C or less, the risk of hydrogen accumulation in the R-reactor vessel is very low for the Portland cement. Alternatively, if the grout fill rate is less than 0.5 inch/min and the grout is maintained at a temperature of 80 C, the risk will again be very low. Although these calculations are conservative, there are some measures that may be taken to further minimize the potential for hydrogen evolution. (1) Minimize the temperature of the grout as much as practical. Lower temperatures will mean lower hydrogen generation rates. For P-reactor, grout temperatures less than 100 C should provide an adequate safety margin for the pH 8 and pH 10.4 grout formulations. For R-reactor, grout temperatures less than 70 C or 80 C will provide an adequate safety margin for the Portland cement. The other grout formulations are also viable options for R-reactor. (2) Minimize the grout fill rate as much as practical. Lowering the fill rate takes advantage of passivation of the aluminum components and hence lower hydrogen generation rates. For P-reactor, fill rates that are less than 2 inches/min for the ceramicrete and the silica fume grouts will reduce the chance of significant hydrogen accumulation. For R-reactor, fill rates less than 1 inch/min will again minimize the risk of hydrogen accumulation. (3) Ventilate the building as much as practical (e.g., leave doors open) to further disperse hydrogen. The volumetric hydrogen generation rates in the P-reactor vessel, however, are low for the pH 8 and pH 10.4 grout, (i.e., less than 0.32 ft{sup 3}/min). If further walk-down inspections of the reactor vessels suggest an increase in the actual areal density of aluminum, the calculations should be re-visited.
Characterization plan for Hanford spent nuclear fuel
Abrefah, J.; Thornton, T.A.; Thomas, L.E.; Berting, F.M.; Marschman, S.C.
Reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel (SNF) at the Hanford Site Plutonium-Uranium Extraction Plant (PUREX) was terminated in 1972. Since that time a significant quantity of N Reactor and Single-Pass Reactor SNF has been stored in the 100 Area K-East (KE) and K-West (KW) reactor basins. Approximately 80% of all US Department of Energy (DOE)-owned SNF resides at Hanford, the largest portion of which is in the water-filled KE and KW reactor basins. The basins were not designed for long-term storage of the SNF and it has become a priority to move the SNF to a more suitable location. As part of the project plan, SNF inventories will be chemically and physically characterized to provide information that will be used to resolve safety and technical issues for development of an environmentally benign and efficient extended interim storage and final disposition strategy for this defense production-reactor SNF.
Design of the Next Generation Nuclear Plant Graphite Creep Experiments for Irradiation in the Advanced Test Reactor
S. Blaine Grover
The United States Department of Energy�s Next Generation Nuclear Plant (NGNP) Program will be irradiating six gas reactor graphite creep experiments in the Advanced Test Reactor (ATR) located at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL). The ATR has a long history of irradiation testing in support of reactor development and the INL has been designated as the new United States Department of Energy�s lead laboratory for nuclear energy development. The ATR is one of the world�s premiere test reactors for performing long term, high flux, and/or large volume irradiation test programs. These graphite irradiations are being accomplished to support development of the next generation reactors in the United States. The graphite experiments will be irradiated over the next six to eight years to support development of a graphite irradiation performance data base on the new nuclear grade graphites now available for use in high temperature gas reactors. The goals of the irradiation experiments are to obtain irradiation performance data at different temperatures and loading conditions to support design of the Next Generation Nuclear Plant Very High Temperature Gas Reactor, as well as other future gas reactors. The experiments will each consist of a single capsule that will contain seven separate stacks of graphite specimens. Six of the specimen stacks will have half of their graphite specimens under a compressive load, while the other half of the specimens will not be subjected to a compressive load during irradiation. The six stacks will be organized into pairs with a different compressive load being applied to the top half of each pair of specimen stacks. The seventh stack will not have a compressive load on the graphite specimens during irradiation. The specimens will be irradiated in an inert sweep gas atmosphere with on-line temperature and compressive load monitoring and control. There will also be the capability of sampling the sweep gas effluent to determine if any oxidation or off-gassing of the specimens occurs during initial start-up of the experiment. The final design phase for the first experiment was completed in September 2008, and the fabrication and assembly of the experiment test train as well as installation and testing of the control and support systems that will monitor and control the experiment during irradiation are being completed in early calendar 2009. The first experiment is scheduled to be ready for insertion in the ATR by April 30, 2009. This paper will discuss the design of the experiment including the test train and the temperature and compressive load monitoring, control, and data collection systems.
Development of Modeling Techniques for A Generation IV Gas Fast Reactor�
Dercher, Andrew Steven
to the harmful biological effects caused by excessive radiation exposure, one can understand why people are concerned about mankind?s ability to safely operate ____________ This thesis follows the style of International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer. 2... to increase plant life and plant safety, a new class of nuclear reactors is being considered in order to meet the world?s ever-growing energy demands. This class of new reactors has been termed as the Gen IV class of nuclear reactors. These new reactors...
Physical and decay characteristics of commercial LWR spent fuel
Roddy, J.W.; Claiborne, H.C.; Ashline, R.C.; Johnson, P.J.; Rhyne, B.T.
Information was collected from the literature and from major manufacturers that will be useful in the design and construction of a mined geologic repository for the disposal of light-water-reactor spent fuel. Pertinent data are included on mechanical design characteristics and materials of construction for fuel assemblies and fuel rods and computed values for heat generation rates, radioactivity, and photon and neutron emission rates as a function of time for four reference cases. Calculations were made with the ORIGEN2 computer code for burnups of 27,500 and 40,000 MWd for a typical boiling-water reactor and 33,000 and 60,000 MWd for a typical pressurized-water reactor. The results are presented in figures depicting the individual contributions per metric ton of initial heavy metal for the activation products, fission products, and actinides and their daughters to the radioactivity and thermal power as a function of time. Tables are also presented that list the contribution of each major nuclide to the radioactivity, thermal power, and photons and neutrons emitted for disposal emitted for disposal periods from 1 to 100,000 years.
FORIG: a computer code for calculating radionuclide generation and depletion in fusion and fission reactors. User's manual
Blink, J.A.
In this manual we describe the use of the FORIG computer code to solve isotope-generation and depletion problems in fusion and fission reactors. FORIG runs on a Cray-1 computer and accepts more extensive activation cross sections than ORIGEN2 from which it was adapted. This report is an updated and a combined version of the previous ORIGEN2 and FORIG manuals. 7 refs., 15 figs., 13 tabs.
Next Generation Nuclear Plant Project Technology Development Roadmaps: The Technical Path Forward for 750�800�C Reactor Outlet Temperature
John Collins
This document presents the NGNP Critical PASSCs and defines their technical maturation path through Technology Development Roadmaps (TDRMs) and their associated Technology Readiness Levels (TRLs). As the critical PASSCs advance through increasing levels of technical maturity, project risk is reduced and the likelihood of within-budget and on-schedule completion is enhanced. The current supplier-generated TRLs and TDRMs for a 750�800�C reactor outlet temperature (ROT) specific to each supplier are collected in Appendix A.
Comparative analysis of LWR and FBR spent fuels for nuclear forensics evaluation
Permana, Sidik; Suzuki, Mitsutoshi; Su'ud, Zaki [Department of Science and Technology for Nuclear Material Management (STNM), Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA), 2-4 Shirane, Shirakata, Tokai Mura, Naka-gun, Ibaraki 319-1195 Nuclear Physics and Bio (Indonesia); Department of Science and Technology for Nuclear Material Management (STNM), Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA), 2-4 Shirane, Shirakata, Tokai Mura, Naka-gun, Ibaraki 319-1195 (Japan); Nuclear Physics and Bio Physics Research Group, Department of Physics, Bandung Institute of Technology, Gedung Fisika, Jl. Ganesha 10, Bandung 40132 (Indonesia)
Some interesting issues are attributed to nuclide compositions of spent fuels from thermal reactors as well as fast reactors such as a potential to reuse as recycled fuel, and a possible capability to be manage as a fuel for destructive devices. In addition, analysis on nuclear forensics which is related to spent fuel compositions becomes one of the interesting topics to evaluate the origin and the composition of spent fuels from the spent fuel foot-prints. Spent fuel compositions of different fuel types give some typical spent fuel foot prints and can be estimated the origin of source of those spent fuel compositions. Some technics or methods have been developing based on some science and technological capability including experimental and modeling or theoretical aspects of analyses. Some foot-print of nuclear forensics will identify the typical information of spent fuel compositions such as enrichment information, burnup or irradiation time, reactor types as well as the cooling time which is related to the age of spent fuels. This paper intends to evaluate the typical spent fuel compositions of light water (LWR) and fast breeder reactors (FBR) from the view point of some foot prints of nuclear forensics. An established depletion code of ORIGEN is adopted to analyze LWR spent fuel (SF) for several burnup constants and decay times. For analyzing some spent fuel compositions of FBR, some coupling codes such as SLAROM code, JOINT and CITATION codes including JFS-3-J-3.2R as nuclear data library have been adopted. Enriched U-235 fuel composition of oxide type is used for fresh fuel of LWR and a mixed oxide fuel (MOX) for FBR fresh fuel. Those MOX fuels of FBR come from the spent fuels of LWR. Some typical spent fuels from both LWR and FBR will be compared to distinguish some typical foot-prints of SF based on nuclear forensic analysis.
Arrival condition of spent fuel after storage, handling, and transportation
Bailey, W.J.; Pankaskie, P.J.; Langstaff, D.C.; Gilbert, E.R.; Rising, K.H.; Schreiber, R.E.
This report presents the results of a study conducted to determine the probable arrival condition of spent light-water reactor (LWR) fuel after handling and interim storage in spent fuel storage pools and subsequent handling and accident-free transport operations under normal or slightly abnormal conditions. The objective of this study was to provide information on the expected condition of spent LWR fuel upon arrival at interim storage or fuel reprocessing facilities or at disposal facilities if the fuel is declared a waste. Results of a literature survey and data evaluation effort are discussed. Preliminary threshold limits for storing, handling, and transporting unconsolidated spent LWR fuel are presented. The difficulty in trying to anticipate the amount of corrosion products (crud) that may be on spent fuel in future shipments is also discussed, and potential areas for future work are listed. 95 references, 3 figures, 17 tables.
Can Next-Generation Reactors Power a Safe Nuclear Futur By Clay Dillow Posted 03.17.2011 at 12:18 pm
Danon, Yaron
Can Next-Generation Reactors Power a Safe Nuclear Futur By Clay Dillow Posted 03.17.2011 at 12 of nuclear reactors are designed to prevent exactly what we old Fukushima Daiichi plant. Which is good the world rush to reconsider their nuclear plans, nuclear experts look toward a future of smaller, safer
COGEMA operating experience in the transportation of spent fuel, nuclear materials and radioactive waste
Bernard, H. [COGEMA, Velizy-Villacoublay (France)
Were a spent fuel transportation accident to occur, no matter how insignificant, the public outcry could jeopardize both reprocessing operations and power plant operations for utilities that have elected to reprocess their spent fuel. Aware of this possibility, COGEMA has become deeply involved in spent fuel transportation to ensure that it is performed according to the highest standards of transportation safety. Spent fuel transportation is a vital link between the reactor site and the reprocessing plant. This paper gives an overview of COGEMA`s experience in the transportation of spent fuel.
Opportunities to increase the productivity of spent fuel shipping casks in the United States
Winsor, G.H.; Faletti, D.W.; DeSteese, J.G.
Trends indicate that future transportation requirements for spent fuel will be different from those anticipated when the current generation of casks and vehicles was designed. Increased storage capacity at most reactors will increase the average post irradiation age of the spent fuel to be transported. A scenario is presented which shows the 18 casks currently available should be sufficient until approximately 1983. Beyond this time, it appears that an adequate transportation system can be maintained by acquiring, as needed, casks of current designs and new casks currently under development. Spent fuel transportation requirements in the post-1990 period can be met by a new generation of casks specifically designed to transport long-cooled fuel. In terms of the number of casks needed, productivity may be increased by 19% if rail cask turnaround time is reduced to 4 days from the current range of 6.5 to 8.5 days. Productivity defined as payloads per cask year could be increased 62% if the turnaround time for legal weight truck casks were reduced from 12 hours to 4 hours. On a similar basis, overweight truck casks show a 28% increase in productivity.
Maximum Fuel Utilization in Advanced Fast Reactors without Actinides Separation
Heidet, Florent
selected as part of the Generation IV reactors .. - 4 -The development of Generation IV fast reactors can make aconcepts selected for the Generation IV reactors, three,
Electrorefining {open_quotes}N{close_quotes} reactor fuel
Gay, E.C.; Miller, W.E.
Principles of purifying of uranium metal by electrorefining are reviewed. Metal reactor fuel after irradiation is a form of impure uranium. Dissolution and deposition electrorefining processes were developed for spent metal fuel under the Integral Fast Reactor Program. Application of these processes to the conditioning of spent N-reactor fuel slugs is examined.
Storage of LWR spent fuel in air: Volume 1: Design and operation of a spent fuel oxidation test facility
Thornhill, C.K.; Campbell, T.K.; Thornhill, R.E.
This report describes the design and operation and technical accomplishments of a spent-fuel oxidation test facility at the Pacific Northwest Laboratory. The objective of the experiments conducted in this facility was to develop a data base for determining spent-fuel dry storage temperature limits by characterizing the oxidation behavior of light-water reactor (LWR) spent fuels in air. These data are needed to support licensing of dry storage in air as an alternative to spent-fuel storage in water pools. They are to be used to develop and validate predictive models of spent-fuel behavior during dry air storage in an Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installation (ISFSI). The present licensed alternative to pool storage of spent fuel is dry storage in an inert gas environment, which is called inerted dry storage (IDS). Licensed air storage, however, would not require monitoring for maintenance of an inert-gas environment (which IDS requires) but does require the development of allowable temperature limits below which UO/sub 2/ oxidation in breached fuel rods would not become a problem. Scoping tests at PNL with nonirradiated UO/sub 2/ pellets and spent-fuel fragment specimens identified the need for a statistically designed test matrix with test temperatures bounding anticipated maximum acceptable air-storage temperatures. This facility was designed and operated to satisfy that need. 7 refs.
Wiersma, B.
The R- and P-reactor buildings were retired from service and are now being prepared for deactivation and decommissioning (D&D). D&D activities will consist primarily of immobilizing contaminated components and structures in a grout-like formulation. Aluminum corrodes very rapidly when it comes in contact with the alkaline grout materials and as a result produces hydrogen gas. To address this potential deflagration/explosion hazard, the Materials Science and Technology Directorate (MS&T) of the Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) has been requested to review and evaluate existing experimental and analytical studies of this issue to determine if any process constraints on the chemistry of the fill material and the fill operation are necessary. Various options exist for the type of grout material that may be used for D&D of the reactor vessels. The grout formulation options include ceramicrete (pH 6-8), low pH portland cement + silica fume grout (pH 10.4), or portland cement grout (pH 12.5). The assessment concluded that either ceramicrete or the silica fume grout may be used to safely grout the R- and P- reactor vessels. The risk of accumulation of a flammable mixture of hydrogen between the grout-air interface and the top of the reactor is very low. Conservative calculations estimate that either ceramicrete or the silica fume grout may be used to safely grout the R- and P- reactor vessels. The risk of accumulation of a flammable mixture of hydrogen between the grout-air interface and the top of the reactor is very low. Although these calculations are conservative, there are some measures that may be taken to further minimize the potential for hydrogen evolution. (1) Minimize the temperature of the grout as much as practical. Lower temperatures will mean lower hydrogen generation rates. Grout temperatures less than 100 C should however, still provide an adequate safety margin for the pH 8 and pH 10.4 grout formulations. (2) Minimize the fill rate as much as practical. Lowering the fill rate takes advantage of passivation of the aluminum components and hence lower hydrogen generation rates. Fill rates that are less than 2 inches/min will reduce the chance of significant hydrogen build-up. (3) Ventilate the building as much as practical (e.g., leave doors open) to further disperse hydrogen. The volumetric hydrogen generation rates however, are low for the pH 8 and pH 10.4 grout, i.e., less than 0.32 ft{sup 3}/min. Portland cement grout, on the other hand, for the same range of process parameters does not provide a significant margin of safety against the accumulation of flammable gas in the reactor vessel during grouting operations. It is recommended that this grout not be utilized for this task. If further walk-down inspections of the reactor vessels suggest an increase in the actual areal density of aluminum, the calculations should be re-visited.
Spent Nuclear Fuel Alternative Technology Risk Assessment
Perella, V.F.
A Research Reactor Spent Nuclear Fuel Task Team (RRTT) was chartered by the Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Spent Fuel Management with the responsibility to recommend a course of action leading to a final technology selection for the interim management and ultimate disposition of the foreign and domestic aluminum-based research reactor spent nuclear fuel (SNF) under DOE''s jurisdiction. The RRTT evaluated eleven potential SNF management technologies and recommended that two technologies, direct co-disposal and an isotopic dilution alternative, either press and dilute or melt and dilute, be developed in parallel. Based upon that recommendation, the Westinghouse Savannah River Company (WSRC) organized the SNF Alternative Technology Program to further develop the direct co-disposal and melt and dilute technologies and provide a WSRC recommendation to DOE for a preferred SNF alternative management technology. A technology risk assessment was conducted as a first step in this recommendation process to determine if either, or both, of the technologies posed significant risks that would make them unsuitable for further development. This report provides the results of that technology risk assessment.
Hydordesulfurization of dibenzothiophene using hydrogen generated in situ by the water-gas shift reaction in a trickle bed reactor
Hook, Bruce David
; Lands and Mrnkova, 1966). Singhal et al. (1981a, b) studied DBT desulfurization at 558-623K, 3. 1 MPa, in the gas phase over a standard CoO-MoO, /7-AlsO, catalyst. Both of these mechanisms are consistent with the generalized mechanism for HDS...HYDRODESULFURIZATION OF DIBENZOTHIOPHENE USING HYDROGEN GENERATED IN SITU BY THE WATER ? GAS SHIFT REACTION IN A TRICKLE BED REACTOR A Thesis BRUCE DAVID HOOK Submitted to the Graduate College of Texas A&M University in partial fulfillment...
Analysis of supercritical CO{sub 2} cycle control strategies and dynamic response for Generation IV Reactors.
Moisseytsev, A.; Sienicki, J. J. (Nuclear Engineering Division)
The analysis of specific control strategies and dynamic behavior of the supercritical carbon dioxide (S-CO{sub 2}) Brayton cycle has been extended to the two reactor types selected for continued development under the Generation IV Nuclear Energy Systems Initiative; namely, the Very High Temperature Reactor (VHTR) and the Sodium-Cooled Fast Reactor (SFR). Direct application of the standard S-CO{sub 2} recompression cycle to the VHTR was found to be challenging because of the mismatch in the temperature drop of the He gaseous reactor coolant through the He-to-CO{sub 2} reactor heat exchanger (RHX) versus the temperature rise of the CO{sub 2} through the RHX. The reference VHTR features a large temperature drop of 450 C between the assumed core outlet and inlet temperatures of 850 and 400 C, respectively. This large temperature difference is an essential feature of the VHTR enabling a lower He flow rate reducing the required core velocities and pressure drop. In contrast, the standard recompression S-CO{sub 2} cycle wants to operate with a temperature rise through the RHX of about 150 C reflecting the temperature drop as the CO{sub 2} expands from 20 MPa to 7.4 MPa in the turbine and the fact that the cycle is highly recuperated such that the CO{sub 2} entering the RHX is effectively preheated. Because of this mismatch, direct application of the standard recompression cycle results in a relatively poor cycle efficiency of 44.9%. However, two approaches have been identified by which the S-CO{sub 2} cycle can be successfully adapted to the VHTR and the benefits of the S-CO{sub 2} cycle, especially a significant gain in cycle efficiency, can be realized. The first approach involves the use of three separate cascaded S-CO{sub 2} cycles. Each S-CO{sub 2} cycle is coupled to the VHTR through its own He-to-CO{sub 2} RHX in which the He temperature is reduced by 150 C. The three respective cycles have efficiencies of 54, 50, and 44%, respectively, resulting in a net cycle efficiency of 49.3 %. The other approach involves reducing the minimum cycle pressure significantly below the critical pressure such that the temperature drop in the turbine is increased while the minimum cycle temperature is maintained above the critical temperature to prevent the formation of a liquid phase. The latter approach also involves the addition of a precooler and a third compressor before the main compressor to retain the benefits of compression near the critical point with the main compressor. For a minimum cycle pressure of 1 MPa, a cycle efficiency of 49.5% is achieved. Either approach opens up the door to applying the SCO{sub 2} cycle to the VHTR. In contrast, the SFR system typically has a core outlet-inlet temperature difference of about 150 C such that the standard recompression cycle is ideally suited for direct application to the SFR. The ANL Plant Dynamics Code has been modified for application to the VHTR and SFR when the reactor side dynamic behavior is calculated with another system level computer code such as SAS4A/SYSSYS-1 in the SFR case. The key modification involves modeling heat exchange in the RHX, accepting time dependent tabular input from the reactor code, and generating time dependent tabular input to the reactor code such that both the reactor and S-CO{sub 2} cycle sides can be calculated in a convergent iterative scheme. This approach retains the modeling benefits provided by the detailed reactor system level code and can be applied to any reactor system type incorporating a S-CO{sub 2} cycle. This approach was applied to the particular calculation of a scram scenario for a SFR in which the main and intermediate sodium pumps are not tripped and the generator is not disconnected from the electrical grid in order to enhance heat removal from the reactor system thereby enhancing the cooldown rate of the Na-to-CO{sub 2} RHX. The reactor side is calculated with SAS4A/SASSYS-1 while the S-CO{sub 2} cycle is calculated with the Plant Dynamics Code with a number of iterations over a timescale of 500 seconds. It is found that the RHX u
Thermal analysis for fuel handling system for sodium cooled reactor considering minor actinide-bearing metal fuel.
Chikazawa, Y.; Grandy, C.; Nuclear Engineering Division
The Advanced Burner Reactor (ABR) is one of the components of the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP) used to close the fuel cycle. ABR is a sodium-cooled fast reactor that is used to consume transuranic elements resulting from the reprocessing of light water reactor spent nuclear fuel. ABR-1000 [1000 MW(thermal)] is a fast reactor concept created at Argonne National Laboratory to be used as a reference concept for various future trade-offs. ABR-1000 meets the GNEP goals although it uses what is considered base sodium fast reactor technology for its systems and components. One of the considerations of any fast reactor plant concept is the ability to perform fuel-handling operations with new and spent fast reactor fuel. The transmutation fuel proposed as the ABR fuel has a very little experience base, and thus, this paper investigates a fuel-handling concept and potential issues of handling fast reactor fuel containing minor actinides. In this study, two thermal analyses supporting a conceptual design study on the ABR-1000 fuel-handling system were carried out. One analysis investigated passive dry spent fuel storage, and the other analysis investigated a fresh fuel shipping cask. Passive dry storage can be made suitable for the ABR-1000 spent fuel storage with sodium-bonded metal fuel. The thermal analysis shows that spent fast reactor fuel with a decay heat of 2 kW or less can be stored passively in a helium atmosphere. The 2-kW value seems to be a reasonable and practical level, and a combination of reasonably-sized in-sodium storage followed by passive dry storage could be a candidate for spent fuel storage for the next-generation sodium-cooled reactor with sodium-bonded metal fuel. Requirements for the shipping casks for minor actinide-bearing fuel with a high decay heat level are also discussed in this paper. The shipping cask for fresh sodium-cooled-reactor fuel should be a dry type to reduce the reaction between residual moisture on fresh fuel and the sodium coolant. The cladding temperature requirement is maintained below the creep temperature limit to avoid any damage before core installation. The thermal analysis shows that a helium gas-filled cask can accommodate ABR-1000 fresh minor actinide-bearing fuel with 700-W decay heat. The above analysis results revealed the overall requirement for minor actinide-bearing metal fuel handling. The information is thought to be helpful in the design of the ABR-1000 and future sodium-cooled-reactor fuel-handling system.
Laser or charged-particle-beam fusion reactor with direct electric generation by magnetic flux compression
Lasche, G.P.
A high-power-density-laser or charged-particle-beam fusion reactor system maximizes the directed kinetic energy imparted to a large mass of liquid lithium by a centrally located fusion target. A fusion target is embedded in a large mass of lithium, of sufficient radius to act as a tritium breeding blanket, and provided with ports for the access of beam energy to implode the target. The directed kinetic energy is converted directly to electricity with high efficiency by work done against a pulsed magnetic field applied exterior to the lithium. Because the system maximizes the blanket thickness per unit volume of lithium, neutron-induced radioactivities in the reaction chamber wall are several orders of magnitude less than is typical of other fusion reactor systems. 25 figs.
Laser or charged-particle-beam fusion reactor with direct electric generation by magnetic flux compression
Lasche, George P. (Arlington, VA)
A high-power-density laser or charged-particle-beam fusion reactor system maximizes the directed kinetic energy imparted to a large mass of liquid lithium by a centrally located fusion target. A fusion target is embedded in a large mass of lithium, of sufficient radius to act as a tritium breeding blanket, and provided with ports for the access of beam energy to implode the target. The directed kinetic energy is converted directly to electricity with high efficiency by work done against a pulsed magnetic field applied exterior to the lithium. Because the system maximizes the blanket thickness per unit volume of lithium, neutron-induced radioactivities in the reaction chamber wall are several orders of magnitude less than is typical of other fusion reactor systems.
Evaluation of anticipatory signal to steam generator pressure control program for 700 MWe Indian pressurized heavy water reactor
Pahari, S.; Hajela, S.; Rammohan, H. P.; Malhotra, P. K.; Ghadge, S. G. [Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited, Nabhikiya Urja Bhavan, Anushakti Nagar, Mumbai, PIN-400094 (India)
700 MWe Indian Pressurized Heavy Water Reactor (IPHWR) is horizontal channel type reactor with partial boiling at channel outlet. Due to boiling, it has a large volume of vapor present in the primary loops. It has two primary loops connected with the help of pressurizer surge line. The pressurizer has a large capacity and is partly filled by liquid and partly by vapor. Large vapor volume improves compressibility of the system. During turbine trip or load rejection, pressure builds up in Steam Generator (SG). This leads to pressurization of Primary Heat Transport System (PHTS). To control pressurization of SG and PHTS, around 70% of the steam generated in SG is dumped into the condenser by opening Condenser Steam Dump Valves (CSDVs) and rest of the steam is released to the atmosphere by opening Atmospheric Steam Discharge Valves (ASDVs) immediately after sensing the event. This is accomplished by adding anticipatory signal to the output of SG pressure controller. Anticipatory signal is proportional to the thermal power of reactor and the proportionality constant is set so that SG pressure controller's output jacks up to ASDV opening range when operating at 100% FP. To simulate this behavior for 700 MWe IPHWR, Primary and secondary heat transport system is modeled. SG pressure control and other process control program have also been modeled to capture overall plant dynamics. Analysis has been carried out with 3-D neutron kinetics coupled thermal hydraulic computer code ATMIKA.T to evaluate the effect of the anticipatory signal on PHT pressure and over all plant dynamics during turbine trip in 700 MWe IPHWR. This paper brings out the results of the analysis with and without considering anticipatory signal in SG pressure control program during turbine trip. (authors)
Current generation by helicons and lower hybrid waves in modern tokamaks and reactors ITER and DEMO. Scenarios, modeling and antennae
Vdovin, V. L., E-mail: email@example.com [National Research Centre 'Kurchatov Institute,' (Russian Federation)
The innovative concept and 3D full-wave code modeling the off-axis current drive by radio-frequency (RF) waves in large-scale tokamaks, ITER and DEMO, for steady-state operation with high efficiency is proposed. The scheme uses the helicon radiation (fast magnetosonic waves at high (20-40) ion cyclotron frequency harmonics) at frequencies of 500-700 MHz propagating in the outer regions of the plasmas with a rotational transform. It is expected that the current generated by helicons, in conjunction with the bootstrap current, ensure the maintenance of a given value of the total current in the stability margin q(0) {>=} 2 and q(a) {>=} 4, and will help to have regimes with a negative magnetic shear and internal transport barrier to ensure stability at high normalized plasma pressure {beta}{sub N} > 3 (the so-called advanced scenarios) of interest for the commercial reactor. Modeling with full-wave three-dimensional codes PSTELION and STELEC showed flexible control of the current profile in the reactor plasmas of ITER and DEMO, using multiple frequencies, the positions of the antennae and toroidal wave slow down. Also presented are the results of simulations of current generation by helicons in the DIII-D, T-15MD, and JT-60AS tokamaks. Commercially available continuous-wave klystrons of the MW/tube range are promising for commercial stationary fusion reactors. The compact antennae of the waveguide type are proposed, and an example of a possible RF system for today's tokamaks is given. The advantages of the scheme (partially tested at lower frequencies in tokamaks) are a significant decline in the role of parametric instabilities in the plasma periphery, the use of electrically strong resonator-waveguide type antennae, and substantially greater antenna-plasma coupling.
BWR spent fuel storage cask performance test. Volume 2. Pre- and post-test decay heat, heat transfer, and shielding analyses
Wiles, L.E.; Lombardo, N.J.; Heeb, C.M.; Jenquin, U.P.; Michener, T.E.; Wheeler, C.L.; Creer, J.M.; McCann, R.A.
This report describes the decay heat, heat transfer, and shielding analyses conducted in support of performance testing of a Ridhihalgh, Eggers and Associates REA 2033 boiling water reactor (BWR) spent fuel storage cask. The cask testing program was conducted for the US Department of Energy (DOE) Commercial Spent Fuel Management Program by the Pacific Northwest Laboratory (PNL) and by General Electric at the latters' Morris Operation (GE-MO) as reported in Volume I. The analyses effort consisted of performing pretest calculations to (1) select spent fuel for the test; (2) symmetrically load the spent fuel assemblies in the cask to ensure lateral symmetry of decay heat generation rates; (3) optimally locate temperature and dose rate instrumentation in the cask and spent fuel assemblies; and (4) evaluate the ORIGEN2 (decay heat), HYDRA and COBRA-SFS (heat transfer), and QAD and DOT (shielding) computer codes. The emphasis of this second volume is on the comparison of code predictions to experimental test data in support of the code evaluation process. Code evaluations were accomplished by comparing pretest (actually pre-look, since some predictions were not completed until testing was in progress) predictions with experimental cask testing data reported in Volume I. No attempt was made in this study to compare the two heat transfer codes because results of other evaluations have not been completed, and a comparison based on one data set may lead to erroneous conclusions.
Pyrochemical Treatment of Spent Nuclear Fuel
K. M. Goff; K. L. Howden; G. M. Teske; T. A. Johnson
Over the last 10 years, pyrochemical treatment of spent nuclear fuel has progressed from demonstration activities to engineering-scale production operations. As part of the Advanced Fuel Cycle Initiative within the U.S. Department of Energy�s Office of Nuclear Energy, Science and Technology, pyrochemical treatment operations are being performed as part of the treatment of fuel from the Experimental Breeder Reactor II at the Idaho National Laboratory. Integral to these treatment operations are research and development activities that are focused on scaling further the technology, developing and implementing process improvements, qualifying the resulting high-level waste forms, and demonstrating the overall pyrochemical fuel cycle.
Spent nuclear fuel reprocessing modeling
Tretyakova, S.; Shmidt, O.; Podymova, T.; Shadrin, A.; Tkachenko, V. [Bochvar Institute, 5 Rogova str., Moscow 123098 (Russian Federation); Makeyeva, I.; Tkachenko, V.; Verbitskaya, O.; Schultz, O.; Peshkichev, I. [Russian Federal Nuclear Center - VNIITF E.I. Zababakhin, p.o.box 245, Snezhinsk, 456770 (Russian Federation)
The long-term wide development of nuclear power requires new approaches towards the realization of nuclear fuel cycle, namely, closed nuclear fuel cycle (CNFC) with respect to fission materials. Plant nuclear fuel cycle (PNFC), which is in fact the reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel unloaded from the reactor and the production of new nuclear fuel (NF) at the same place together with reactor plant, can be one variant of CNFC. Developing and projecting of PNFC is a complicated high-technology innovative process that requires modern information support. One of the components of this information support is developed by the authors. This component is the programme conducting calculations for various variants of process flow sheets for reprocessing SNF and production of NF. Central in this programme is the blocks library, where the blocks contain mathematical description of separate processes and operations. The calculating programme itself has such a structure that one can configure the complex of blocks and correlations between blocks, appropriate for any given flow sheet. For the ready sequence of operations balance calculations are made of all flows, i.e. expenses, element and substance makeup, heat emission and radiation rate are determined. The programme is open and the block library can be updated. This means that more complicated and detailed models of technological processes will be added to the library basing on the results of testing processes using real equipment, in test operating mode. The development of the model for the realization of technical-economic analysis of various variants of technologic PNFC schemes and the organization of 'operator's advisor' is expected. (authors)
Scintillator spent fuel monitor
Moss, C.E.; Nixon, K.V.; Bernard, W.
A monitor for rapidly measuring the gross gamma-ray flux immediately above spent fuel assemblies in underwater storage racks has been developed. It consists of a plastic scintillator, photomultiplier, collimator, and a small battery-powered electronics package. The crosstalk from an isolated fuel assembly to an adjacent void is only about 2%. The mean difference between the measured gamma-ray flux and the flux estimated from the declared burnup and cooling time with a simple formula is 22%.
High Temperature Gas-Cooled Reactors Lessons Learned Applicable to the Next Generation Nuclear Plant
J. M. Beck; L. F. Pincock
The purpose of this report is to identify possible issues highlighted by these lessons learned that could apply to the NGNP in reducing technical risks commensurate with the current phase of design. Some of the lessons learned have been applied to the NGNP and documented in the Preconceptual Design Report. These are addressed in the background section of this document and include, for example, the decision to use TRISO fuel rather than BISO fuel used in the Peach Bottom reactor; the use of a reactor pressure vessel rather than prestressed concrete found in Fort St. Vrain; and the use of helium as a primary coolant rather than CO2. Other lessons learned, 68 in total, are documented in Sections 2 through 6 and will be applied, as appropriate, in advancing phases of design. The lessons learned are derived from both negative and positive outcomes from prior HTGR experiences. Lessons learned are grouped according to the plant, areas, systems, subsystems, and components defined in the NGNP Preconceptual Design Report, and subsequent NGNP project documents.
Spent Fuel Working Group Report. Volume 1
O`Toole, T.
The Department of Energy is storing large amounts of spent nuclear fuel and other reactor irradiated nuclear materials (herein referred to as RINM). In the past, the Department reprocessed RINM to recover plutonium, tritium, and other isotopes. However, the Department has ceased or is phasing out reprocessing operations. As a consequence, Department facilities designed, constructed, and operated to store RINM for relatively short periods of time now store RINM, pending decisions on the disposition of these materials. The extended use of the facilities, combined with their known degradation and that of their stored materials, has led to uncertainties about safety. To ensure that extended storage is safe (i.e., that protection exists for workers, the public, and the environment), the conditions of these storage facilities had to be assessed. The compelling need for such an assessment led to the Secretary`s initiative on spent fuel, which is the subject of this report. This report comprises three volumes: Volume I; Summary Results of the Spent Fuel Working Group Evaluation; Volume II, Working Group Assessment Team Reports and Protocol; Volume III; Operating Contractor Site Team Reports. This volume presents the overall results of the Working Group`s Evaluation. The group assessed 66 facilities spread across 11 sites. It identified: (1) facilities that should be considered for priority attention. (2) programmatic issues to be considered in decision making about interim storage plans and (3) specific vulnerabilities for some of these facilities.
Direct Investigations of the Immobilization of Radionuclides in the Alteration Products of Spent Nuclear Fuel
Peter C. Burns; Robert J. Finch; David J. Wronkiewicz
Safe disposal of the nation's nuclear waste in a geological repository involves unique scientific and engineering challenges owing to the very long-lived radioactivity of the waste. The repository must retain a variety of radionuclides that have vastly different chemical characters for several thousand years. Most of the radioactivity that will be housed in the proposed repository at Yucca Mountain will be associated with spent nuclear fuel, much of which is derived from commercial reactors. DOE is custodian of approximately 8000 tons of spent nuclear fuel that is also intended for eventual disposal in a geological repository. Unlike the spent fuel from commercial reactors, the DOE fuel is diverse in composition with more than 250 varieties. Safe disposal of spent fuel requires a detailed knowledge of its long-term behavior under repository conditions, as well as the fate of radionuclides released from the spent fuel as waste containers are breached.
Managing Spent Nuclear Fuel at the Idaho National Laboratory
Thomas Hill; Denzel L. Fillmore
The Idaho National Laboratory (INL) has a large inventory of diverse types of spent nuclear fuel (SNF). This legacy derives from the history of the INL as the National Reactor Testing Station, and from its mission to recover HEU from SNF and to test and examine SNF after irradiation. The INL also has a large diversity of SNF storage facilities, some 50 years old. SNF at INL has many forms�from intact assemblies down to metallurgical mounts, and some fuel has been wet stored for over 40 years. SNF is stored bare or in metal cans under water, or dry in vaults, caissons or casks. Inspection shows varying corrosion and degradation of the SNF and its storage cans. SNF has been stored in 10 different facilities: 5 pools, one cask storage pad, one vault, two generations of caisson facilities, and one modular Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installation (ISFSI). The pools range in age from 40 years old to the most modern in the US Department of Energy (DOE) complex. The near-term objective is to move SNF from older pools to interim dry storage, allowing shutdown and decommissioning of the older facilities. This move involves drying methods that are dependent on fuel type. The long-term objective is to have INL SNF in safe dry storage and ready to be shipped to the National Repository. The unique features of the INL SNF requires special treatments and packaging to meet the proposed repository acceptance criteria and SNF will be repackaged in standardized canisters for shipment and disposal in the National Repository. Disposal will use the standardized canisters that can be co-disposed with High Level Waste glass logs to limit the total fissile material in a repository waste package. The DOE standardized canister also simplifies the repository handling of the multitude of DOE SNF sizes and shapes.
Final Report on Utilization of TRU TRISO Fuel as Applied to HTR Systems Part II: Prismatic Reactor Cross Section Generation
Vincent Descotes
The deep-burn prismatic high temperature reactor is made up of an annular core loaded with transuranic isotopes and surrounded in the center and in the periphery by reflector blocks in graphite. This disposition creates challenges for the neutronics compared to usual light water reactor calculation schemes. The longer mean free path of neutrons in graphite affects the neutron spectrum deep inside the blocks located next to the reflector. The neutron thermalisation in the graphite leads to two characteristic fission peaks at the inner and outer interfaces as a result of the increased thermal flux seen in those assemblies. Spectral changes are seen at least on half of the fuel blocks adjacent to the reflector. This spectral effect of the reflector may prevent us from successfully using the two step scheme -lattice then core calculation- typically used for light water reactors. We have been studying the core without control mechanisms to provide input for the development of a complete calculation scheme. To correct the spectrum at the lattice level, we have tried to generate cross-sections from supercell calculations at the lattice level, thus taking into account part of the graphite surrounding the blocks of interest for generating the homogenised cross-sections for the full-core calculation. This one has been done with 2 to 295 groups to assess if increasing the number of groups leads to more accurate results. A comparison with a classical single block model has been done. Both paths were compared to a reference calculation done with MCNP. It is concluded that the agreement with MCNP is better with supercells, but that the single block model remains quite close if enough groups are kept for the core calculation. 26 groups seems to be a good compromise between time and accu- racy. However, some trials with depletion have shown huge variations of the isotopic composition across a block next to the reflector. It may imply that at least an in- core depletion for the number density calculation may be necessary in the complete calculation scheme.
West Valley facility spent fuel handling, storage, and shipping experience
Bailey, W.J.
The result of a study on handling and shipping experience with spent fuel are described in this report. The study was performed by Pacific Northwest Laboratory (PNL) and was jointly sponsored by the US Department of Energy (DOE) and the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI). The purpose of the study was to document the experience with handling and shipping of relatively old light-water reactor (LWR) fuel that has been in pool storage at the West Valley facility, which is at the Western New York Nuclear Service Center at West Valley, New York and operated by DOE. A subject of particular interest in the study was the behavior of corrosion product deposits (i.e., crud) deposits on spent LWR fuel after long-term pool storage; some evidence of crud loosening has been observed with fuel that was stored for extended periods at the West Valley facility and at other sites. Conclusions associated with the experience to date with old spent fuel that has been stored at the West Valley facility are presented. The conclusions are drawn from these subject areas: a general overview of the West Valley experience, handling of spent fuel, storing of spent fuel, rod consolidation, shipping of spent fuel, crud loosening, and visual inspection. A list of recommendations is provided. 61 refs., 4 figs., 5 tabs.
The united kingdom's changing requirements for spent fuel storage
Hodgson, Z.; Hambley, D.I.; Gregg, R.; Ross, D.N. [National Nuclear Laboratory, Chadwick House, Birchwood Park, Warrington, Cheshire WA3 6AE (United Kingdom)
The UK is adopting an open fuel cycle, and is necessarily moving to a regime of long term storage of spent fuel, followed by geological disposal once a geological disposal facility (GDF) is available. The earliest GDF receipt date for legacy spent fuel is assumed to be 2075. The UK is set to embark on a programme of new nuclear build to maintain a nuclear energy contribution of 16 GW. Additionally, the UK are considering a significant expansion of nuclear energy in order to meet carbon reduction targets and it is plausible to foresee a scenario where up to 75 GW from nuclear power production could be deployed in the UK by the mid 21. century. Such an expansion, could lead to spent fuel storage and its disposal being a dominant issue for the UK Government, the utilities and the public. If the UK were to transition a closed fuel cycle, then spent fuel storage should become less onerous depending on the timescales. The UK has demonstrated a preference for wet storage of spent fuel on an interim basis. The UK has adopted an approach of centralised storage, but a 16 GW new build programme and any significant expansion of this may push the UK towards distributed spent fuel storage at a number of reactors station sites across the UK.
Cost probability analysis of reprocessing spent nuclear fuel in the US G.D. Recktenwald, M.R. Deinert
Deinert, Mark
and curium) and these would then be used to manufacture fuel for a fleet of fast burner reactors. The spent fuel from the fast reactors would itself be reprocessed, thereby creating a closed loop in which time, neither the fast reactor technologies, nor the required reprocessing technologies, are mature
The benefits of a fast reactor closed fuel cycle in the UK
Gregg, R.; Hesketh, K. [United Kingdom National Nuclear Laboratory, Springfields Works, Building 709, Salwick, Preston, PR4 0XJ (United Kingdom)
The work has shown that starting a fast reactor closed fuel cycle in the UK, requires virtually all of Britain's existing and future PWR spent fuel to be reprocessed, in order to obtain the plutonium needed. The existing UK Pu stockpile is sufficient to initially support only a modest SFR 'closed' fleet assuming spent fuel can be reprocessed shortly after discharge (i.e. after two years cooling). For a substantial fast reactor fleet, most Pu will have to originate from reprocessing future spent PWR fuel. Therefore, the maximum fast reactor fleet size will be limited by the preceding PWR fleet size, so scenarios involving fast reactors still require significant quantities of uranium ore indirectly. However, once a fast reactor fuel cycle has been established, the very substantial quantities of uranium tails in the UK would ensure there is sufficient material for several centuries. Both the short and long term impacts on a repository have been considered in this work. Over the short term, the decay heat emanating from the HLW and spent fuel will limit the density of waste within a repository. For scenarios involving fast reactors, the only significant heat bearing actinide content will be present in the final cores, resulting in a 50% overall reduction in decay energy deposited within the repository when compared with an equivalent open fuel cycle. Over the longer term, radiological dose becomes more important. Total radiotoxicity (normalised by electricity generated) is lower for scenarios with Pu recycle after 2000 years. Scenarios involving fast reactors have the lowest radiotoxicity since the quantities of certain actinides (Np, Pu and Am) eventually stabilise. However, total radiotoxicity as a measure of radiological risk does not account for differences in radionuclide mobility once in repository. Radiological dose is dominated by a small number of fission products so is therefore not affected significantly by reactor type or recycling strategy (since the fission product will primarily be a function of nuclear energy generated). However, by reprocessing spent fuel, it is possible to immobilise the fission product in a more suitable waste form that has far more superior in-repository performance. (authors)
Recovery of weapon plutonium as feed material for reactor fuel
Armantrout, G.A.; Bronson, M.A.; Choi, Jor-Shan [and others
This report presents preliminary considerations for recovering and converting weapon plutonium from various US weapon forms into feed material for fabrication of reactor fuel elements. An ongoing DOE study addresses the disposition of excess weapon plutonium through its use as fuel for nuclear power reactors and subsequent disposal as spent fuel. The spent fuel would have characteristics similar to those of commercial power spent fuel and could be similarly disposed of in a geologic repository.
Neutron Generators for Spent Fuel Assay
Ludewigt, Bernhard A
of Four Small Dense Plasma Focus Devices, A.V. Dubrovsky etgenerator employs a plasma focus chamber. These devices
Actinide minimization using pressurized water reactors
Visosky, Mark Michael
Transuranic actinides dominate the long-term radiotoxity in spent LWR fuel. In an open fuel cycle, they impose a long-term burden on geologic repositories. Transmuting these materials in reactor systems is one way to ease ...
Experimental studies of free defect generation during irradiation: Implications for reactor environments
Rehn, L.E.; Birtcher, R.C.
Over the past several years, systematic experiments have revealed that irradiations which generate energetically dense cascades are much less effective than light-ion, MeV electron, or thermal neutron irradiations at producing freely-migrating defects. In this paper, the systematic results on freely-migrating defect production from ion irradiation studies are briefly summarized. Difficulties with applying a simple extrapolation of the ion-irradiation results to neutron environments are discussed. This discussion, coupled with our existing knowledge of neutron-induced property changes, indicates that Compton scattering, and the (n,[gamma]), (n,He) and (n,p) nuclear reactions, are considerably more important for producing freely-migrating defects than was previously realized.
Experimental studies of free defect generation during irradiation: Implications for reactor environments
Rehn, L.E.; Birtcher, R.C.
Over the past several years, systematic experiments have revealed that irradiations which generate energetically dense cascades are much less effective than light-ion, MeV electron, or thermal neutron irradiations at producing freely-migrating defects. In this paper, the systematic results on freely-migrating defect production from ion irradiation studies are briefly summarized. Difficulties with applying a simple extrapolation of the ion-irradiation results to neutron environments are discussed. This discussion, coupled with our existing knowledge of neutron-induced property changes, indicates that Compton scattering, and the (n,{gamma}), (n,He) and (n,p) nuclear reactions, are considerably more important for producing freely-migrating defects than was previously realized.
Hanford spent fuel inventory baseline
Bergsman, K.H.
This document compiles technical data on irradiated fuel stored at the Hanford Site in support of the Hanford SNF Management Environmental Impact Statement. Fuel included is from the Defense Production Reactors (N Reactor and the single-pass reactors; B, C, D, DR, F, H, KE and KW), the Hanford Fast Flux Test Facility Reactor, the Shipping port Pressurized Water Reactor, and small amounts of miscellaneous fuel from several commercial, research, and experimental reactors.
Study of Pu consumption in Advanced Light Water Reactors. Evaluation of GE Advanced Boiling Water Reactor plants
Not Available
Timely disposal of the weapons plutonium is of paramount importance to permanently safeguarding this material. GE`s 1300 MWe Advanced Boiling Water Reactor (ABWR) has been designed to utilize fill] core loading of mixed uranium-plutonium oxide fuel. Because of its large core size, a single ABWR reactor is capable of disposing 100 metric tons of plutonium within 15 years of project inception in the spiking mode. The same amount of material could be disposed of in 25 years after the start of the project as spent fuel, again using a single reactor, while operating at 75 percent capacity factor. In either case, the design permits reuse of the stored spent fuel assemblies for electrical energy generation for the remaining life of the plant for another 40 years. Up to 40 percent of the initial plutonium can also be completely destroyed using ABWRS, without reprocessing, either by utilizing six ABWRs over 25 years or by expanding the disposition time to 60 years, the design life of the plants and using two ABWRS. More complete destruction would require the development and testing of a plutonium-base fuel with a non-fertile matrix for an ABWR or use of an Advanced Liquid Metal Reactor (ALMR). The ABWR, in addition, is fully capable of meeting the tritium target production goals with already developed target technology.
Air Shipment of Spent Nuclear Fuel from Romania to Russia
Igor Bolshinsky; Ken Allen; Lucian Biro; Alexander Buchelnikov
Romania successfully completed the world�s first air shipment of spent nuclear fuel transported in Type B(U) casks under existing international laws and without shipment license special exceptions when the last Romanian highly enriched uranium (HEU) spent nuclear fuel was transported to the Russian Federation in June 2009. This air shipment required the design, fabrication, and licensing of special 20 foot freight containers and cask tiedown supports to transport the eighteen TUK 19 shipping casks on a Russian commercial cargo aircraft. The new equipment was certified for transport by road, rail, water, and air to provide multi modal transport capabilities for shipping research reactor spent fuel. The equipment design, safety analyses, and fabrication were performed in the Russian Federation and transport licenses were issued by both the Russian and Romanian regulatory authorities. The spent fuel was transported by truck from the VVR S research reactor to the Bucharest airport, flown by commercial cargo aircraft to the airport at Yekaterinburg, Russia, and then transported by truck to the final destination in a secure nuclear facility at Chelyabinsk, Russia. This shipment of 23.7 kg of HEU was coordinated by the Russian Research Reactor Fuel Return Program (RRRFR), as part of the U.S. Department of Energy Global Threat Reduction Initiative (GTRI), in close cooperation with the Rosatom State Atomic Energy Corporation and the International Atomic Energy Agency, and was managed in Romania by the National Commission for Nuclear Activities Control (CNCAN). This paper describes the planning, shipment preparations, equipment design, and license approvals that resulted in the safe and secure air shipment of this spent nuclear fuel.
Management of spent nuclear fuel on the Oak Ridge Reservation, Oak Ridge, Tennessee: Environmental assessment
On June 1, 1995, DOE issued a Record of Decision [60 Federal Register 28680] for the Department-wide management of spent nuclear fuel (SNF); regionalized storage of SNF by fuel type was selected as the preferred alternative. The proposed action evaluated in this environmental assessment is the management of SNF on the Oak Ridge Reservation (ORR) to implement this preferred alternative of regional storage. SNF would be retrieved from storage, transferred to a hot cell if segregation by fuel type and/or repackaging is required, loaded into casks, and shipped to off-site storage. The proposed action would also include construction and operation of a dry cask SNF storage facility on ORR, in case of inadequate SNF storage. Action is needed to enable DOE to continue operation of the High Flux Isotope Reactor, which generates SNF. This report addresses environmental impacts.
Neutron behavior, reactor control, and reactor heat transfer. Volume four
Not Available
Volume four covers neutron behavior (neutron absorption, how big are nuclei, neutron slowing down, neutron losses, the self-sustaining reactor), reactor control (what is controlled in a reactor, controlling neutron population, is it easy to control a reactor, range of reactor control, what happens when the fuel burns up, controlling a PWR, controlling a BWR, inherent safety of reactors), and reactor heat transfer (heat generation in a nuclear reactor, how is heat removed from a reactor core, heat transfer rate, heat transfer properties of the reactor coolant).
Deployment of a Suite of High-Performance Computational Tools for Multi-scale Multi-physics Simulation of Generation IV Reactors
Podowski, Michael Z
The overall objective of this project has been to deploy advanced simulation capabilities for next generation reactor systems utilizing newly available, high-performance computing facilities. The approach includes the following major components: The development of new simulation capabilities using state-of-the-art computer codes of different scales: molecular dynamics (MD) level, DNS (FronTier and PHASTA) and CFD (NPHASE-CMFD); The development of advanced numerical solvers for large-size computational problems; The deployment of a multiple-code computational platform for multiscale simulations of gas/liquid two-phase flow during reactor transients and accidents; and Application of the new computational methodology to study the progression of loss-of-flow accident in sodium fast reactor (SFR).
Test plan for thermogravimetric analyses of BWR spent fuel oxidation
Einziger, R.E.
Preliminary studies indicated the need for additional low-temperature spent fuel oxidation data to determine the behavior of spent fuel as a waste form for a tuffy repository. Short-term thermogravimetric analysis tests were recommended in a comprehensive technical approach as the method for providing scoping data that could be used to (1) evaluate the effects of variables such as moisture and burnup on the oxidation rate, (2) determine operative mechanisms, and (3) guide long-term, low-temperature oxidation testing. The initial test series studied the temperature and moisture effects on pressurized water reactor fuel as a function of particle and grain size. This document presents the test matrix for studying the oxidation behavior of boiling water reactor fuel in the temperature range of 140 to 225{degree}C. 17 refs., 7 figs., 3 tabs.
Risk-informed design guidance for a Generation-IV gas-cooled fast reactor emergency core cooling system
Delaney, Michael J. (Michael James), 1979-
Fundamental objectives of sustainability, economics, safety and reliability, and proliferation resistance, physical protection and stakeholder relations must be considered during the design of an advanced reactor. However, ...
Technology status in support of refined technical baseline for the Spent Nuclear Fuel project. Revision 1
Puigh, R.J.; Toffer, H.; Heard, F.J.; Irvin, J.J.; Cooper, T.D.
The Spent Nuclear Fuel Project (SNFP) has undertaken technology acquisition activities focused on supporting the technical basis for the removal of the N Reactor fuel from the K Basins to an interim storage facility. The purpose of these technology acquisition activities has been to identify technology issues impacting design or safety approval, to establish the strategy for obtaining the necessary information through either existing project activities, or the assignment of new work. A set of specific path options has been identified for each major action proposed for placing the N Reactor fuel into a ``stabilized`` form for interim storage as part of this refined technical basis. This report summarizes the status of technology information acquisition as it relates to key decisions impacting the selection of specific path options. The following specific categories were chosen to characterize and partition the technology information status: hydride issues and ignition, corrosion, hydrogen generation, drying and conditioning, thermal performance, criticality and materials accountability, canister/fuel particulate behavior, and MCO integrity. This report represents a preliminary assessment of the technology information supporting the SNFP. As our understanding of the N Reactor fuel performance develops the technology information supporting the SNFP will be updated and documented in later revisions to this report. Revision 1 represents the incorporation of peer review comments into the original document. The substantive evolution in our understanding of the technical status for the SNFP (except section 3) since July 1995 have not been incorporated into this revision.
Hanford`s spent nuclear fuel retrieval: an agressive agenda
Shen, E.J., Westinghouse Hanford
Starting December 1997, spent nuclear fuel that has been stored in the K Reactor Fuel Storage Basins will be retrieved over a two year period and repackaged for long term dry storage. The aging and sometimes corroding fuel elements will be recovered and processed using log handled tools and teleoperated manipulator technology. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is committed to this urgent schedule because of the environmental threats to the groundwater and nearby the Columbia River.
Recycling of nuclear spent fuel with AIROX processing
Majumdar, D. [ed.] [USDOE Idaho Field Office, Idaho Falls, ID (United States); Jahshan, S.N.; Allison, C.M.; Kuan, P. [EG and G Idaho, Inc., Idaho Falls, ID (United States); Thomas, T.R. [Westinghouse Idaho Nuclear Co., Inc., Idaho Falls, ID (United States)
This report examines the concept of recycling light water reactor (LWR) fuel through use of a dry-processing technique known as the AIROX (Atomics International Reduction Oxidation) process. In this concept, the volatiles and the cladding from spent LWR fuel are separated from the fuel by the AIROX process. The fuel is then reenriched and made into new fuel pins with new cladding. The feasibility of the concept is studied from a technical and high level waste minimization perspective.
Standard guide for characterization of spent nuclear fuel in support of geologic repository disposal
American Society for Testing and Materials. Philadelphia
1.1 This guide provides guidance for the types and extent of testing that would be involved in characterizing the physical and chemical nature of spent nuclear fuel (SNF) in support of its interim storage, transport, and disposal in a geologic repository. This guide applies primarily to commercial light water reactor (LWR) spent fuel and spent fuel from weapons production, although the individual tests/analyses may be used as applicable to other spent fuels such as those from research and test reactors. The testing is designed to provide information that supports the design, safety analysis, and performance assessment of a geologic repository for the ultimate disposal of the SNF. 1.2 The testing described includes characterization of such physical attributes as physical appearance, weight, density, shape/geometry, degree, and type of SNF cladding damage. The testing described also includes the measurement/examination of such chemical attributes as radionuclide content, microstructure, and corrosion product c...
Nuclear Safeguards Considerations For The Pebble Bed Modular Reactor (PBMR)
Phillip Casey Durst; David Beddingfield; Brian Boyer; Robert Bean; Michael Collins; Michael Ehinger; David Hanks; David L. Moses; Lee Refalo
High temperature reactors (HTRs) have been considered since the 1940s, and have been constructed and demonstrated in the United Kingdom (Dragon), United States (Peach Bottom and Fort Saint Vrain), Japan (HTTR), Germany (AVR and THTR-300), and have been the subject of conceptual studies in Russia (VGM). The attraction to these reactors is that they can use a variety of reactor fuels, including abundant thorium, which upon reprocessing of the spent fuel can produce fissile U-233. Hence, they could extend the stocks of available uranium, provided the fuel is reprocessed. Another attractive attribute is that HTRs typically operate at a much higher temperature than conventional light water reactors (LWRs), because of the use of pyrolytic carbon and silicon carbide coated (TRISO) fuel particles embedded in ceramic graphite. Rather than simply discharge most of the unused heat from the working fluid in the power plant to the environment, engineers have been designing reactors for 40 years to recover this heat and make it available for district heating or chemical conversion plants. Demonstrating high-temperature nuclear energy conversion was the purpose behind Fort Saint Vrain in the United States, THTR-300 in Germany, HTTR in Japan, and HTR-10 and HTR-PM, being built in China. This resulted in nuclear reactors at least 30% or more thermodynamically efficient than conventional LWRs, especially if the waste heat can be effectively utilized in chemical processing plants. A modern variant of high temperature reactors is the Pebble Bed Modular Reactor (PBMR). Originally developed in the United States and Germany, it is now being redesigned and marketed by the Republic of South Africa and China. The team examined historical high temperature and high temperature gas reactors (HTR and HTGR) and reviewed safeguards considerations for this reactor. The following is a preliminary report on this topic prepared under the ASA-100 Advanced Safeguards Project in support of the NNSA Next Generation Safeguards Initiative (NGSI).
Potential importance of water pathways for spent fuel transportation accident risk
Ostmeyer, R.M.
This paper analyzes the potential importance of water pathway contamination for spent fuel transportation accident risk using a ''worst-case'' water contamination scenario. The scenario used for the analysis involves an accident release that occurs near a reservoir. Water pathway doses are compared to doses for accident releases in urban or agricultural areas. The results of the analysis indicate that water pathways are not important for assessing the risk of transporting spent reactor fuel by truck or by rail.
Savannah River Site, Spent Nuclear Fuel Management, Draft Environmental Impact Statement
The proposed DOE action described in this environmental impact statement (EIS) is to implement appropriate processes for the safe and efficient management of spent nuclear fuel and targets assigned to the Savannah River Site (SRS), including placing these materials in forms suitable for ultimate disposition. Options to treat, package, and store this material are discussed. The material included in this EIS consists of approximately 68 metric tons heavy metal (MTHM) of spent nuclear fuel (20 MTHM of aluminum-based spent nuclear fuel at SRS, as much as 28 MTHM of aluminum-clad spent nuclear fuel from foreign and domestic research reactors to be shipped to SRS through 2035, and 20 MTHM of stainless-steel or zirconium-clad spent nuclear fuel and some programmatic material stored at SRS for repackaging and dry storage pending shipment offsite).
Intermodal transportation of spent fuel
Elder, H.K.
Concepts for transportation of spent fuel in rail casks from nuclear power plant sites with no rail service are under consideration by the US Department of Energy in the Commercial Spent Fuel Management program at the Pacific Northwest Laboratory. This report identifies and evaluates three alternative systems for intermodal transfer of spent fuel: heavy-haul truck to rail, barge to rail, and barge to heavy-haul truck. This report concludes that, with some modifications and provisions for new equipment, existing rail and marine systems can provide a transportation base for the intermodal transfer of spent fuel to federal interim storage facilities. Some needed land transportation support and loading and unloading equipment does not currently exist. There are insufficient shipping casks available at this time, but the industrial capability to meet projected needs appears adequate.
MOX and MOX with 237Np/241Am Inert Fission Gas Generation Comparison in ATR
G. S. Chang; M. Robel; W. J. Carmack; D. J. Utterbeck
The treatment of spent fuel produced in nuclear power generation is one of the most important issues to both the nuclear community and the general public. One of the viable options to long-term geological disposal of spent fuel is to extract plutonium, minor actinides (MA), and potentially long-lived fission products from the spent fuel and transmute them into short-lived or stable radionuclides in currently operating light-water reactors (LWR), thus reducing the radiological toxicity of the nuclear waste stream. One of the challenges is to demonstrate that the burnup-dependent characteristic differences between Reactor-Grade Mixed Oxide (RG-MOX) fuel and RG-MOX fuel with MA Np-237 and Am 241 are minimal, particularly, the inert gas generation rate, such that the commercial MOX fuel experience base is applicable. Under the Advanced Fuel Cycle Initiative (AFCI), developmental fuel specimens in experimental assembly LWR-2 are being tested in the northwest (NW) I-24 irradiation position of the Advanced Test Reactor (ATR). The experiment uses MOX fuel test hardware, and contains capsules with MOX fuel consisting of mixed oxide manufactured fuel using reactor grade plutonium (RG-Pu) and mixed oxide manufactured fuel using RG-Pu with added Np/Am. This study will compare the fuel neutronics depletion characteristics of Case-1 RG-MOX and Case-2 RG-MOX with Np/Am.
Spent Nuclear Fuel project, project management plan
Fuquay, B.J.
The Hanford Spent Nuclear Fuel Project has been established to safely store spent nuclear fuel at the Hanford Site. This Project Management Plan sets forth the management basis for the Spent Nuclear Fuel Project. The plan applies to all fabrication and construction projects, operation of the Spent Nuclear Fuel Project facilities, and necessary engineering and management functions within the scope of the project
Spent-fuel dry-storage testing at E-MAD (March 1978-March 1982)
Unterzuber, R.; Milnes, R.D.; Marinkovich, B.A.; Kubancsek, G.M.
From March 1978 through March 1982, spent fuel dry storage tests were conducted at the Engine Maintenance, Assembly and Disassembly (E-MAD) facility on the Nevada Test Site to confirm that commercial reactor spent fuel could be encapsulated and passively stored in one or more interim dry storage cell concepts. These tests were: electrically heated drywell, isolated and adjacent drywell, concrete silo, fuel assembly internal temperature measurement, and air-cooled vault. This document presents the test data and results as well as results from supporting test operations (spent fuel calorimetry and canister gas sampling).
Outlooks of HLW Partitioning Technologies Usage for Recovering of Platinum Metals from Spent Fuel
Pokhitonov, Y. A.; Estimantovskiy, V.; Romanovski, v.; Zatsev, B.; Todd, T.
The existing practice of management of high level waste (HLW) generated by NPPs, call for a task of selective separation of the most dangerous long-lived radionuclides with the purpose of their subsequent immobilization and disposal. HLW partitioning allows to reduce substantially the cost of vitrified product storage owing to isolation of the most dangerous radionuclides, such as transplutonium elements (TPE) into separate fractions of small volumes, intended for ultimate storage. By now numerous investigations on partitioning of HLW of various composition have been carried out in many countries and a lot of processes permitting to recover cesium, strontium, TPE and rare earth elements (REE) have been already tested. Apart from enumerated radionuclides, a fair quantity of palladium and rhodium presents in spent fuel, but the problem of these elements recovery has not yet been decided at the operating radiochemical plants. A negative effect of platinum group metals (PGM) occurrence is determined by the formation of separate metal phase, which not only worsens the conditions of glass-melting but also shortens considerably the service life of the equipment. At the same time, the exhaustion of PGMs natural resources may finally lead to such a growth of their costs that the spent nuclear fuel would became a substituting source of these elements industrial production. Allowing above mentioned, it is of interest to develop the technique for ''reactor'' palladium and rhodium recovery process which would be compatible with HLW partitioning and could be realized using the same facilities. In the report the data on platinum metals distribution in spent fuel reprocessing products and the several flowsheets for palladium separation from HLW are presented.
Spent Fuel Test-Climax: technical measurements data management system description and data presentation
Carlson, R.C.
The Spent Fuel Test-Climax (SFT-C) was located 420 m below surface in the Climax Stock granite on the Nevada Test Site. The test was conducted under the technical direction of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) as part of the Nevada Nuclear Waste Storage Investigations (NNWSI) for the US Department of Energy. Eleven canisters of spent nuclear reactor fuel were emplaced, along with six electrical simulators, in April-May 1980. The spent fuel canisters were retrieved and the electrical simulators de-energized in March-April 1983. During the test, just over 1000 MW-hr of thermal energy was deposited in the site, causing temperature changes 100{sup 0}C near the canisters, and about 5{sup 0} in the tunnels. More than 900 channels of geotechnical, seismological, and test status data were recorded on nearly continuous basis for about 3-1/2 years, ending in September 1983. Most geotechnical instrumentation was known to be temperature sensitive, and thus would require temperature compensation before interpretation. Accordingly, a 10-in. reel of digital tape was off-loaded and shipped to Livermore every 4 to 8 weeks, where the data were verified, organized into 45 one-million-word files, and temperature corrected. The purpose of this report is to document the receipt and processing of the data by LLNL Livermore personnel, present facts about the history of the instruments which may be important to the interpretation of the data, present the data themselves in graphical form for each instrument over its operating lifetime, document the forms and locations in which the data will be archived, and offer the data to the geotechnical community for future use in understanding and predicting the effects of the storage of heat-generating waste in hard rocks such as granite.
Comparison of actinide production in traveling wave and pressurized water reactors
Osborne, A.G.; Smith, T.A.; Deinert, M.R. [Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX (United States)
The geopolitical problems associated with civilian nuclear energy production arise in part from the accumulation of transuranics in spent nuclear fuel. A traveling wave reactor is a type of breed-burn reactor that could, if feasible, reduce the overall production of transuranics. In one possible configuration, a cylinder of natural or depleted uranium would be subjected to a fast neutron flux at one end. The neutrons would transmute the uranium, producing plutonium and higher actinides. Under the right conditions, the reactor could become critical, at which point a self-stabilizing fission wave would form and propagate down the length of the reactor cylinder. The neutrons from the fission wave would burn the fissile nuclides and transmute uranium ahead of the wave to produce additional fuel. Fission waves in uranium are driven largely by the production and fission of {sup 239}Pu. Simulations have shown that the fuel burnup can reach values greater than 400 MWd/kgIHM, before fission products poison the reaction. In this work we compare the production of plutonium and minor actinides produced in a fission wave to that of a UOX fueled light water reactor, both on an energy normalized basis. The nuclide concentrations in the spent traveling wave reactor fuel are computed using a one-group diffusion model and are verified using Monte Carlo simulations. In the case of the pressurized water reactor, a multi-group collision probability model is used to generate the nuclide quantities. We find that the traveling wave reactor produces about 0.187 g/MWd/kgIHM of transuranics compared to 0.413 g/MWd/kgIHM for a pressurized water reactor running fuel enriched to 4.95 % and burned to 50 MWd/kgIHM. (authors)
Thermoacoustic Thermometry for Nuclear Reactor Monitoring
James A. Smith; Dale K. Kotter; Steven L. Garrett; Randall A. Ali
On Friday, March 11, 2011, at 2:46pm (Japan Standard Trme), the Tohoku region on the east coast of northern Japan experi�enced what would become known as the largest earthquake in the country's history at magnitude 9.0 on the Richter scale. The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant suffered exten�sive and irreversible damage. Six operating units were at the site, each with a boiling water reactor. When the earthquake struck, three of the six reactors were operating and the others were in a periodic inspection outage phase. In one reactor, all of the fuel had been relocated to a spent fuel pool in the reactor building. The seismic acceleration caused by the earthquake brought the three operating units to an automatic shutdown. Since there was damage to the power transmission lines, the emergency diesel generators (EDG) were automat�ically started to ensure continued cooling of the reactors and spent fuel pools. The situation was under control until the tsunami hit about forty-five minutes later with a maximum wave height of approximately 15 meters, which was three times taller than the sea wall of 5m. The influx of water submerged the EDGs, the electrical switchgear, and dc batteries, resulting in the total loss of power to five of the six reactors. The flooding also resulted in the loss of instrumentation that would have other� wise been used to monitor and control the emergency. The ugly aftermath included high radiation exposure to operators at the nuclear power plants and early contamina�tion of food supplies and water within several restricted areas in Japan, where high radiation levels have rendered them un�safe for human habitation. While the rest of the story will remain a tragic history, it is this part of the series of unfortunate events that has inspired our research. It has indubitably highlighted the need for a novel sensor and instrumentation system that can withstand similar or worse conditions to avoid future catastrophe and assume damage prevention as quickly as possible. This is the question which we are attempting to answer: Is it possible to implement a self-powered sensor that could transmit data independently of electronic networks while taking advantage of the harsh operating environment of the nuclear reactor?
Neutronic Assessment of Transmutation Target Compositions in Heterogeneous Sodium Fast Reactor Geometries
Samuel E. Bays; Rodolfo M. Ferrer; Michael A. Pope; Benoit Forget; Mehdi Asgari
The sodium fast reactor is under consideration for consuming the transuranic waste in the spent nuclear fuel generated by light water reactors. This work is concerned with specialized target assemblies for an oxide-fueled sodium fast reactor that are designed exclusively for burning the americium and higher mass actinide component of light water reactor spent nuclear fuel (SNF). The associated gamma and neutron radioactivity, as well as thermal heat, associated with decay of these actinides may significantly complicate fuel handling and fabrication of recycled fast reactor fuel. The objective of using targets is to isolate in a smaller number of assemblies these concentrations of higher actinides, thus reducing the volume of fuel having more rigorous handling requirements or a more complicated fabrication process. This is in contrast to homogeneous recycle where all recycled actinides are distributed among all fuel assemblies. Several heterogeneous core geometries were evaluated to determine the fewest target assemblies required to burn these actinides without violating a set of established fuel performance criteria. The DIF3D/REBUS code from Argonne National Laboratory was used to perform the core physics and accompanying fuel cycle calculations in support of this work. Using the REBUS code, each core design was evaluated at the equilibrium cycle condition.
Fusion option to dispose of spent nuclear fuel and transuranic elements
Gohar, Y.
The fusion option is examined to solve the disposition problems of the spent nuclear fuel and the transuranic elements. The analysis of this report shows that the top rated solution, the elimination of the transuranic elements and the long-lived fission products, can be achieved in a fusion reactor. A 167 MW of fusion power from a D-T plasma for sixty years with an availability factor of 0.75 can transmute all the transuranic elements and the long-lived fission products of the 70,000 tons of the US inventory of spent nuclear fuel generated up to the year 2015. The operating time can be reduced to thirty years with use of 334 MW of fusion power, a system study is needed to define the optimum time. In addition, the fusion solution eliminates the need for a geological repository site, which is a major advantage. Meanwhile, such utilization of the fusion power will provide an excellent opportunity to develop fusion energy for the future. Fusion blankets with a liquid carrier for the transuranic elements can achieve a transmutation rate for the transuranic elements up to 80 kg/MW.y of fusion power with k{sub eff} of 0.98. In addition, the liquid blankets have several advantages relative to the other blanket options. The energy from this transmutation is utilized to produce revenue for the system. Molten salt (Flibe) and lithium-lead eutectic are identified as the most promising liquids for this application, both materials are under development for future fusion blanket concepts. The Flibe molten salt with transuranic elements was developed and used successfully as nuclear fuel for the molten salt breeder reactor in the 1960's.
Report on the Savannah River Site aluminum-based spent nuclear fuel alternatives cost study
Initial estimates of costs for the interim management and disposal of aluminum-based spent nuclear fuel (SNF) were developed during preparation of the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) on the Nuclear Weapons Nonproliferation Policy Concerning Foreign Research Reactor Spent Nuclear Fuel. The Task Team evaluated multiple alternatives, assessing programmatic, technical, and schedule risks, and generated life-cycle cost projections for each alternative. The eight technology alternatives evaluated were: direct co-disposal; melt and dilute; reprocessing; press and dilute; glass material oxidation dissolution system (GMODS); electrometallurgical treatment; dissolve and vitrify; and plasma arc. In followup to the Business Plan that was developed to look at SNF dry storage, WSRC prepared an addendum to the cost study. This addendum estimated the costs for the modification and use of an existing (105L) reactor facility versus a greenfield approach for new facilities (for the Direct Co-Disposal and Melt and Dilute alternatives). WSRC assessed the impacts of a delay in reprocessing due to the potential reservation of H-Canyon for other missions (i.e., down blending HEU for commercial use or the conversion of plutonium to either MOX fuel or an immobilized repository disposal form). This report presents the relevant results from these WSRC cost studies, consistent with the most recent project policy, technology implementation, canyon utilization, and inventory assumptions. As this is a summary report, detailed information on the technical alternatives or the cost assumptions raised in each of the above-mentioned cost studies is not provided. A comparison table that briefly describes the bases used for the WSRC analyses is included as Appendix A.
Assessment of the safety of spent fuel transportation in urban environs
Sandoval, R.P.; Weber, J.P.; Levine, H.S.; Romig, A.D.; Johnson, J.D.; Luna, R.E.; Newton, G.J.; Wong, B.A.; Marshall, R.W. Jr.; Alvarez, J.L.
The results of a program to provide an experimental data base for estimating the radiological consequences from a hypothetical sabotage attack on a light-water-reactor spent fuel shipping cask in a densely populated area are presented. The results of subscale and full-scale experiments in conjunction with an analytical modeling study are described. The experimental data were used as input to a reactor-safety consequence model to predict radiological health consequences resulting from a hypothetical sabotage attack on a spent-fuel shipping cask in the Manhattan borough of New York City. The results of these calculations are presented.
Test plan for reactions between spent fuel and J-13 well water under unsaturated conditions
Finn, P.A.; Wronkiewicz, D.J.; Hoh, J.C.; Emery, J.W.; Hafenrichter, L.D.; Bates, J.K.
The Yucca Mountain Site Characterization Project is evaluating the long-term performance of a high-level nuclear waste form, spent fuel from commercial reactors. Permanent disposal of the spent fuel is possible in a potential repository to be located in the volcanic tuff beds near Yucca Mountain, Nevada. During the post-containment period the spent fuel could be exposed to water condensation since of the cladding is assumed to fail during this time. Spent fuel leach (SFL) tests are designed to simulate and monitor the release of radionuclides from the spent fuel under this condition. This Test Plan addresses the anticipated conditions whereby spent fuel is contacted by small amounts of water that trickle through the spent fuel container. Two complentary test plans are presented, one to examine the reaction of spent fuel and J-13 well water under unsaturated conditions and the second to examine the reaction of unirradiated UO{sub 2} pellets and J-13 well water under unsaturated conditions. The former test plan examines the importance of the water content, the oxygen content as affected by radiolysis, the fuel burnup, fuel surface area, and temperature. The latter test plant examines the effect of the non-presence of Teflon in the test vessel.
The Integral Fast Reactor: A practical approach to waste management
Laidler, J.J.
This report discusses development of the method for pyroprocessing of spent fuel from the Integral Fast Reactor (or Advanced Liquid Metal Reactor). The technology demonstration phase, in which recycle will be demonstrated with irradiated fuel from the EBR-II reactor has been reached. Methods for recovering actinides from spent LWR fuel are at an earlier stage of development but appear to be technically feasible at this time, and a large-scale demonstration of this process has begun. The utilization of fully compatible processes for recycling valuable spent fuel materials promises to provide substantial economic incentives for future applications of the pyroprocessing technology.
Thermal performance of a buried nuclear waste storage container storing a hybrid mix of PWR and BWR spent fuel rods; Revision 1
Johnson, G.L.
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory will design, model, and test nuclear waste packages for use at the Nevada Nuclear Waste Storage Repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. One such package would store tightly packed spent fuel rods from both pressurized and boiling water reactors. The storage container provides the primary containment of the nuclear waste and the spent fuel rod cladding provides secondary containment. A series of transient conduction and radiation heat transfer analyses was run to determine for the first 1000 yr of storage if the temperature of the tuff at the borehole wall ever falls below 97{degrees}C and whether the cladding of the stored spent fuel ever exceeds 350{degrees}C. Limiting the borehole to temperatures of 97{degrees}C or greater helps minimize corrosion by assuring that no condensed water collects on the container. The 350{degrees}C cladding limit minimizes the possibility of creep- related failure in the spent fuel rod cladding. For a series of packages stored in a 8 {times} 30 m borehole grid where each package contains 10-yr-old spent fuel rods generating 4.74 kW or more, the borehole wall stays above 97{degrees}C for the full 10000-yr analysis period. For the 4.74-kW load, the peak cladding temperature rises to just below the 350{degrees}C limit about 4 years after emplacement. If the packages are stored using the spacing specified in the Site Characterization Plan (15 ft {times} 126 ft), a maximum of 4.1 kW per container may be stored. If the 0.05-m-thick void between the container and the borehole wall is filled with loosely packed bentonite, the peak cladding temperature rises more than 40{degrees}C above the allowed cladding limit. In all cases the dominant heat transfer mode between container components is thermal radiation.
Shipper/receiver difference verification of spent fuel by use of PDET
Ham, Y. S.; Sitaraman, S. [Global Security Directorate, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, CA 94550 (United States)
Spent fuel storage pools in most countries are rapidly approaching their design limits with the discharge of over 10,000 metric tons of heavy metal from global reactors. Countries like UK, France or Japan have adopted a closed fuel cycle by reprocessing spent fuel and recycling MOX fuel while many other countries opted for above ground interim dry storage for their spent fuel management strategy. Some countries like Finland and Sweden are already well on the way to setting up a conditioning plant and a deep geological repository for spent fuel. For all these situations, shipments of spent fuel are needed and the number of these shipments is expected to increase significantly. Although shipper/receiver difference (SRD) verification measurements are needed by IAEA when the recipient facility receives spent fuel, these are not being practiced to the level that IAEA has desired due to lack of a credible measurement methodology and instrument that can reliably perform these measurements to verify non-diversion of spent fuel during shipment and confirm facility operator declarations on the spent fuel. In this paper, we describe a new safeguards method and an associated instrument, Partial Defect Tester (PDET), which can detect pin diversion from Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR) Spent Fuel Assemblies in an in-situ condition. The PDET uses multiple tiny neutron and gamma detectors in the form of a cluster and a simple, yet highly precise, gravity-driven system to obtain underwater radiation measurements inside a Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR) spent fuel assembly. The method takes advantage of the PWR fuel design which contains multiple guide tubes which can be accessed from the top. The data obtained in such a manner can provide spatial distribution of neutron and gamma flux within a spent fuel assembly. Our simulation study as well as validation measurements indicated that the ratio of the gamma signal to the thermal neutron signal at each detector location normalized to the peak ratio of all the detector locations gives a unique signature that is sensitive to missing pins. The signature is principally dependent on the geometry of the detector locations, and little sensitive to enrichment or burn-up variations. A small variation in the fuel bundle, such as a few missing pins, changes the shape of the signature to enable detection. After verification of the non-diversion of spent fuel pins, the neutron signal and gamma signal are subsequently used to verify the consistency of the operator declaration on the fuel burn-up and cooling time. (authors)
Effects of Burnable Absorbers on PWR Spent Nuclear Fuel
P.M. O'Leary; Dr. M.L. Pitts
Burnup credit is an ongoing issue in designing and licensing transportation and storage casks for spent nuclear fuel (SNF). To address this issue, in July 1999, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), Spent Fuel Project Office, issued Interim Staff Guidance-8 (ISG-8), Revision 1 allowing limited burnup credit for pressurized water reactor (PWR) spent nuclear fuel (SNF) to be used in transport and storage casks. However, one of the key limitations for a licensing basis analysis as stipulated in ISG-8, Revision 1 is that ''burnup credit is restricted to intact fuel assemblies that have not used burnable absorbers''. Because many PWR fuel designs have incorporated burnable-absorber rods for more than twenty years, this restriction places an unnecessary burden on the commercial nuclear power industry. This paper summarizes the effects of in-reactor irradiation on the isotopic inventory of PWR fuels containing different types of integral burnable absorbers (BAs). The work presented is illustrative and intended to represent typical magnitudes of the reactivity effects from depleting PWR fuel with different types of burnable absorbers.
Current generation by helicons and LH waves in modern tokamaks and reactors FNSF-AT, ITER and DEMO. Scenarios, modeling and antennae
Vdovin, V. [NRC Kurchatov Institute Tokamak Physics Institute, Moscow (Russian Federation)
The Innovative concept and 3D full wave code modeling Off-axis current drive by RF waves in large scale tokamaks, reactors FNSF-AT, ITER and DEMO for steady state operation with high efficiency was proposed [1] to overcome problems well known for LH method [2]. The scheme uses the helicons radiation (fast magnetosonic waves at high (20�40) IC frequency harmonics) at frequencies of 500�1000 MHz, propagating in the outer regions of the plasmas with a rotational transform. It is expected that the current generated by Helicons will help to have regimes with negative magnetic shear and internal transport barrier to ensure stability at high normalized plasma pressure ?{sub N} > 3 (the so-called Advanced scenarios) of interest for FNSF and the commercial reactor. Modeling with full wave three-dimensional codes PSTELION and STELEC2 showed flexible control of the current profile in the reactor plasmas of ITER, FNSF-AT and DEMO [2,3], using multiple frequencies, the positions of the antennae and toroidal waves slow down. Also presented are the results of simulations of current generation by helicons in tokamaks DIII-D, T-15MD and JT-60SA [3]. In DEMO and Power Plant antenna is strongly simplified, being some analoge of mirrors based ECRF launcher, as will be shown. For spherical tokamaks the Helicons excitation scheme does not provide efficient Off-axis CD profile flexibility due to strong coupling of helicons with O-mode, also through the boundary conditions in low aspect machines, and intrinsic large amount of trapped electrons, as is shown by STELION modeling for the NSTX tokamak. Brief history of Helicons experimental and modeling exploration in straight plasmas, tokamaks and tokamak based fusion Reactors projects is given, including planned joint DIII-D � Kurchatov Institute experiment on helicons CD [1].
Spent-fuel-storage alternatives
Not Available
The Spent Fuel Storage Alternatives meeting was a technical forum in which 37 experts from 12 states discussed storage alternatives that are available or are under development. The subject matter was divided into the following five areas: techniques for increasing fuel storage density; dry storage of spent fuel; fuel characterization and conditioning; fuel storage operating experience; and storage and transport economics. Nineteen of the 21 papers which were presented at this meeting are included in this Proceedings. These have been abstracted and indexed. (ATT)
Annual report, FY 1979 Spent fuel and fuel pool component integrity.
Johnson, A.B. Jr.; Bailey, W.J.; Schreiber, R.E.; Kustas, F.M.
International meetings under the BEFAST program and under INFCE Working Group No. 6 during 1978 and 1979 continue to indicate that no cases of fuel cladding degradation have developed on pool-stored fuel from water reactors. A section from a spent fuel rack stand, exposed for 1.5 y in the Yankee Rowe (PWR) pool had 0.001- to 0.003-in.-deep (25- to 75-..mu..m) intergranular corrosion in weld heat-affected zones but no evidence of stress corrosion cracking. A section of a 304 stainless steel spent fuel storage rack exposed 6.67 y in the Point Beach reactor (PWR) spent fuel pool showed no significant corrosion. A section of 304 stainless steel 8-in.-dia pipe from the Three Mile Island No. 1 (PWR) spent fuel pool heat exchanger plumbing developed a through-wall crack. The crack was intergranular, initiating from the inside surface in a weld heat-affected zone. The zone where the crack occurred was severely sensitized during field welding. The Kraftwerk Union (Erlangen, GFR) disassembled a stainless-steel fuel-handling machine that operated for 12 y in a PWR (boric acid) spent fuel pool. There was no evidence of deterioration, and the fuel-handling machine was reassembled for further use. A spent fuel pool at a Swedish PWR was decontaminated. The procedure is outlined in this report.
Heat transfer modeling of dry spent nuclear fuel storage facilities
Lee, S.Y.
The present work was undertaken to provide heat transfer model that accurately predicts the thermal performance of dry spent nuclear fuel storage facilities. One of the storage configurations being considered for DOE Aluminum-clad Spent Nuclear Fuel (Al-SNF), such as the Material and Testing Reactor (MTR) fuel, is in a dry storage facility. To support design studies of storage options a computational and experimental program has been conducted at the Savannah River Site (SRS). The main objective is to develop heat transfer models including natural convection effects internal to an interim dry storage canister and to geologic codisposal Waste Package (WP). Calculated temperatures will be used to demonstrate engineering viability of a dry storage option in enclosed interim storage and geologic repository WP and to assess the chemical and physical behaviors of the Al-SNF in the dry storage facilities. The current paper describes the modeling approaches and presents the computational results along with the experimental data.
Heat Transfer Modeling of Dry Spent Nuclear Fuel Storage Facilities
Lee, S.Y.
The present work was undertaken to provide heat transfer model that accurately predicts the thermal performance of dry spent nuclear fuel storage facilities. One of the storage configurations being considered for DOE Aluminum-clad Spent Nuclear Fuel (Al-SNF), such as the Material and Testing Reactor (MTR) fuel, is in a dry storage facility. To support design studies of storage options a computational and experimental program has been conducted at the Savannah River Site (SRS). The main objective is to develop heat transfer models including natural convection effects internal to an interim dry storage canister and to geological codisposal Waste Package (WP). Calculated temperatures will be used to demonstrate engineering viability of a dry storage option in enclosed interim storage and geological repository WP and to assess the chemical and physical behaviors of the Al-SNF in the dry storage facilities. The current paper describes the modeling approaches and presents the computational results along with the experimental data.
Synergistic Smart Fuel For In-pile Nuclear Reactor Measurements
James A. Smith; Dale K. Kotter; Randall A. Ali; Steven L . Garrett
In March 2011, an earthquake of magnitude 9.0 on the Richter scale struck Japan with its epicenter on the northeast coast, near the Tohoku region. In addition to the immense physical destruction and casualties across the country, several nuclear power plants (NPP) were affected. It was the Fukushima Daiichi NPP that experienced the most severe and irreversible damage. The earthquake brought the reactors at Fukushima to an automatic shutdown and because the power transmission lines were damaged, emergency diesel generators (EDGs) were activated to ensure that there was continued cooling of the reactors and spent fuel pools. The situation was being successfully managed until the tsunami hit about forty-five minutes later with a maximum wave height of approximately 15 m. The influx of water submerged the EDGs, the electrical switchgear, and dc batteries, resulting in the total loss of power to the reactors.2 At this point, the situation became critical. There was a loss of the sensors and instrumentation within the reactor that could have provided valuable information to guide the operators to make informed decisions and avoid the unfortunate events that followed. In the light of these events, we have developed and tested a potential self-powered thermoacoustic system, which will have the ability to serve as a temperature sensor and can transmit data independently of electronic networks. Such a device is synergistic with the harsh environment of the nuclear reactor as it utilizes the heat from the nuclear fuel to provide the input power.
Impact of PWR spent fuel variations on TRU-fueled VHTRS�
Alajo, Ayodeji Babatunde
The VHTR is a graphite moderated helium-cooled reactor that supplies heat with core outlet temperatures equal to or greater than 850 degree Celsius. Its basic technology has been well established in High Temperature Gas Reactors (HTGR..., representing an attractive spent fuel form. The prismatic core configuration features annular fuel compacts composed of TRISO coated fuel particles that are embedded in graphite matrix. The fuel compacts are stacked together forming the fuel element...
Benefits/impacts of utilizing depleted uranium silicate glass as backfill for spent fuel waste packages
Pope, R.B.; Forsberg, C.W.; Ashline, R.C.; DeHart, M.D.; Childs, K.W.; Tang, J.S.
An assessment has been made of the benefits and impacts which can be derived by filling a spent nuclear fuel multi-purpose canister with depleted uranium silicate (DUS) glass at a reactor site. Although the primary purpose of the DUS glass fill would be to enhance repository performance assessment and control criticality of geologic times, a number of benefits to the waste management system can be derived from adding the DUS glass prior to shipment from the reactor site.
Spent Fuel Disposal Trust Fund (Maine)
Broader source: Energy.gov [DOE]
Any licensee operating a nuclear power plant in this State shall establish a segregated Spent Nuclear Fuel Disposal Trust Fund in accordance with this subchapter for the eventual disposal of spent...
Aaron, Timothy Mark (East Amherst, NY); Shah, Minish Mahendra (East Amherst, NY); Jibb, Richard John (Amherst, NY)
A catalytic reactor is provided with one or more reaction zones each formed of set(s) of reaction tubes containing a catalyst to promote chemical reaction within a feed stream. The reaction tubes are of helical configuration and are arranged in a substantially coaxial relationship to form a coil-like structure. Heat exchangers and steam generators can be formed by similar tube arrangements. In such manner, the reaction zone(s) and hence, the reactor is compact and the pressure drop through components is minimized. The resultant compact form has improved heat transfer characteristics and is far easier to thermally insulate than prior art compact reactor designs. Various chemical reactions are contemplated within such coil-like structures such that as steam methane reforming followed by water-gas shift. The coil-like structures can be housed within annular chambers of a cylindrical housing that also provide flow paths for various heat exchange fluids to heat and cool components.
Kelly Cummins; Igor Bolshinsky; Ken Allen; Tihomir Apostolov; Ivaylo Dimitrov
In July 2008, the Global Threat Reduction Initiative and the IRT 2000 research reactor in Sofia, Bulgaria, operated by the Institute for Nuclear Research and Nuclear Energy (INRNE), safely shipped 6.4 kilograms of Russian origin highly enriched uranium (HEU) spent nuclear fuel (SNF) to the Russian Federation. The shipment, which resulted in the removal of all HEU from Bulgaria, was conducted by truck, barge, and rail modes of transport across two transit countries before reaching the final destination at the Production Association Mayak facility in Chelyabinsk, Russia. This paper describes the work, equipment, organizations, and approvals that were required to complete the spent fuel shipment and provides lessons learned that might assist other research reactor operators with their own spent nuclear fuel shipments.
Selection of Correlations and Look-Up Tables for Critical Heat Flux Prediction in the Generation IV "IRIS" Reactor
Romano, A.
In order to fulfill the goals set forth by the Generation IV International Forum, the current NERI funded
Evaluation of Radiation Impacts of Spent Nuclear Fuel Storage (SNFS-2) of Chernobyl NPP - 13495
Paskevych, Sergiy; Batiy, Valiriy; Sizov, Andriy [Institute for Safety Problems of Nuclear Power Plants, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, 36 a Kirova str. Chornobyl, Kiev region, 07200 (Ukraine)] [Institute for Safety Problems of Nuclear Power Plants, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, 36 a Kirova str. Chornobyl, Kiev region, 07200 (Ukraine); Schmieman, Eric [Battelle Memorial Institute, PO Box 999 MSIN K6-90, Richland, WA 99352 (United States)] [Battelle Memorial Institute, PO Box 999 MSIN K6-90, Richland, WA 99352 (United States)
Radiation effects are estimated for the operation of a new dry storage facility for spent nuclear fuel (SNFS-2) of Chernobyl NPP RBMK reactors. It is shown that radiation exposure during normal operation, design and beyond design basis accidents are minor and meet the criteria for safe use of radiation and nuclear facilities in Ukraine. (authors)
Thermoelectric powered wireless sensors for spent fuel monitoring
Carstens, T.; Corradini, M.; Blanchard, J. [Dept. of Engineering Physics, Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53706 (United States); Ma, Z. [Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53706 (United States)
This paper describes using thermoelectric generators to power wireless sensors to monitor spent nuclear fuel during dry-cask storage. OrigenArp was used to determine the decay heat of the spent fuel at different times during the service life of the dry-cask. The Engineering Equation Solver computer program modeled the temperatures inside the spent fuel storage facility during its service life. The temperature distribution in a thermoelectric generator and heat sink was calculated using the computer program Finite Element Heat Transfer. From these temperature distributions the power produced by the thermoelectric generator was determined as a function of the service life of the dry-cask. In addition, an estimation of the path loss experienced by the wireless signal can be made based on materials and thickness of the structure. Once the path loss is known, the transmission power and thermoelectric generator power requirements can be determined. This analysis estimates that a thermoelectric generator can produce enough power for a sensor to function and transmit data from inside the dry-cask throughout its service life. (authors)
An economic analysis of a light and heavy water moderated reactor synergy: burning americium using recycled uranium
Wojtaszek, D.; Edwards, G. [Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd., Chalk River Laboratories, Chalk River, Ontario (Canada)
An economic analysis is presented for a proposed synergistic system between 2 nuclear utilities, one operating light water reactors (LWR) and another running a fleet of heavy water moderated reactors (HWR). Americium is partitioned from LWR spent nuclear fuel (SNF) to be transmuted in HWRs, with a consequent averted disposal cost to the LWR operator. In return, reprocessed uranium (RU) is supplied to the HWRs in sufficient quantities to support their operation both as power generators and americium burners. Two simplifying assumptions have been made. First, the economic value of RU is a linear function of the cost of fresh natural uranium (NU), and secondly, plutonium recycling for a third utility running a mixed oxide (MOX) fuelled reactor fleet has been already taking place, so that the extra cost of americium recycling is manageable. We conclude that, in order for this scenario to be economically attractive to the LWR operator, the averted disposal cost due to partitioning americium from LWR spent fuel must exceed 214 dollars per kg, comparable to estimates of the permanent disposal cost of the high level waste (HLW) from reprocessing spent LWR fuel. (authors)
Contaminated sediment removal from a spent fuel storage canal
Geber, K R
A leaking underground spent fuel transfer canal between a decommissioned reactor and a radiochemical separations building at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) was found to contain RCRA-hazardous and radioactive sediment. Closure of the Part B RCRA permitted facility required the use of an underwater robotic vacuum and a filtration-containment system to separate and stabilize the contaminated sediment. This paper discusses the radiological controls established to maintain contamination and exposures As Low As Reasonably Achievable (ALARA) during the sediment removal.
Computational Analysis of Fluid Flow in Pebble Bed Modular Reactor
Gandhir, Akshay
High Temperature Gas-cooled Reactor (HTGR) is a Generation IV reactor under consideration by Department of Energy and in the nuclear industry. There are two categories of HTGRs, namely, Pebble Bed Modular Reactor (PBMR) and Prismatic reactor. Pebble...
Probability of spent fuel transportation accidents
McClure, J. D.
The transported volume of spent fuel, incident/accident experience and accident environment probabilities were reviewed in order to provide an estimate of spent fuel accident probabilities. In particular, the accident review assessed the accident experience for large casks of the type that could transport spent (irradiated) nuclear fuel. This review determined that since 1971, the beginning of official US Department of Transportation record keeping for accidents/incidents, there has been one spent fuel transportation accident. This information, coupled with estimated annual shipping volumes for spent fuel, indicated an estimated annual probability of a spent fuel transport accident of 5 x 10/sup -7/ spent fuel accidents per mile. This is consistent with ordinary truck accident rates. A comparison of accident environments and regulatory test environments suggests that the probability of truck accidents exceeding regulatory test for impact is approximately 10/sup -9//mile.
Spent Nuclear Fuel Project FY 1996 Multi-Year Program Plan WBS No. 1.4.1, Revision 1
This document describes the Spent Nuclear Fuel (SNF) Project portion of the Hanford Strategic Plan for the Hanford Reservation in Richland, Washington. The SNF Project was established to evaluate and integrate the urgent risks associated with N-reactor fuel currently stored at the Hanford site in the K Basins, and to manage the transfer and disposition of other spent nuclear fuels currently stored on the Hanford site. An evaluation of alternatives for the expedited removal of spent fuels from the K Basin area was performed. Based on this study, a Recommended Path Forward for the K Basins was developed and proposed to the U.S. DOE.
Characterization of spent fuel approved testing material---ATM-105
Guenther, R.J.; Blahnik, D.E.; Campbell, T.K.; Jenquin, U.P.; Mendel, J.E.; Thomas, L.E.; Thornhill, C.K.
The characterization data obtained to data are described for Approved Testing Material 105 (ATM-105), which is spent fuel from Bundles CZ346 and CZ348 of the Cooper Nuclear Power Plant, a boiling-water reactor. This report is one in a series being prepared by the Materials Characterization Center at Pacific Northwest Laboratory (PNL) on spent fuel ATMs. The ATMs are receiving extensive examinations to provide a source of well-characterized spent fuel for testing in the US Department of Energy Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management (OCRWM) Program. ATM-105 consists of 88 full-length irradiated fuel rods with rod-average burnups of about 2400 GJ/kgM (28 MWd/kgM) and expected fission gas release of about 1%. Characterization data include (1) descriptions of as-fabricated fuel design, irradiation history, and subsequent storage and handling; (2) isotopic gamma scans; (3) fission gas analyses; (4) ceramography of the fuel and metallography of the cladding; (5) special fuel studies involving analytical transmission electron microscopy (AEM); (6) calculated nuclide inventories and radioactivities in the fuel and cladding; and (7) radiochemical analyses of the fuel and cladding. Additional analyses of the fuel are being conducted and will be included in planned revisions of this report.
Characterization of spent fuel approved testing material--ATM-104
Guenther, R.J.; Blahnik, D.E.; Jenquin, U.P.; Mendel, J.E.; Thomas, L.E.; Thornhill, C.K.
The characterization data obtained to date are described for Approved Testing Material 104 (ATM-104), which is spent fuel from Assembly DO47 of the Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant (Unit 1), a pressurized-water reactor. This report is one in a series being prepared by the Materials Characterization Center at Pacific Northwest Laboratory (PNL) on spent fuel ATMs. The ATMs are receiving extensive examinations to provide a source of well-characterized spent fuel for testing in the US Department of Energy Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management (OCRWM) Program. ATM-104 consists of 128 full-length irradiated fuel rods with rod-average burnups of about 42 MWd/kgM and expected fission gas release of about 1%. A variety of analyses were performed to investigate cladding characteristics, radionuclide inventory, and redistribution of fission products. Characterization data include (1) fabricated fuel design, irradiation history, and subsequent storage and handling history; (2) isotopic gamma scans; (3) fission gas analyses; (4) ceramography of the fuel and metallography of the cladding; (5) special fuel studies involving analytical transmission electron microscopy (AEM) and electron probe microanalyses (EPMA); (6) calculated nuclide inventories and radioactivities in the fuel and cladding; and (7) radiochemical analyses of the fuel and cladding.
Fast reactors and nuclear nonproliferation
Avrorin, E.N. [Russian Federal Nuclear Center - Zababakhin Institute of Applied Physics, Snezhinsk (Russian Federation); Rachkov, V.I.; Chebeskov, A.N. [State Scientific Center of the Russian Federation - Institute for Physics and Power Engineering, Bondarenko Square, 1, Obninsk, Kaluga region, 249033 (Russian Federation)
Problems are discussed with regard to nuclear fuel cycle resistance in fast reactors to nuclear proliferation risk due to the potential for use in military programs of the knowledge, technologies and materials gained from peaceful nuclear power applications. Advantages are addressed for fast reactors in the creation of a more reliable mode of nonproliferation in the closed nuclear fuel cycle in comparison with the existing fully open and partially closed fuel cycles of thermal reactors. Advantages and shortcomings are also discussed from the point of view of nonproliferation from the start with fast reactors using plutonium of thermal reactor spent fuel and enriched uranium fuel to the gradual transition using their own plutonium as fuel. (authors)
Hill, Thomas J
The Idaho National Engineering Laboratory (INL) has a large inventory of diverse types of spent nuclear fuel (SNF). This legacy is in part due to the history of the INL as the National Reactor Testing Station, in part to its mission to recover highly enriched uranium from SNF and in part to it�s mission to test and examine SNF after irradiation. The INL also has a large diversity of SNF storage facility, some dating back 50 years in the site history. The success of the INL SNF program is measured by its ability to: 1) achieve safe existing storage, 2) continue to receive SNF from other locations, both foreign and domestic, 3) repackage SNF from wet storage to interim dry storage, and 4) prepare the SNF for dispositioning in a federal repository. Because of the diversity in the SNF and the facilities at the INL, the INL is addressing almost very condition that may exist in the SNF world. Many of solutions developed by the INL are applicable to other SNF storage sites as they develop their management strategy. The SNF being managed by the INL are in a variety of conditions, from intact assemblies to individual rods or plates to powders, rubble, and metallurgical mounts. Some of the fuel has been in wet storage for over forty years. The fuel is stored bare, or in metal cans and either wet under water or dry in vaults, caissons or casks. Inspections have shown varying degrees of corrosion and degradation of the fuel and the storage cans. Some of the fuel has been recanned under water, and the conditions of the fuel inside the second or third can are unknown. The fuel has been stored in one of 10 different facilities: five wet pools and one casks storage pad, one vault, two generations of caisson facilities, and one modular Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installation (ISFSI). The wet pools range from forty years old to the most modern pool in the US Department of Energy (DOE) complex. The near-term objective is moving the fuel in the older wet storage facilities to interim dry storage facilities, thus permitting the shutdown and decommission of the older facilities. Two wet pool facilities, one at the Idaho Nuclear Technology and Engineering Center and the other at Test Area North, were targeted for initial SNF movements since these were some of the oldest at the INL. Because of the difference in the SNF materials different types of drying processes had to be developed. Passive drying, as is done with typical commercial SNF was not an option because on the condition of some of the fuel, the materials to be dried, and the low heat generation of some of the SNF. There were also size limitations in the existing facility. Active dry stations were designed to address the specific needs of the SNF and the facilities.
Spent nuclear fuel sampling strategy
Bergmann, D.W.
This report proposes a strategy for sampling the spent nuclear fuel (SNF) stored in the 105-K Basins (105-K East and 105-K West). This strategy will support decisions concerning the path forward SNF disposition efforts in the following areas: (1) SNF isolation activities such as repackaging/overpacking to a newly constructed staging facility; (2) conditioning processes for fuel stabilization; and (3) interim storage options. This strategy was developed without following the Data Quality Objective (DQO) methodology. It is, however, intended to augment the SNF project DQOS. The SNF sampling is derived by evaluating the current storage condition of the SNF and the factors that effected SNF corrosion/degradation.
Spent Fuel Transportation Risk Assessment
Office of Environmental Management (EM)
AFDC Printable Version Share this resource Send a link to EERE: Alternative Fuels Data Center Home Page to someone by E-mail Share EERE: Alternative Fuels Data Center Home Page on Facebook Tweet about EERE: Alternative Fuels Data Center Home Page on Twitter Bookmark EERE: Alternative1 First Use of Energy for All Purposes (Fuel and Nonfuel), 2002; Level: National5Sales for4,645 3,625 1,006 492 742 33Frequently AskedEnergyIssues DOE's Nuclear EnergySmartOverviewEnergy Spelman GraduateSpent
Foreign Research Reactor Spent Nuclear Fuel Acceptance Program
Broader source: Energy.gov (indexed) [DOE]
12. Brazil and Venezuela 13. Canada 14. Italy and Germany 15. Japan 16. Chile and Argentina 17. Austria, Germany, and Netherlands 18. Germany, Sweden, and Japan 19. Denmark 20....
Plutonium recovery from spent reactor fuel by uranium displacement
Ackerman, J.P.
A process is described for separating uranium values and transuranic values from fission products containing rare earth values when the values are contained together in a molten chloride salt electrolyte. A molten chloride salt electrolyte with a first ratio of plutonium chloride to uranium chloride is contacted with both a solid cathode and an anode having values of uranium and fission products including plutonium. A voltage is applied across the anode and cathode electrolytically to transfer uranium and plutonium from the anode to the electrolyte while uranium values in the electrolyte electrolytically deposit as uranium metal on the solid cathode in an amount equal to the uranium and plutonium transferred from the anode causing the electrolyte to have a second ratio of plutonium chloride to uranium chloride. Then the solid cathode with the uranium metal deposited thereon is removed and molten cadmium having uranium dissolved therein is brought into contact with the electrolyte resulting in chemical transfer of plutonium values from the electrolyte to the molten cadmium and transfer of uranium values from the molten cadmium to the electrolyte until the first ratio of plutonium chloride to uranium chloride is reestablished.
Plutonium recovery from spent reactor fuel by uranium displacement
Ackerman, John P. (Downers Grove, IL)
A process for separating uranium values and transuranic values from fission products containing rare earth values when the values are contained together in a molten chloride salt electrolyte. A molten chloride salt electrolyte with a first ratio of plutonium chloride to uranium chloride is contacted with both a solid cathode and an anode having values of uranium and fission products including plutonium. A voltage is applied across the anode and cathode electrolytically to transfer uranium and plutonium from the anode to the electrolyte while uranium values in the electrolyte electrolytically deposit as uranium metal on the solid cathode in an amount equal to the uranium and plutonium transferred from the anode causing the electrolyte to have a second ratio of plutonium chloride to uranium chloride. Then the solid cathode with the uranium metal deposited thereon is removed and molten cadmium having uranium dissolved therein is brought into contact with the electrolyte resulting in chemical transfer of plutonium values from the electrolyte to the molten cadmium and transfer of uranium values from the molten cadmium to the electrolyte until the first ratio of plutonium chloride to uranium chloride is reestablished.
Bush Administration Moves Forward to Develop Next Generation...
Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) Indexed Site
identified six next generation technologies for development including: the Gas Cooled Fast Reactor; the Sodium Fast Reactor; the Lead-Cooled Fast Reactor; the Molten Salt...
Mehta, P.K.
Investigations on hydraulic cement from spent oil shale,"April 16-18, 1980 HYDRAULIC CEMENT PREPARATION FROM LURGIpressi ve b strength, MPa this cement in moist environments.
Feasibility Study of Supercritical Light Water Cooled Reactors for Electrical Power Production, 5th Quarterly Report, October - December 2002
Philip MacDonald; Jacopo Buongiorno; Cliff Davis; J. Stephen Herring; Kevan Weaver; Ron Latanision; Bryce Mitton; Gary Was; Luca Oriani; Mario Carelli; Dmitry Paramonov; Lawrence Conway
The overall objective of this project is to evaluate the feasibility of supercritical light water cooled reactors for electric power production. The use of light water at supercritical pressures as the coolant in a nuclear reactor offers the potential for considerable plant simplification and consequent capital and O&M cost reduction compared with current light water reactor (LWR) designs. Also, given the thermodynamic conditions of the coolant at the core outlet (i.e. temperature and pressure beyond the water critical point), very high thermal efficiencies for the power conversion cycle are possible (i.e. up to about 45%). Because no change of phase occurs in the core, the need for steam separators and dryers as well as for BWR-type re-circulation pumps is eliminated, which, for a given reactor power, results in a substantially shorter reactor vessel and smaller containment building than the current BWRs. Furthermore, in a direct cycle the steam generators are not needed. If no additional moderator is added to the fuel rod lattice, it is possible to attain fast neutron energy spectrum conditions in a supercritical water-cooled reactor (SCWR). This type of core can make use of either fertile or fertile-free fuel and retain a hard spectrum to effectively burn plutonium and minor actinides from LWR spent fuel while efficiently generating electricity. One can also add moderation and design a thermal spectrum SCWR that can also burn actinides. The project is organized into three tasks:
Characteristics of fuel crud and its impact on storage, handling, and shipment of spent fuel. [Fuel crud
Hazelton, R.F.
Corrosion products, called ''crud,'' form on out-of-reactor surfaces of nuclear reactor systems and are transported by reactor coolant to the core, where they deposit on external fuel-rod cladding surfaces and are activated by nuclear reactions. After discharge of spent fuel from a reactor, spallation of radioactive crud from the fuel rods could impact wet or dry storage operations, handling (including rod consolidation), and shipping. It is the purpose of this report to review earlier (1970s) and more recent (1980s) literature relating to crud, its characteristics, and any impact it has had on actual operations. Crud characteristics vary from reactor type to reactor type, reactor to reactor, fuel assembly to fuel assembly in a reactor, circumferentially and axially in an assembly, and from cycle to cycle for a specific facility. To characterize crud of pressurized-water (PWRs) and boiling-water reactors (BWRs), published information was reviewed on appearance, chemical composition, areal density and thickness, structure, adhesive strength, particle size, and radioactivity. Information was also collected on experience with crud during spent fuel wet storage, rod consolidation, transportation, and dry storage. From experience with wet storage, rod consolidation, transportation, and dry storage, it appears crud spallation can be managed effectively, posing no significant radiological problems. 44 refs., 11 figs.
Nonproliferation impacts assessment for the management of the Savannah River Site aluminum-based spent nuclear fuel
On May 13, 1996, the US established a new, 10-year policy to accept and manage foreign research reactor spent nuclear fuel containing uranium enriched in the US. The goal of this policy is to reduce civilian commerce in weapons-usable highly enriched uranium (HEU), thereby reducing the risk of nuclear weapons proliferation. Two key disposition options under consideration for managing this fuel include conventional reprocessing and new treatment and packaging technologies. The Record of Decision specified that, while evaluating the reprocessing option, ``DOE will commission or conduct an independent study of the nonproliferation and other (e.g., cost and timing) implications of chemical separation of spent nuclear fuel from foreign research reactors.`` DOE`s Office of Arms Control and Nonproliferation conducted this study consistent with the aforementioned Record of Decision. This report addresses the nonproliferation implications of the technologies under consideration for managing aluminum-based spent nuclear fuel at the Savannah River Site. Because the same technology options are being considered for the foreign research reactor and the other aluminum-based spent nuclear fuels discussed in Section ES.1, this report addresses the nonproliferation implications of managing all the Savannah River Site aluminum-based spent nuclear fuel, not just the foreign research reactor spent nuclear fuel. The combination of the environmental impact information contained in the draft EIS, public comment in response to the draft EIS, and the nonproliferation information contained in this report will enable the Department to make a sound decision regarding how to manage all aluminum-based spent nuclear fuel at the Savannah River Site.
Licensing of spent fuel dry storage and consolidated rod storage: A Review of Issues and Experiences
Bailey, W.J.
The results of this study, performed by Pacific Northwest Laboratory (PNL) and sponsored by the US Department of Energy (DOE), respond to the nuclear industry's recommendation that a report be prepared that collects and describes the licensing issues (and their resolutions) that confront a new applicant requesting approval from the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) for dry storage of spent fuel or for large-scale storage of consolidated spent fuel rods in pools. The issues are identified in comments, questions, and requests from the NRC during its review of applicants' submittals. Included in the report are discussions of (1) the 18 topical reports on cask and module designs for dry storage fuel that have been submitted to the NRC, (2) the three license applications for dry storage of spent fuel at independent spent fuel storage installations (ISFSIs) that have been submitted to the NRC, and (3) the three applications (one of which was later withdrawn) for large-scale storage of consolidated fuel rods in existing spent fuel storage pools at reactors that were submitted tot he NRC. For each of the applications submitted, examples of some of the issues (and suggestions for their resolutions) are described. The issues and their resolutions are also covered in detail in an example in each of the three subject areas: (1) the application for the CASTOR V/21 dry spent fuel storage cask, (2) the application for the ISFSI for dry storage of spent fuel at Surry, and (3) the application for full-scale wet storage of consolidated spent fuel at Millstone-2. The conclusions in the report include examples of major issues that applicants have encountered. Recommendations for future applicants to follow are listed. 401 refs., 26 tabs.
Spent fuel drying system test results (first dry-run)
Klinger, G.S.; Oliver, B.M.; Abrefah, J.; Marschman, S.C.; MacFarlan, P.J.; Ritter, G.A.
The water-filled K-Basins in the Hanford 100 Area have been used to store N-Reactor spent nuclear fuel (SNF) since the 1970s. Because some leaks in the basin have been detected and some of the fuel is breached due to handling damage and corrosion, efforts are underway to remove the fuel elements from wet storage. An Integrated Process Strategy (IPS) has been developed to package, dry, transport, and store these metallic uranium fuel elements in an interim storage facility on the Hanford Site. Information required to support the development of the drying processes, and the required safety analyses, is being obtained from characterization tests conducted on fuel elements removed from the K-Basins. A series of whole element drying tests (reported in separate documents, see Section 7.0) have been conducted by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) on several intact and damaged fuel elements recovered from both the K-East and K-West Basins. This report documents the results of the first dry-run test, which was conducted without a fuel element. The empty test apparatus was subjected to a combination of low- and high-temperature vacuum drying treatments that were intended to mimic, wherever possible, the fuel treatment strategies of the IPS. The data from this dry-run test can serve as a baseline for the first two fuel element tests, 1990 (Run 1) and 3128W (Run 2). The purpose of this dry-run was to establish the background levels of hydrogen in the system, and the hydrogen generation and release characteristics attributable to the test system without a fuel element present. This test also serves to establish the background levels of water in the system and the water release characteristics. The system used for the drying test series was the Whole Element Furnace Testing System, described in Section 2.0, which is located in the Postirradiation Testing Laboratory (PTL, 327 Building). The test conditions and methodology are given in section 3.0, and the experimental results provided in Section 4.0. These results are further discussed in Section 5.0.
Fast Reactor Fuel Type and Reactor Safety Performance
R. Wigeland; J. Cahalan
Fast Reactor Fuel Type and Reactor Safety Performance R. Wigeland , Idaho National Laboratory J. Cahalan, Argonne National Laboratory The sodium-cooled fast neutron reactor is currently being evaluated for the efficient transmutation of the highly-hazardous, long-lived, transuranic elements that are present in spent nuclear fuel. One of the fundamental choices that will be made is the selection of the fuel type for the fast reactor, whether oxide, metal, carbide, nitride, etc. It is likely that a decision on the fuel type will need to be made before many of the related technologies and facilities can be selected, from fuel fabrication to spent fuel reprocessing. A decision on fuel type should consider all impacts on the fast reactor system, including safety. Past work has demonstrated that the choice of fuel type may have a significant impact on the severity of consequences arising from accidents, especially for severe accidents of low probability. In this paper, the response of sodium-cooled fast reactors is discussed for both oxide and metal fuel types, highlighting the similarities and differences in reactor response and accident consequences. Any fast reactor facility must be designed to be able to successfully prevent, mitigate, or accommodate all consequences of potential events, including accidents. This is typically accomplished by using multiple barriers to the release of radiation, including the cladding on the fuel, the intact primary cooling system, and most visibly the reactor containment building. More recently, this has also included the use of �inherent safety� concepts to reduce or eliminate the potential for serious damage in some cases. Past experience with oxide and metal fuel has demonstrated that both fuel types are suitable for use as fuel in a sodium-cooled fast reactor. However, safety analyses for these two fuel types have also shown that there can be substantial differences in accident consequences due to the neutronic and thermophysical properties of the fuel and their compatibility with the reactor coolant, with corresponding differences in the challenges presented to the reactor developers. Accident phenomena are discussed for the sodium-cooled fast reactor based on the mechanistic progression of conditions from accident initiation to accident termination, whether a benign state is achieved or more severe consequences are expected. General principles connecting accident phenomena and fuel properties are developed from the oxide and metal fuel safety analyses, providing guidelines that can be used as part of the evaluation for selection of fuel type for the sodium-cooled fast reactor.
Shippingport Spent Fuel Canister System Description
In 1978 and 1979, a total of 72 blanket fuel assemblies (BFAs), irradiated during the operating cycles of the Shippingport Atomic Power Station's Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR) Core 2 from April 1965 to February 1974, were transferred to the Hanford Site and stored in underwater storage racks in Cell 2R at the 221-T Canyon (T-Plant). The initial objective was to recover the produced plutonium in the BFAs, but this never occurred and the fuel assemblies have remained within the water storage pool to the present time. The Shippingport Spent Fuel Canister (SSFC) is a confinement system that provides safe transport functions (in conjunction with the TN-WHC cask) and storage for the BFAs at the Canister Storage Building (CSB). The current plan is for these BFAs to be retrieved from wet storage and loaded into SSFCs for dry storage. The sealed SSFCs containing BFAs will be vacuum dried, internally backfilled with helium, and leak tested to provide suitable confinement for the BFAs during transport and storage. Following completion of the drying and inerting process, the SSFCs are to be delivered to the CSB for closure welding and long-term interim storage. The CSB will provide safe handling and dry storage for the SSFCs containing the BFAs. The purpose of this document is to describe the SSFC system and interface equipment, including the technical basis for the system, design descriptions, and operations requirements. It is intended that this document will be periodically updated as more equipment design and performance specification information becomes available.
United States Domestic Research Reactor Infrastrucutre TRIGA Reactor Fuel Support
Douglas Morrell
The United State Domestic Research Reactor Infrastructure Program at the Idaho National Laboratory manages and provides project management, technical, quality engineering, quality inspection and nuclear material support for the United States Department of Energy sponsored University Reactor Fuels Program. This program provides fresh, unirradiated nuclear fuel to Domestic University Research Reactor Facilities and is responsible for the return of the DOE-owned, irradiated nuclear fuel over the life of the program. This presentation will introduce the program management team, the universities supported by the program, the status of the program and focus on the return process of irradiated nuclear fuel for long term storage at DOE managed receipt facilities. It will include lessons learned from research reactor facilities that have successfully shipped spent fuel elements to DOE receipt facilities.
Fuel-Cycle and Nuclear Material Disposition Issues Associated with High-Temperature Gas Reactors
Shropshire, D.E.; Herring, J.S.
The objective of this paper is to facilitate a better understanding of the fuel-cycle and nuclear material disposition issues associated with high-temperature gas reactors (HTGRs). This paper reviews the nuclear fuel cycles supporting early and present day gas reactors, and identifies challenges for the advanced fuel cycles and waste management systems supporting the next generation of HTGRs, including the Very High Temperature Reactor, which is under development in the Generation IV Program. The earliest gas-cooled reactors were the carbon dioxide (CO2)-cooled reactors. Historical experience is available from over 1,000 reactor-years of operation from 52 electricity-generating, CO2-cooled reactor plants that were placed in operation worldwide. Following the CO2 reactor development, seven HTGR plants were built and operated. The HTGR came about from the combination of helium coolant and graphite moderator. Helium was used instead of air or CO2 as the coolant. The helium gas has a significant technical base due to the experience gained in the United States from the 40-MWe Peach Bottom and 330-MWe Fort St. Vrain reactors designed by General Atomics. Germany also built and operated the 15-MWe Arbeitsgemeinschaft Versuchsreaktor (AVR) and the 300-MWe Thorium High-Temperature Reactor (THTR) power plants. The AVR, THTR, Peach Bottom and Fort St. Vrain all used fuel containing thorium in various forms (i.e., carbides, oxides, thorium particles) and mixtures with highly enriched uranium. The operational experience gained from these early gas reactors can be applied to the next generation of nuclear power systems. HTGR systems are being developed in South Africa, China, Japan, the United States, and Russia. Elements of the HTGR system evaluated included fuel demands on uranium ore mining and milling, conversion, enrichment services, and fuel fabrication; fuel management in-core; spent fuel characteristics affecting fuel recycling and refabrication, fuel handling, interim storage, packaging, transportation, waste forms, waste treatment, decontamination and decommissioning issues; and low-level waste (LLW) and high-level waste (HLW) disposal.
Simulation of hydration/dehydration of CaO/Ca(OH){sub 2} chemical heat pump reactor for cold/hot heat generation
Ogura, Hironao; Shimojyo, Rui; Kage, Hiroyuki; Matsuno, Yoshizo; Mujumdar, A.S.
A chemical heat pump (CHP) utilizes reversible reactions involving significant endothermic and exothermic heats of reaction in order to develop a heat pump effect by storing and releasing energy while transforming it from chemical to thermal energy and vice versa. In this paper, the authors present a mathematical model and its numerical solution for the heat and mass transport phenomena occurring in the reactant particle bed of the CHP for heat storage and cold/hot heat generation based on the CaO/Ca(OH){sub 2} reversible hydration/dehydration reaction. Transient conservation equations of mass and energy transport including chemical kinetics are solved numerically subject to appropriate boundary and initial conditions to examine the influence of the mass transfer resistance on the overall performance of this CHP configuration. These results are presented and discussed with the aim of enhancing the CHP performance in the next generation reactor designs. The CHP can store thermal energy in industrial waste heat, solar heat, terrestrial heat, etc. in the form of chemical energy, and release it at various temperature levels during the heat-demand period.
Heat Transfer Simulation of Reactor Cavity Cooling System Experimental Facility using RELAP5-3D and Generation of View Factors using MCNP�
Wu, Huali
As one of the most attractive reactor types, The High Temperature Gas-cooled Reactor (HTGR) is designed to be passively safe with the incorporation of Reactor Cavity Cooling System (RCCS). In this paper, a RELAP5-3D simulation model is set up based...
Reactor accelerator coupling experiments: a feasability study
Woddi Venkat Krishna, Taraknath
, from a safety perspective, limits on the allowable concentration of minor actinides (i.e, neptunium, americium, and curium) in fissile fuel for critical reactor systems is about 5%. This is due primarily to the lower delayed neutron fraction... actinides are developed. It has also been shown that critical fast reactor systems are not capable of transmuting the fission product waste from spent nuclear fuel [3]. This is due to the criticality limitation on neutron conservation in the system (i...
FY13 Summary Report on the Augmentation of the Spent Fuel Composition Dataset for Nuclear Forensics: SFCOMPO/NF
Brady Raap, Michaele C.; Lyons, Jennifer A.; Collins, Brian A.; Livingston, James V.
This report documents the FY13 efforts to enhance a dataset of spent nuclear fuel isotopic composition data for use in developing intrinsic signatures for nuclear forensics. A review and collection of data from the open literature was performed in FY10. In FY11, the Spent Fuel COMPOsition (SFCOMPO) excel-based dataset for nuclear forensics (NF), SFCOMPO/NF was established and measured data for graphite production reactors, Boiling Water Reactors (BWRs) and Pressurized Water Reactors (PWRs) were added to the dataset and expanded to include a consistent set of data simulated by calculations. A test was performed to determine whether the SFCOMPO/NF dataset will be useful for the analysis and identification of reactor types from isotopic ratios observed in interdicted samples.
Spent Nuclear Fuel (SNF) Project Execution Plan
The Spent Nuclear Fuel (SNF) Project supports the Hanford Site Mission to cleanup the Site by providing safe, economic, environmentally sound management of Site spent nuclear fuel in a manner that reduces hazards by staging it to interim onsite storage and deactivates the 100 K Area facilities.
Evaluation of potential for MSRE spent fuel and flush salt storage and treatment at the INEL
Ougouag, A.M.; Ostby, P.A.; Nebeker, R.L.
The potential for interim storage as well as for treatment of the Molten Salt Reactor Experiment spent fuel at INEL has been evaluated. Provided that some minimal packaging and chemical stabilization prerequisites are satisfied, safe interim storage of the spent fuel at the INEL can be achieved in a number of existing or planned facilities. Treatment by calcination in the New Waste Calcining Facility at the INEL can also be a safe, effective, and economical alternative to treatment that would require the construction of a dedicated facility. If storage at the INEL is chosen for the Molten Salt Reactor Experiment (MSRE) spent fuel salts, their transformation to the more stable calcine solid would still be desirable as it would result in a lowering of risks. Treatment in the proposed INEL Remote-Handled Immobilization Facility (RHIF) would result in a waste form that would probably be acceptable for disposal at one of the proposed national repositories. The cost increment imputable to the treatment of the MSRE salts would be a small fraction of the overall capital and operating costs of the facility or the cost of building and operating a dedicated facility. Institutional and legal issues regarding shipments of fuel and waste to the INEL are summarized. The transfer of MSRE spent fuel for interim storage or treatment at the INEL is allowed under existing agreements between the State of idaho and the Department of energy and other agencies of the Federal Government. In contrast, current agreements preclude the transfer into Idaho of any radioactive wastes for storage or disposal within the State of Idaho. This implies that wastes and residues produced from treating the MSRE spent fuel at locations outside Idaho would not be acceptable for storage in Idaho. Present agreements require that all fuel and high-level wastes stored at the INEL, including MSRE spent fuel if received at the INEL, must be moved to a location outside Idaho by the year 2035.
Reforming of fuel inside fuel cell generator
Grimble, R.E.
Disclosed is an improved method of reforming a gaseous reformable fuel within a solid oxide fuel cell generator, wherein the solid oxide fuel cell generator has a plurality of individual fuel cells in a refractory container, the fuel cells generating a partially spent fuel stream and a partially spent oxidant stream. The partially spent fuel stream is divided into two streams, spent fuel stream 1 and spent fuel stream 2. Spent fuel stream 1 is burned with the partially spent oxidant stream inside the refractory container to produce an exhaust stream. The exhaust stream is divided into two streams, exhaust stream 1 and exhaust stream 2, and exhaust stream 1 is vented. Exhaust stream 2 is mixed with spent fuel stream 2 to form a recycle stream. The recycle stream is mixed with the gaseous reformable fuel within the refractory container to form a fuel stream which is supplied to the fuel cells. Also disclosed is an improved apparatus which permits the reforming of a reformable gaseous fuel within such a solid oxide fuel cell generator. The apparatus comprises a mixing chamber within the refractory container, means for diverting a portion of the partially spent fuel stream to the mixing chamber, means for diverting a portion of exhaust gas to the mixing chamber where it is mixed with the portion of the partially spent fuel stream to form a recycle stream, means for injecting the reformable gaseous fuel into the recycle stream, and means for circulating the recycle stream back to the fuel cells. 1 fig.
Reforming of fuel inside fuel cell generator
Grimble, Ralph E. (Finleyville, PA)
Disclosed is an improved method of reforming a gaseous reformable fuel within a solid oxide fuel cell generator, wherein the solid oxide fuel cell generator has a plurality of individual fuel cells in a refractory container, the fuel cells generating a partially spent fuel stream and a partially spent oxidant stream. The partially spent fuel stream is divided into two streams, spent fuel stream I and spent fuel stream II. Spent fuel stream I is burned with the partially spent oxidant stream inside the refractory container to produce an exhaust stream. The exhaust stream is divided into two streams, exhaust stream I and exhaust stream II, and exhaust stream I is vented. Exhaust stream II is mixed with spent fuel stream II to form a recycle stream. The recycle stream is mixed with the gaseous reformable fuel within the refractory container to form a fuel stream which is supplied to the fuel cells. Also disclosed is an improved apparatus which permits the reforming of a reformable gaseous fuel within such a solid oxide fuel cell generator. The apparatus comprises a mixing chamber within the refractory container, means for diverting a portion of the partially spent fuel stream to the mixing chamber, means for diverting a portion of exhaust gas to the mixing chamber where it is mixed with the portion of the partially spent fuel stream to form a recycle stream, means for injecting the reformable gaseous fuel into the recycle stream, and means for circulating the recycle stream back to the fuel cells.
Department of Energy Programmatic Spent Nuclear Fuel Management and Idaho National Engineering Laboratory Environmental Restoration and Waste Management Programs draft environmental impact statement. Volume 1, Appendix B: Idaho National Engineering Laboratory Spent Nuclear Fuel Management Program
Not Available
The US Department of Energy (DOE) has prepared this report to assist its management in making two decisions. The first decision, which is programmatic, is to determine the management program for DOE spent nuclear fuel. The second decision is on the future direction of environmental restoration, waste management, and spent nuclear fuel management activities at the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory. Volume 1 of the EIS, which supports the programmatic decision, considers the effects of spent nuclear fuel management on the quality of the human and natural environment for planning years 1995 through 2035. DOE has derived the information and analysis results in Volume 1 from several site-specific appendixes. Volume 2 of the EIS, which supports the INEL-specific decision, describes environmental impacts for various environmental restoration, waste management, and spent nuclear fuel management alternatives for planning years 1995 through 2005. This Appendix B to Volume 1 considers the impacts on the INEL environment of the implementation of various DOE-wide spent nuclear fuel management alternatives. The Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program, which is a joint Navy/DOE program, is responsible for spent naval nuclear fuel examination at the INEL. For this appendix, naval fuel that has been examined at the Naval Reactors Facility and turned over to DOE for storage is termed naval-type fuel. This appendix evaluates the management of DOE spent nuclear fuel including naval-type fuel.
Department of Energy Programmatic Spent Nuclear Fuel Management and Idaho National Engineering Laboratory Environmental Restoration and Waste Management Programs, Draft Environmental Impact Statement. Volume 1, Appendix D: Part A, Naval Spent Nuclear Fuel Management
Not Available
Volume 1 to the Department of Energy`s Programmatic Spent Nuclear Fuel Management and Idaho National Engineering Laboratory Environmental Management Programs Environmental Impact Statement evaluates a range of alternatives for managing naval spent nuclear fuel expected to be removed from US Navy nuclear-powered vessels and prototype reactors through the year 2035. The Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) considers a range of alternatives for examining and storing naval spent nuclear fuel, including alternatives that terminate examination and involve storage close to the refueling or defueling site. The EIS covers the potential environmental impacts of each alternative, as well as cost impacts and impacts to the Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program mission. This Appendix covers aspects of the alternatives that involve managing naval spent nuclear fuel at four naval shipyards and the Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program Kesselring Site in West Milton, New York. This Appendix also covers the impacts of alternatives that involve examining naval spent nuclear fuel at the Expended Core Facility in Idaho and the potential impacts of constructing and operating an inspection facility at any of the Department of Energy (DOE) facilities considered in the EIS. This Appendix also considers the impacts of the alternative involving limited spent nuclear fuel examinations at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard. This Appendix does not address the impacts associated with storing naval spent nuclear fuel after it has been inspected and transferred to DOE facilities. These impacts are addressed in separate appendices for each DOE site.
Gas-Cooled Fast Reactor (GFR) FY04 Annual Report
K. D. Weaver; T. C. Totemeier; D. E. Clark; E. E. Feldman; E. A. Hoffman; R. B. Vilim; T. Y. C. Wei; J. Gan; M. K. Meyer; W. F. Gale; M. J. Driscoll; M. Golay; G. Apostolakis; K. Czerwinski
The gas-cooled fast reactor (GFR) was chosen as one of the Generation IV nuclear reactor systems to be developed based on its excellent potential for sustainability through reduction of the volume and radio toxicity of both its own fuel and other spent nuclear fuel, and for extending/utilizing uranium resources orders of magnitude beyond what the current open fuel cycle can realize. In addition, energy conversion at high thermal efficiency is possible with the current designs being considered, thus increasing the economic benefit of the GFR. However, research and development challenges include the ability to use passive decay heat removal systems during accident conditions, survivability of fuels and in-core materials under extreme temperatures and radiation, and economical and efficient fuel cycle processes. Nevertheless, the GFR was chosen as one of only six Generation IV systems to be pursued based on its ability to meet the Generation IV goals in sustainability, economics, safety and reliability, proliferation resistance and physical protection.
Foreign travel report: Visits to UK, Belgium, Germany, and France to benchmark European spent fuel and waste management technology
Ermold, L.F.; Knecht, D.A.
The ICPP WINCO Spent Fuel and Waste Management Development Program recently was funded by DOE-EM to develop new technologies for immobilizing ICPP spent fuels, sodium-bearing liquid waste, and calcine to a form suitable for disposal. European organizations are heavily involved, in some cases on an industrial scale in areas of waste management, including spent fuel disposal and HLW vitrification. The purpose of this trip was to acquire first-hand European efforts in handling of spent reactor fuel and nuclear waste management, including their processing and technical capabilities as well as their future planning. Even though some differences exist in European and U.S. DOE waste compositions and regulations, many aspects of the European technologies may be applicable to the U.S. efforts, and several areas offer potential for technical collaboration.
S. T. Khericha
The purpose of this report is to provide data for preparation of a NEPA Environmental Impact Statement in support the U. S. Department of Energy (DOE) Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP). One of the GNEP objectives is to reduce the inventory of long lived actinide from the light water reactor (LWR) spent fuel. The LWR spent fuel contains Plutonium (Pu) -239 and other transuranics (TRU) such as Americium-241. One of the options is to transmute or burn these actinides in fast neutron spectra as well as generate the electricity. A sodium-cooled Advanced Recycling Reactor (ARR) concept has been proposed to achieve this goal. However, fuel with relatively high TRU content has not been used in the fast reactor. To demonstrate the utilization of TRU fuel in a fast reactor, an Advanced Burner Reactor (ABR) prototype of ARR is proposed, which would necessarily be started up using weapons grade (WG) Pu fuel. The WG Pu is distinguished by relatively highest proportions of Pu-239 and lesser amount of other actinides. The WG Pu will be used as the startup fuel along with TRU fuel in lead test assemblies. Because such fuel is not currently being produced in the US, a new facility (or new capability in an existing facility) is being considered for fabrication of WG Pu fuel for the ABR. This report is provided in response to �Data Call� for the construction of startup fuel fabrication facility. It is anticipated that the facility will provide the startup fuel for 10-15 years and will take to 3 to 5 years to construct.
EIS-0203: Spent Nuclear Fuel Management and Idaho National Engineering...
03: Spent Nuclear Fuel Management and Idaho National Engineering Laboratory Environmental Restoration and Waste Management Programs EIS-0203: Spent Nuclear Fuel Management and...
Determination of Plutonium Content in Spent Fuel with Nondestructive Assay
Tobin, S. J.
Spent Nuclear Fuel Recycling Facility � 8032,� Waste ManagementSpent Nuclear Fuel by Self-Induced X-ray,� Annual Meeting of the Institute of Nuclear Material Management,
National Report Joint Convention on the Safety of Spent Fuel...
Office of Environmental Management (EM)
National Report Joint Convention on the Safety of Spent Fuel Management and on the Safety of Radioactive Waste Management National Report Joint Convention on the Safety of Spent...
Idaho Spent Fuel Facility (ISFF) Project, Appropriate Acquisition...
Office of Environmental Management (EM)
Idaho Spent Fuel Facility (ISFF) Project, Appropriate Acquisition Strategy Lessons Learned Report, NNSA, Feb 2010 Idaho Spent Fuel Facility (ISFF) Project, Appropriate Acquisition...
Heavy Water Components Test Reactor Decommissioning - Major Component Removal
Austin, W.; Brinkley, D.
The Heavy Water Components Test Reactor (HWCTR) facility (Figure 1) was built in 1961, operated from 1962 to 1964, and is located in the northwest quadrant of the Savannah River Site (SRS) approximately three miles from the site boundary. The HWCTR facility is on high, well-drained ground, about 30 meters above the water table. The HWCTR was a pressurized heavy water test reactor used to develop candidate fuel designs for heavy water power reactors. It was not a defense-related facility like the materials production reactors at SRS. The reactor was moderated with heavy water and was rated at 50 megawatts thermal power. In December of 1964, operations were terminated and the facility was placed in a standby condition as a result of the decision by the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission to redirect research and development work on heavy water power reactors to reactors cooled with organic materials. For about one year, site personnel maintained the facility in a standby status, and then retired the reactor in place. In 1965, fuel assemblies were removed, systems that contained heavy water were drained, fluid piping systems were drained, deenergized and disconnected and the spent fuel basin was drained and dried. The doors of the reactor facility were shut and it wasn't until 10 years later that decommissioning plans were considered and ultimately postponed due to budget constraints. In the early 1990s, DOE began planning to decommission HWCTR again. Yet, in the face of new budget constraints, DOE deferred dismantlement and placed HWCTR in an extended surveillance and maintenance mode. The doors of the reactor facility were welded shut to protect workers and discourage intruders. The $1.6 billion allocation from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to SRS for site clean up at SRS has opened the doors to the HWCTR again - this time for final decommissioning. During the lifetime of HWCTR, 36 different fuel assemblies were tested in the facility. Ten of these experienced cladding failures as operational capabilities of the different designs were being established. In addition, numerous spills of heavy water occurred within the facility. Currently, radiation and radioactive contamination levels are low within HWCTR with most of the radioactivity contained within the reactor vessel. There are no known insults to the environment, however with the increasing deterioration of the facility, the possibility exists that contamination could spread outside the facility if it is not decommissioned. An interior panoramic view of the ground floor elevation taken in August 2009 is shown in Figure 2. The foreground shows the transfer coffin followed by the reactor vessel and control rod drive platform in the center. Behind the reactor vessel is the fuel pool. Above the ground level are the polar crane and the emergency deluge tank at the top of the dome. Note the considerable rust and degradation of the components and the interior of the containment building. Alternative studies have concluded that the most environmentally safe, cost effective option for final decommissioning is to remove the reactor vessel, steam generators, and all equipment above grade including the dome. Characterization studies along with transport models have concluded that the remaining below grade equipment that is left in place including the transfer coffin will not contribute any significant contamination to the environment in the future. The below grade space will be grouted in place. A concrete cover will be placed over the remaining footprint and the groundwater will be monitored for an indefinite period to ensure compliance with environmental regulations. The schedule for completion of decommissioning is late FY2011. This paper describes the concepts planned in order to remove the major components including the dome, the reactor vessel (RV), the two steam generators (SG), and relocating the transfer coffin (TC).
Methanation in catalyst-sprayed tube wall reactors: a review
Pennline, H. W.; Schehl, R. R.; Haynes, W. P.; Forney, A. J.
The design and operation of catalyst-sprayed tube wall reactors for methanation are discussed. Reactor tubes were either coated on the inner surface or on the outer surface with a Raney nickel catalyst. A liquid coolant, which was opposite the catalyst-reactant gas-side, removed the heat of methanation. Catalyst performance, reactor operating conditions, spent catalyst analyses, and other results are presented for five PDU tests.
Savannah River Site Spent Nuclear Fuel Management Final Environmental Impact Statement
The proposed DOE action considered in this environmental impact statement (EIS) is to implement appropriate processes for the safe and efficient management of spent nuclear fuel and targets at the Savannah River Site (SRS) in Aiken County, South Carolina, including placing these materials in forms suitable for ultimate disposition. Options to treat, package, and store this material are discussed. The material included in this EIS consists of approximately 68 metric tons heavy metal (MTHM) of spent nuclear fuel 20 MTHM of aluminum-based spent nuclear fuel at SRS, as much as 28 MTHM of aluminum-clad spent nuclear fuel from foreign and domestic research reactors to be shipped to SRS through 2035, and 20 MTHM of stainless-steel or zirconium-clad spent nuclear fuel and some Americium/Curium Targets stored at SRS. Alternatives considered in this EIS encompass a range of new packaging, new processing, and conventional processing technologies, as well as the No Action Alternative. A preferred alternative is identified in which DOE would prepare about 97% by volume (about 60% by mass) of the aluminum-based fuel for disposition using a melt and dilute treatment process. The remaining 3% by volume (about 40% by mass) would be managed using chemical separation. Impacts are assessed primarily in the areas of water resources, air resources, public and worker health, waste management, socioeconomic, and cumulative impacts.
Carbon-14 in waste packages for spent fuel in a tuff repository
Van Konynenburg, R.A.; Smith, C.F.; Culham, H.W.; Smith, H.D.
Carbon-14 is produced naturally by cosmic ray neutrons in the upper atmosphere. It is also produced in nuclear reactors, in amounts much smaller than the global inventory. About one-third of this is released directly to the atmosphere, and the other two-thirds remains in the spent fuel. Both the Environmental Protection Agency and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission have established limits on release of the {sup 14}C in spent fuel. This is of particular concern for the proposed repository in tuff, because of the unsaturated conditions and the consequent possibility of gaseous transport of {sup 14}C as CO{sub 2}. Existing measurements and calculations of the {sup 14}C inventory in spent fuel are reviewed. The physical distribution and chemical forms of the {sup 14}C are discussed. Available data on the release of {sup 14}C from spent fuel in aqueous solutions and in gaseous environments of air, nitrogen, and helium are reviewed. Projected {sup 14}C behavior in a tuff repository is described. It is concluded that {sup 14}C release measurements from spent fuel into moist air at temperatures both above and below the in situ boiling point of water as well as detailed transport calculations for the tuff geological environment will be needed to determine whether the 10CFR60 and 40CFR191 requirements can be met. 56 refs., 1 tab.
The Evolution of Dry Spent Fuel Storage in the United States
McGough, M.S. [Duratek Inc., 695 Bamesley Lane, Alpharetta, GA 30022 (United States); Bland, D.W. [TriVis, Inc., 1001 Yeager Parkway, Pelham, AL 35124 (United States)
This paper reviews the evolution of Dry Spent Fuel storage technology and application in the United States. Dating back to the legislation signed by Jimmy Carter on April 7, 1977, to outlaw spent fuel reprocessing, the nations spent fuel pools are gradually becoming filled to capacity. This has necessitated the development of new technologies to store spent fuel in dry casks, predominantly at nuclear power plant sites, awaiting the availability of the federal repository at Yucca Mountain. Site-specific conditions and changes in types of fuel being discharged from reactors have driven a constant evolution of technologies to support this critical need. This paper provides an overview of those changes, which have influenced the evolution of dry storage technology. Focus is provided more towards current technology and cask loading practices, as opposed to those technologies, which are no longer in heavy use. Detailed pictorial material is presented showing the loading sequences of various systems in current use. This paper provides a critical primer on Dry Spent Fuel Storage technology. It provides anyone who is new to dry storage, or who is contemplating initiating dry storage at a nuclear plant site, with useful background and history upon which to build programmatic decisions. (authors)
Spent nuclear fuel integrity during dry storage - performance tests and demonstrations
McKinnon, M.A.; Doherty, A.L.
This report summarizes the results of fuel integrity surveillance determined from gas sampling during and after performance tests and demonstrations conducted from 1983 through 1996 by or in cooperation with the US DOE Office of Commercial Radioactive Waste Management (OCRWM). The cask performance tests were conducted at Idaho National Engineering Laboratory (INEL) between 1984 and 1991 and included visual observation and ultrasonic examination of the condition of the cladding, fuel rods, and fuel assembly hardware before dry storage and consolidation of fuel, and a qualitative determination of the effects of dry storage and fuel consolidation on fission gas release from the spent fuel rods. The performance tests consisted of 6 to 14 runs involving one or two loading, usually three backfill environments (helium, nitrogen, and vacuum backfills), and one or two storage system orientations. The nitrogen and helium backfills were sampled and analyzed to detect leaking spent fuel rods. At the end of each performance test, periodic gas sampling was conducted on each cask. A spent fuel behavior project (i.e., enhanced surveillance, monitoring, and gas sampling activities) was initiated by DOE in 1994 for intact fuel in a CASTOR V/21 cask and for consolidated fuel in a VSC-17 cask. The results of the gas sampling activities are included in this report. Information on spent fuel integrity is of interest in evaluating the impact of long-term dry storage on the behavior of spent fuel rods. Spent fuel used during cask performance tests at INEL offers significant opportunities for confirmation of the benign nature of long-term dry storage. Supporting cask demonstration included licensing and operation of an independent spent fuel storage installation (ISFSI) at the Virginia Power (VP) Surry reactor site. A CASTOR V/21, an MC-10, and a Nuclear Assurance NAC-I28 have been loaded and placed at the VP ISFSI as part of the demonstration program. 13 refs., 14 figs., 9 tabs.
MELCOR model for an experimental 17x17 spent fuel PWR assembly.
Cardoni, Jeffrey
A MELCOR model has been developed to simulate a pressurized water reactor (PWR) 17 x 17 assembly in a spent fuel pool rack cell undergoing severe accident conditions. To the extent possible, the MELCOR model reflects the actual geometry, materials, and masses present in the experimental arrangement for the Sandia Fuel Project (SFP). The report presents an overview of the SFP experimental arrangement, the MELCOR model specifications, demonstration calculation results, and the input model listing.
CASTOR cask with high loading capacity for transport and storage of VVER 440 spent fuel
Diersch, R.; Methling, D.; Milde, G. [Gesellschaft fuer Nuklear-Behaelter mbH Essen (Germany)
GNB has developed a CASTOR transport and storage cask with a capacity of 84 spent fuel assemblies from reactors of the type VVER 440. The safety analyses are performed with the help of modern, benchmarked calculation programs. The results show that the cask design is able to fulfill both the Type B test conditions on basis of IAEA Regulations-1985 edition and the requirements for interim storage sites in Germany.
Facts and issues of direct disposal of spent fuel; Revision 1
Parks, P.B.
This report reviews those facts and issues that affect the direct disposal of spent reactor fuels. It is intended as a resource document for those impacted by the current Department of Energy (DOE) guidance that calls for the cessation of fuel reprocessing. It is not intended as a study of the specific impacts (schedules and costs) to the Savannah River Site (SRS) alone. Commercial fuels, other low enriched fuels, highly enriched defense-production, research, and naval reactor fuels are included in this survey, except as prevented by rules on classification.
Dry air oxidation kinetics of K-Basin spent nuclear fuel
Abrefah, J.; Buchanan, H.C.; Gerry, W.M.; Gray, W.J.; Marschman, S.C.
The safety and process analyses of the proposed Integrated Process Strategy (IPS) to move the N-Reactor spent nuclear fuel (SNF) stored at K-Basin to an interim storage facility require information about the oxidation behavior of the metallic uranium. Limited experiments have been performed on the oxidation reaction of SNF samples taken from an N-Reactor outer fuel element in various atmospheres. This report discusses studies on the oxidation behavior of SNF using two independent experimental systems: (1) a tube furnace with a flowing gas mixture of 2% oxygen/98% argon; and (2) a thermogravimetric system for dry air oxidation.
A methodology for performing and applying nuclear criticality safety calculations, for PWR spent nuclear fuel (SNF) packages with actinide-only burnup credit, is described. The changes in the U-234, U-235, U-236, U-238, Pu-238, Pu-239, Pu-240, Pu-241, Pu-242, and Am-241 concentration with burnup are used in burnup credit criticality analyses. No credit for fission product neutron absorbers is taken. The methodology consists of five major steps. (1) Validate a computer code system to calculate isotopic concentrations of SNF created during burnup in the reactor core and subsequent decay. A set of chemical assay benchmarks is presented for this purpose as well as a method for assessing the calculational bias and uncertainty, and conservative correction factors for each isotope. (2) Validate a computer code system to predict the subcritical multiplication factor, k{sub eff}, of a spent nuclear fuel package. Fifty-seven UO{sub 2}, UO{sub 2}/Gd{sub 2}O{sub 3}, and UO{sub 2}/PuO{sub 2} critical experiments have been selected to cover anticipated conditions of SNF. The method uses an upper safety limit on k{sub eff} (which can be a function of the trending parameters) such that the biased k{sub eff}, when increased for the uncertainty is less than 0.95. (3) Establish bounding conditions for the isotopic concentration and criticality calculations. Three bounding axial profiles have been established to assure the ''end effect'' is accounted for conservatively. (4) Use the validated codes and bounding conditions to generate package loading criteria (burnup credit loading curves). Burnup credit loading curves show the minimum burnup required for a given initial enrichment. The utility burnup record is compared to this requirement after the utility accounts for the uncertainty in its record. Separate curves may be generated for each assembly design, various minimum cooling times and burnable absorber histories. (5) Verify that SNF assemblies meet the package loading criteria and confirm proper assembly selection prior to loading. A measurement of the average assembly burnup is required and that measurement must be within 10% of the utility burnup record for the assembly to be accepted. The measurement device must be accurate to within 10%. Each step is described in detail for use with any computer code system and is then demonstrated with the SCALE 4.2 computer code package using 27BURNUPLIB cross sections.
Nuclear Forensics Attributing the Source of Spent Fuel Used in an RDD Event
M.R. Scott
An RDD attack against the U.S. is something America needs to prepare against. If such an event occurs the ability to quickly identify the source of the radiological material used in an RDD would aid investigators in identifying the perpetrators. Spent fuel is one of the most dangerous possible radiological sources for an RDD. In this work, a forensics methodology was developed and implemented to attribute spent fuel to a source reactor. The specific attributes determined are the spent fuel burnup, age from discharge, reactor type, and initial fuel enrichment. It is shown that by analyzing the post-event material, these attributes can be determined with enough accuracy to be useful for investigators. The burnup can be found within a 5% accuracy, enrichment with a 2% accuracy, and age with a 10% accuracy. Reactor type can be determined if specific nuclides are measured. The methodology developed was implemented into a code call NEMASYS. NEMASYS is easy to use and it takes a minimum amount of time to learn its basic functions. It will process data within a few minutes and provide detailed information about the results and conclusions.
Spent nuclear fuel recycling with plasma reduction and etching
Kim, Yong Ho
A method of extracting uranium from spent nuclear fuel (SNF) particles is disclosed. Spent nuclear fuel (SNF) (containing oxides of uranium, oxides of fission products (FP) and oxides of transuranic (TRU) elements (including plutonium)) are subjected to a hydrogen plasma and a fluorine plasma. The hydrogen plasma reduces the uranium and plutonium oxides from their oxide state. The fluorine plasma etches the SNF metals to form UF6 and PuF4. During subjection of the SNF particles to the fluorine plasma, the temperature is maintained in the range of 1200-2000 deg K to: a) allow any PuF6 (gas) that is formed to decompose back to PuF4 (solid), and b) to maintain stability of the UF6. Uranium (in the form of gaseous UF6) is easily extracted and separated from the plutonium (in the form of solid PuF4). The use of plasmas instead of high temperature reactors or flames mitigates the high temperature corrosive atmosphere and the production of PuF6 (as a final product). Use of plasmas provide faster reaction rates, greater control over the individual electron and ion temperatures, and allow the use of CF4 or NF3 as the fluorine sources instead of F2 or HF.
Dry oxidation and fracture of LWR spent fuels
Ahn, T.M.
This report evaluates the characteristics of oxidation and fracture of light-water reactor (LWR) spent fuel in dry air. It also discusses their effects on radionuclide releases in the anticipated high-level waste repository environment. A sphere model may describe diffusion-limited formation of lower oxides, such as U{sub 4}O{sub 9}, in the oxidation of the spent fuel (SF) matrix. Detrimental higher oxides, such as U{sub 3}O{sub 8}, may not form at temperatures below a threshold temperature. The nucleation process suggests that a threshold temperature exists. The calculated results regarding fracture properties of the SF matrix agree with experimental observations. Oxidation and fracture of Zircaloy may not be significant under anticipated conditions. Under saturated or unsaturated aqueous conditions, oxidation of the SF matrix is believed to increase the releases of Pu-(239+240), Am-(241+243), C-14, Tc-99, I-129, and Cs-135. Under dry conditions, I-129 releases are likely to be small, unlike C-14, in lower oxides; Cl-36, Tc-99, I-129, and Cs-135 may be released fast in higher oxides. 79 refs.
Fluoride removal from water with spent catalyst
Lai, Y.D.; Liu, J.C. [National Taiwan Institute of Technology, Taipei (Taiwan, Province of China)
The adsorption of fluoride from water with spent catalyst was studied. Adsorption density of fluoride decreased with increasing pH. Linear adsorption isotherm was utilized to describe the adsorption reaction. The adsorption was a first-order reaction, and the rate constant increased with decreasing surface loading. Adsorption reaction of fluoride onto spent catalyst was endothermic, and the reaction rate increased slightly with increasing temperature. Fluoro-alumino complex and free fluoride ion were involved in the adsorption reaction. It is proposed that both the silica and alumina fractions of spent catalyst contribute to the removal of fluoride from aqueous solution. Coulombic interaction is proposed as the major driving force of the adsorption reaction of fluoride onto spent catalyst.
Mehta, P.K.
cement from spent oil shale," Vol. 10, No. 4, p. 54S,Colorado's primary oil shale resource for vertical modifiedSimulated effects of oil-shale development on the hydrology
Mehta, P.K.
hydraulic cement from spent oil shale," Vol. 10, No. 4, p.J. W. , "Colorado's primary oil shale resource for verticalSimulated effects of oil-shale development on the hydrology
22.312 Engineering of Nuclear Reactors, Fall 2002
Todreas, Neil E.
Engineering principles of nuclear reactors, emphasizing power reactors. Power plant thermodynamics, reactor heat generation and removal (single-phase as well as two-phase coolant flow and heat transfer), and structural ...
22.312 Engineering of Nuclear Reactors, Fall 2004
Buongiorno, Jacopo, 1971-
Engineering principles of nuclear reactors, emphasizing power reactors. Power plant thermodynamics, reactor heat generation and removal (single-phase as well as two-phase coolant flow and heat transfer), and structural ...
Pyrochemical processing of DOE spent nuclear fuel
Laidler, J.J.
A compact, efficient method for conditioning spent nuclear fuel is under development. This method, known as pyrochemical processing, or {open_quotes}pyroprocessing,{close_quotes} provides a separation of fission products from the actinide elements present in spent fuel and further separates pure uranium from the transuranic elements. The process can facilitate the timely and environmentally-sound treatment of the highly diverse collection of spent fuel currently in the inventory of the United States Department of Energy (DOE). The pyroprocess utilizes elevated-temperature processes to prepare spent fuel for fission product separation; that separation is accomplished by a molten salt electrorefining step that provides efficient (>99.9%) separation of transuranics. The resultant waste forms from the pyroprocess, are stable under envisioned repository environment conditions and highly leach-resistant. Treatment of any spent fuel type produces a set of common high-level waste forms, one a mineral and the other a metal alloy, that can be readily qualified for repository disposal and avoid the substantial costs that would be associated with the qualification of the numerous spent fuel types included in the DOE inventory.
Initial measurements of BN-350 spent fuel in dry storage casks using the dual slab verification detonator
Santi, Peter Angelo [Los Alamos National Laboratory; Browne, Michael C [Los Alamos National Laboratory; Freeman, Corey R [Los Alamos National Laboratory; Parker, Robert F [Los Alamos National Laboratory; Williams, Richard B [Los Alamos National Laboratory
The Dual Slab Verification Detector (DSVD) has been developed, built, and characterized by Los Alamos National Laboratory in cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) as part of the dry storage safeguards system for the spent fuel from the BN-350 fast reactor. The detector consists of two rows of 3He tubes embedded in a slab of polyethylene which has been designed to be placed on the outer surface of the dry storage cask. By performing DSVD measurements at several different locations around the outer surface of the DUC, a signature 'fingerprint' can be established for each DUC based on the neutron flux emanating from inside the dry storage cask. The neutron fingerprint for each individual DUC will be dependent upon the spatial distribution of nuclear material within the cask, thus making it sensitive to the removal of a certain amount of material from the cask. An initial set of DSVD measurements have been performed on the first set of dry storage casks that have been loaded with canisters of spent fuel and moved onto the dry storage pad to both establish an initial fingerprint for these casks as well as to quantify systematic uncertainties associated with these measurements. The results from these measurements will be presented and compared with the expected results that were determined based on MCNPX simulations of the dry storage facility. The ability to safeguard spent nuclear fuel is strongly dependent on the technical capabilities of establishing and maintaining continuity of knowledge (COK) of the spent fuel as it is released from the reactor core and either reprocessed or packaged and stored at a storage facility. While the maintenance of COK is often done using continuous containment and surveillance (C/S) on the spent fuel, it is important that the measurement capabilities exist to re-establish the COK in the event of a significant gap in the continuous CIS by performing measurements that independently confirm the presence and content of Plutonium (Pu) in the spent fuel. The types of non-destructive assay (NDA) measurements that can be performed on the spent fuel are strongly dependent on the type of spent fuel that is being safeguarded as well as the location in which the spent fuel is being stored. The BN-350 Spent Fuel Disposition Project was initiated to improve the safeguards and security of the spent nuclear fuel from the BN-350 fast-breeder reactor and was developed cooperatively to meet the requirements of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) as well as the terms of the 1993 CTR and MPC&A Implementing Agreements. The unique characteristics of fuel from the BN-350 fast-breeder reactor have allowed for the development of an integrated safeguards measurement program to inventory, monitor, and if necessary, re-verify Pu content of the spent fuel throughout the lifetime of the project. This approach includes the development of a safeguards measurement program to establish and maintain the COK on the spent fuel during the repackaging and eventual relocation of the spent-fuel assemblies to a long-term storage site. As part of the safeguards measurement program, the Pu content of every spent-fuel assembly from the BN-350 reactor was directly measured and characterized while the spent-fuel assemblies were being stored in the spent-fuel pond at the BN-350 facility using the Spent Fuel Coincidence Counter (SFCC). Upon completion of the initial inventory of the Pu content of the individual spent-fuel assemblies, the assemblies were repackaged into welded steel canisters that were filled with inert argon gas and held either four or six individual spent-fuel assemblies depending on the type of assembly that was being packaged. This repackaging of the spent-fuel assemblies was performed in order to improve the stability of the spent-fuel assemblies for long-term storage and increase the proliferation resistance of the spent fuel. To maintain the capability of verifying the presence of the spent-fuel assemblies inside the welded steel canisters, measurements were performed on the canis
Electrochemical cell apparatus having axially distributed entry of a fuel-spent fuel mixture transverse to the cell lengths
Reichner, P.; Dollard, W.J.
An electrochemical apparatus is made having a generator section containing axially elongated electrochemical cells, a fresh gaseous feed fuel inlet, a gaseous feed oxidant inlet, and at least one gaseous spent fuel exit channel, where the spent fuel exit channel passes from the generator chamber to combine with the fresh feed fuel inlet at a mixing apparatus, reformable fuel mixture channel passes through the length of the generator chamber and connects with the mixing apparatus, that channel containing entry ports within the generator chamber, where the axis of the ports is transverse to the fuel electrode surfaces, where a catalytic reforming material is distributed near the reformable fuel mixture entry ports. 2 figures.
Testing and analyses of the TN-24P PWR spent-fuel dry storage cask loaded with consolidated fuel
McKinnon, M A; Michener, T E; Jensen, M F; Rodman, G R
A performance test of a Transnuclear, Inc. TN-24P storage cask configured for pressurized water reactor (PWR) spent fuel was performed. The work was performed by the Pacific Northwest Laboratory (PNL) and Idaho National Engineering Laboratory (INEL) for the US Department of Energy Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management (OCRWM) and the Electric Power Research Institute. The performance test consisted of loading the TN-24P cask with 24 canisters of consolidated PWR spent fuel from Virginia Power's Surry and Florida Power and Light's Turkey Point reactors. Cask surface and fuel canister guide tube temperatures were measured, as were cask surface gamma and neutron dose rates. Testing was performed with vacuum, nitrogen, and helium backfill environments in both vertical and horizontal cask orientations. Transnuclear, Inc., arranged to have a partially insulated run added to the end of the test to simulate impact limiters. Limited spent fuel integrity data were also obtained. From both heat transfer and shielding perspectives, the TN-24P cask with minor refinements can be effectively implemented at reactor sites and central storage facilities for safe storage of unconsolidated and consolidated spent fuel. 35 refs., 93 figs., 17 tabs.
An approach to determine a defensible spent fuel ratio.
Durbin, Samuel G.; Lindgren, Eric Richard
Sabotage of spent nuclear fuel casks remains a concern nearly forty years after attacks against shipment casks were first analyzed and has a renewed relevance in the post-9/11 environment. A limited number of full-scale tests and supporting efforts using surrogate materials, typically depleted uranium dioxide (DUO2), have been conducted in the interim to more definitively determine the source term from these postulated events. In all the previous studies, the postulated attack of greatest interest was by a conical shape charge (CSC) that focuses the explosive energy much more efficiently than bulk explosives. However, the validity of these large-scale results remain in question due to the lack of a defensible Spent Fuel Ratio (SFR), defined as the amount of respirable aerosol generated by an attack on a mass of spent fuel compared to that of an otherwise identical DUO2 surrogate. Previous attempts to define the SFR have resulted in estimates ranging from 0.42 to 12 and include suboptimal experimental techniques and data comparisons. Different researchers have suggested using SFR values of 3 to 5.6. Sound technical arguments exist that the SFR does not exceed a value of unity. A defensible determination of the SFR in this lower range would greatly reduce the calculated risk associated with the transport and dry storage of spent nuclear fuel. Currently, Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) is in possession of several samples of spent nuclear fuel (SNF) that were used in the original SFR studies in the 1980's and were intended for use in a modern effort at Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) in the 2000's. A portion of these samples are being used for a variety of research efforts. However, the entirety of SNF samples at ORNL is scheduled for disposition at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) by approximately the end of 2015. If a defensible SFR is to be determined for use in storage and transportation security analyses, the need to begin this effort is urgent in order to secure the only known available SNF samples with a clearly defined path to disposal.
Feasibility of x ray fluorescence for spent fuel safeguards
Freeman, Corey Ross [Los Alamos National Laboratory; Mozin, Vladimir [Los Alamos National Laboratory; Tobin, Stephen J [Los Alamos National Laboratory; Fensin, Michael L [Los Alamos National Laboratory; White, Julia M [Los Alamos National Laboratory; Croft, Stephen [Los Alamos National Laboratory; Stafford, Alissa [TAMU; Charlton, William [TAMU
Quantifying the Pu content in spent nuclear fuel is necessary for many reasons, in particular to verify that diversion or other illicit activities have not occurred. Therefore, safeguarding the world's nuclear fuel is paramount to responsible nuclear regulation and public acceptance, but achieving this goal presents many difficulties from both a technical and economic perspective. The Next Generation Safeguards Initiative (NGSI) of NA-24 is funding a large collaborative effort between multiple laboratories and universities to improve spent nuclear fuel safeguards methods and equipment. This effort involves the current work of modeling several different nondestructive assay (NDA) techniques. Several are being researched, because no single NDA technique, in isolation, has the potential to properly characterize fuel assemblies and offer a robust safeguards measure. The insights gained from this research, will be used to down-select from the original set a few of the most promising techniques that complement each other. The goal is to integrate the selected instruments to create an accurate measurement system for fuel verification that is also robust enough to detect diversions. These instruments will be fabricated and tested under realistic conditions. This work examines one of the NDA techniques; the feasibility of using x ray emission peaks from Pu and U to gather information about their relative quantities in the spent fuel. X Ray Fluorescence (XRF), is unique compared to the investigated techniques in that it is the only one able to give the elemental ratio of Pu to U, allowing the possibility of a Pu gram quantity for the assembly to be calculated. XRF also presents many challenges, mainly its low penetration, since the low energy x rays of interest are effectively shielded by the first few millimeters of a fuel pin. This paper will explore the results of Monte Carlo N-Particle eXtended (MCNPX) transport code calculations of spent fuel x ray peaks. The MCNPX simulations will be benchmarked against measurements taken at Oak Ridge. Analysis of the feasibility of XRFs role in spent nuclear fuel safeguards efforts, particularly in the context of the overall NGSI effort will be discussed.
Nero, A.V.
Charges Relating to Nuclear Reactor Safety," 1976, availableissues impor tant to nuclear reactor safety. This report wasstudies of overall nuclear reactor safety have been
Nero, A.V.
Charges Relating to Nuclear Reactor Safety," 1976, availablestudies of light-water nuclear reactor safety, emphasizingstudies of overall nuclear reactor safety have been
Safe Advantage on Dry Interim Spent Nuclear Fuel Storage
Romanato, L.S. [Centro Tecnologico da Marinha em S.Paulo, Brazilian Navy Technological Center, Sao Paulo (Brazil)
This paper aims to present the advantages of dry cask storage in comparison with the wet storage (cooling water pools) for SNF. When the nuclear fuel is removed from the core reactor, it is moved to a storage unit and it wait for a final destination. Generally, the spent nuclear fuel (SNF) remains inside water pools within the reactors facility for the radioactive activity decay. After some period of time in pools, SNF can be sent to a definitive deposition in a geological repository and handled as radioactive waste or to reprocessing facilities, or still, wait for a future solution. Meanwhile, SNF remains stored for a period of time in dry or wet facilities, depending on the method adopted by the nuclear power plant or other plans of the country. Interim storage, up to 20 years ago, was exclusively wet and if the nuclear facility had to be decommissioned another storage solution had to be found. At the present time, after a preliminary cooling of the SNF elements inside the water pool, the elements can be stored in dry facilities. This kind of storage does not need complex radiation monitoring and it is safer then wet one. Casks, either concrete or metallic, are safer, especially on occurrence of earthquakes, like that occurred at Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant, in Japan on July 16, 2007. (authors)
Spent fuel integrity during dry storage
McKinnon, M.A.
Information on spent fuel integrity is of interest in evaluating the impact of long-term dry storage on the behavior of spent fuel rods. Spent fuel used during cask performance tests at the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory (INEL) offers significant opportunities for confirmation of the benign nature of long-term dry storage. The cask performance tests conducted at INEL included visual observation and ultrasonic examination of the condition of cladding, fuel rods, and fuel assembly hardware before dry storage and consolidation of the fuel; and a qualitative determination of the effect of dry storage and fuel consolidation on fission gas release from the spent fuel rods. A variety of cover gases and cask orientations were used during the cask performance tests. Cover gases included vacuum, nitrogen, and helium. The nitrogen and helium backfills were sampled and analyzed to detect leaking spent fuel rods. At the conclusion of each performance test, periodic gas sampling was conducted on each cask as part of a surveillance and monitoring activity. Continued surveillance and monitoring activities are being conducted for intact fuel in a CASTOR V/21 cask and for consolidated fuel in a VSC-17 cask. The results of the gas sampling activities are reported in this paper.
Reference worldwide model for antineutrinos from reactors
Marica Baldoncini; Ivan Callegari; Giovanni Fiorentini; Fabio Mantovani; Barbara Ricci; Virginia Strati; Gerti Xhixha
Antineutrinos produced at nuclear reactors constitute a severe source of background for the detection of geoneutrinos, which bring to the Earth's surface information about natural radioactivity in the whole planet. In this framework we provide a reference worldwide model for antineutrinos from reactors, in view of reactors operational records yearly published by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). We evaluate the expected signal from commercial reactors for ongoing (KamLAND and Borexino), planned (SNO+) and proposed (Juno, RENO-50, LENA and Hanohano) experimental sites. Uncertainties related to reactor antineutrino production, propagation and detection processes are estimated using a Monte Carlo based approach, which provides an overall site dependent uncertainty on the signal in the geoneutrino energy window on the order of 3%. We also implement the off-equilibrium correction to the reference reactor spectra associated with the long-lived isotopes and we estimate a 2.4% increase of the unoscillated event rate in the geoneutrino energy window due to the storage of spent nuclear fuels in the cooling pools. We predict that the research reactors contribute to less than 0.2% to the commercial reactor signal in the investigated 14 sites. We perform a multitemporal analysis of the expected reactor signal over a time lapse of 10 years using reactor operational records collected in a comprehensive database published at www.fe.infn.it/antineutrino.
Advanced Safeguards Approaches for New Fast Reactors
Durst, Philip C.; Therios, Ike; Bean, Robert; Dougan, A.; Boyer, Brian; Wallace, Rick L.; Ehinger, Michael H.; Kovacic, Don N.; Tolk, K.
This third report in the series reviews possible safeguards approaches for new fast reactors in general, and the ABR in particular. Fast-neutron spectrum reactors have been used since the early 1960s on an experimental and developmental level, generally with fertile blanket fuels to �breed� nuclear fuel such as plutonium. Whether the reactor is designed to breed plutonium, or transmute and �burn� actinides depends mainly on the design of the reactor neutron reflector and the whether the blanket fuel is �fertile� or suitable for transmutation. However, the safeguards issues are very similar, since they pertain mainly to the receipt, shipment and storage of fresh and spent plutonium and actinide-bearing �TRU�-fuel. For these reasons, the design of existing fast reactors and details concerning how they have been safeguarded were studied in developing advanced safeguards approaches for the new fast reactors. In this regard, the design of the Experimental Breeder Reactor-II �EBR-II� at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) was of interest, because it was designed as a collocated fast reactor with a pyrometallurgical reprocessing and fuel fabrication line � a design option being considered for the ABR. Similarly, the design of the Fast Flux Facility (FFTF) on the Hanford Site was studied, because it was a successful prototype fast reactor that ran for two decades to evaluate fuels and the design for commercial-scale fast reactors.
Designing Reactors to Facilitate Decommissioning
Richard H. Meservey
Critics of nuclear power often cite issues with tail-end-of-the-fuel-cycle activities as reasons to oppose the building of new reactors. In fact, waste disposal and the decommissioning of large nuclear reactors have proven more challenging than anticipated. In the early days of the nuclear power industry the design and operation of various reactor systems was given a great deal of attention. Little effort, however, was expended on end-of-the-cycle activities, such as decommissioning and disposal of wastes. As early power and test reactors have been decommissioned difficulties with end-of-the-fuel-cycle activities have become evident. Even the small test reactors common at the INEEL were not designed to facilitate their eventual decontamination, decommissioning, and dismantlement. The results are that decommissioning of these facilities is expensive, time consuming, relatively hazardous, and generates large volumes of waste. This situation clearly supports critics concerns about building a new generation of power reactors.
Challenges in the Development of Advanced Reactors
P. Sabharwall; M.C. Teague; S.M. Bragg-Sitton; M.W. Patterson
Past generations of nuclear reactors have been successively developed and the next generation is currently being developed, demonstrating the constant progress and technical and industrial vitality of nuclear energy. In 2000 US Department of Energy launched Generation IV International Forum (GIF) which is one of the main international frameworks for the development of future nuclear systems. The six systems that were selected were: sodium cooled fast reactor, lead cooled fast reactor, supercritical water cooled reactor, very high temperature gas cooled reactor (VHTR), gas cooled fast reactor and molten salt reactor. This paper discusses some of the proposed advanced reactor concepts that are currently being researched to varying degrees in the United States, and highlights some of the major challenges these concepts must overcome to establish their feasibility and to satisfy licensing requirements.
Berry, T.; Milliken, C.; Martinez-Rodriguez, M.; Hathcock, D.; Heitkamp, M.
Methodology and field deployable tools (test kits) to analyze the chemical and microbiological condition of aqueous spent fuel storage basins and determine the oxide thickness on the spent fuel basin materials were developed to assess the corrosion potential of a basin. this assessment can then be used to determine the amount of time fuel has spent in a storage basin to ascertain if the operation of the reactor and storage basin is consistent with safeguard declarations or expectations and assist in evaluating general storage basin operations. The test kit was developed based on the identification of key physical, chemical and microbiological parameters identified using a review of the scientific and basin operations literature. The parameters were used to design bench scale test cells for additional corrosion analyses, and then tools were purchased to analyze the key parameters. The tools were used to characterize an active spent fuel basin, the Savannah River Site (SRS) L-Area basin. The sampling kit consisted of a total organic carbon analyzer, an YSI multiprobe, and a thickness probe. The tools were field tested to determine their ease of use, reliability, and determine the quality of data that each tool could provide. Characterization confirmed that the L Area basin is a well operated facility with low corrosion potential.
Foreign experience on effects of extended dry storage on the integrity of spent nuclear fuel
Schneider, K.J.; Mitchell, S.J.
This report summarizes the results of a survey of foreign experience in dry storage of spent fuel from nuclear power reactors that was carried out for the US Department of Energy's (DOE) Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management (OCRWM). The report reviews the mechanisms for degradation of spent fuel cladding and fuel materials in dry storage, identifies the status and plans of world-wide experience and applications, and documents the available information on the expected long-term integrity of the dry-stored spent fuel from actual foreign experience. Countries covered in this survey are: Argentina, Canada, Federal Republic of Germany (before reunification with the former East Germany), former German Democratic Republic (former East Germany), France, India, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, United Kingdom, and the former USSR (most of these former Republics are now in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS)). Industrial dry storage of Magnox fuels started in 1972 in the United Kingdom; Canada began industrial dry storage of CANDU fuels in 1980. The technology for safe storage is generally considered to be developed for time periods of 30 to 100 years for LWR fuel in inert gas and for some fuels in oxidizing gases at low temperatures. Because it will probably be decades before countries will have a repository for spent fuels and high-level wastes, the plans for expanded use of dry storage have increased significantly in recent years and are expected to continue to increase in the near future.
Foreign experience on effects of extended dry storage on the integrity of spent nuclear fuel
Schneider, K.J.; Mitchell, S.J.
This report summarizes the results of a survey of foreign experience in dry storage of spent fuel from nuclear power reactors that was carried out for the US Department of Energy`s (DOE) Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management (OCRWM). The report reviews the mechanisms for degradation of spent fuel cladding and fuel materials in dry storage, identifies the status and plans of world-wide experience and applications, and documents the available information on the expected long-term integrity of the dry-stored spent fuel from actual foreign experience. Countries covered in this survey are: Argentina, Canada, Federal Republic of Germany (before reunification with the former East Germany), former German Democratic Republic (former East Germany), France, India, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, United Kingdom, and the former USSR (most of these former Republics are now in the Commonwealth of Independent States [CIS]). Industrial dry storage of Magnox fuels started in 1972 in the United Kingdom; Canada began industrial dry storage of CANDU fuels in 1980. The technology for safe storage is generally considered to be developed for time periods of 30 to 100 years for LWR fuel in inert gas and for some fuels in oxidizing gases at low temperatures. Because it will probably be decades before countries will have a repository for spent fuels and high-level wastes, the plans for expanded use of dry storage have increased significantly in recent years and are expected to continue to increase in the near future.
Neutron Resonance Transmission Analysis (NRTA): A Nondestructive Assay Technique for the Next Generation Safeguards Initiative�s Plutonium Assay Challenge
J. W. Sterbentz; D. L. Chichester
This is an end-of-year report for a project funded by the National Nuclear Security Administration's Office of Nuclear Safeguards (NA-241). The goal of this project is to investigate the feasibility of using Neutron Resonance Transmission Analysis (NRTA) to assay plutonium in commercial light-water-reactor spent fuel. This project is part of a larger research effort within the Next-Generation Safeguards Initiative (NGSI) to evaluate methods for assaying plutonium in spent fuel, the Plutonium Assay Challenge. The first-year goals for this project were modest and included: 1) developing a zero-order MCNP model for the NRTA technique, simulating data results presented in the literature, 2) completing a preliminary set of studies investigating important design and performance characteristics for the NRTA measurement technique, and 3) documentation of this work in an end of the year report (this report). Research teams at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), and at several universities are also working to investigate plutonium assay methods for spent-fuel safeguards. While the NRTA technique is well proven in the scientific literature for assaying individual spent fuel pins, it is a newcomer to the current NGSI efforts studying Pu assay method techniques having just started in March 2010; several analytical techniques have been under investigation within this program for two to three years or more. This report summarizes a nine month period of work.
Apparatus for shearing spent nuclear fuel assemblies
Weil, Bradley S. (Knoxville, TN); Metz, III, Curtis F. (Knoxville, TN)
A method and apparatus are described for shearing spent nuclear fuel assemblies of the type comprising an array of fuel pins disposed within an outer metal shell or shroud. A spent fuel assembly is first compacted in a known manner and then incrementally sheared using fixed and movable shear blades having matched laterally projecting teeth which slidably intermesh to provide the desired shearing action. Incremental advancement of the fuel assembly after each shear cycle is limited to a distance corresponding to the lateral projection of the teeth to ensure fuel assembly breakup into small uniform segments which are amenable to remote chemical processing.
Reactor Safety Research Programs
Edler, S. K.
This document summarizes the work performed by Pacific Northwest Laboratory (PNL) from January 1 through March 31, 1981, for the Division of Reactor Safety Research within the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). Evaluations of nondestructive examination (NDE) techniques and instrumentation are reported; areas of investigation include demonstrating the feasibility of determining the strength of structural graphite, evaluating the feasibility of detecting and analyzing flaw growth in reactor pressure boundary systems, examining NDE reliability and probabilistic fracture mechanics, and assessing the integrity of pressurized water reactor (PWR) steam generator tubes where service-induced degradation has been indicated. Experimental data and analytical models are being provided to aid in decision-making regarding pipeto- pipe impacts following postulated breaks in high-energy fluid system piping. Core thermal models are being developed to provide better digital codes to compute the behavior of full-scale reactor systems under postulated accident conditions. Fuel assemblies and analytical support are being provided for experimental programs at other facilities. These programs include loss-ofcoolant accident (LOCA) simulation tests at the NRU reactor, Chalk River, Canada; fuel rod deformation, severe fuel damage, and postaccident coolability tests for the ESSOR reactor Super Sara Test Program, Ispra, Italy; the instrumented fuel assembly irradiation program at Halden, Norway; and experimental programs at the Power Burst Facility, Idaho National Engineering Laboratory (INEL). These programs will provide data for computer modeling of reactor system and fuel performance during various abnormal operating conditions.
Spent fuel sabotage aerosol test program :FY 2005-06 testing and aerosol data summary.
Gregson, Michael Warren; Brockmann, John E.; Nolte, O. (Fraunhofer institut fur toxikologie und experimentelle Medizin, Germany); Loiseau, O. (Institut de radioprotection et de Surete Nucleaire, France); Koch, W. (Fraunhofer institut fur toxikologie und experimentelle Medizin, Germany); Molecke, Martin Alan; Autrusson, Bruno (Institut de radioprotection et de Surete Nucleaire, France); Pretzsch, Gunter Guido (Gesellschaft fur anlagen- und Reaktorsicherheit, Germany); Billone, M. C. (Argonne National Laboratory, USA); Lucero, Daniel A.; Burtseva, T. (Argonne National Laboratory, USA); Brucher, W (Gesellschaft fur anlagen- und Reaktorsicherheit, Germany); Steyskal, Michele D.
This multinational, multi-phase spent fuel sabotage test program is quantifying the aerosol particles produced when the products of a high energy density device (HEDD) interact with and explosively particulate test rodlets that contain pellets of either surrogate materials or actual spent fuel. This program has been underway for several years. This program provides source-term data that are relevant to some sabotage scenarios in relation to spent fuel transport and storage casks, and associated risk assessments. This document focuses on an updated description of the test program and test components for all work and plans made, or revised, primarily during FY 2005 and about the first two-thirds of FY 2006. It also serves as a program status report as of the end of May 2006. We provide details on the significant findings on aerosol results and observations from the recently completed Phase 2 surrogate material tests using cerium oxide ceramic pellets in test rodlets plus non-radioactive fission product dopants. Results include: respirable fractions produced; amounts, nuclide content, and produced particle size distributions and morphology; status on determination of the spent fuel ratio, SFR (the ratio of respirable particles from real spent fuel/respirables from surrogate spent fuel, measured under closely matched test conditions, in a contained test chamber); and, measurements of enhanced volatile fission product species sorption onto respirable particles. We discuss progress and results for the first three, recently performed Phase 3 tests using depleted uranium oxide, DUO{sub 2}, test rodlets. We will also review the status of preparations and the final Phase 4 tests in this program, using short rodlets containing actual spent fuel from U.S. PWR reactors, with both high- and lower-burnup fuel. These data plus testing results and design are tailored to support and guide, follow-on computer modeling of aerosol dispersal hazards and radiological consequence assessments. This spent fuel sabotage--aerosol test program, performed primarily at Sandia National Laboratories, with support provided by both the U.S. Department of Energy and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, had significant inputs from, and is strongly supported and coordinated by both the U.S. and international program participants in Germany, France, and the U.K., as part of the international Working Group for Sabotage Concerns of Transport and Storage Casks, WGSTSC.
Amy, Gary L.
from Characterization of Spent Shale s . , , . � � . . � ,4. Preparation of Spent Shale Samples and Procedure forof Particular Types of Spent Shale References � Appendix A.
LWR spent fuel reduction by the removal of U and the compact storage of Pu with FP for long-term nuclear sustainability
Fukasawa, T.; Hoshino, K. [Hitachi-GE Nuclear Energy, Ltd, 3-1-1 Saiwai, Hitachi, Ibaraki, 317-0073 (Japan); Takano, M. [Japan Atomic Energy Agency, 3-1-1 Saiwai, Hitachi, Ibaraki, 317-0073 (Japan); Sato, S. [Hokkaido University, 3-1-1 Saiwai, Hitachi, Ibaraki, 317-0073 (Japan); Shimazu, Y. [Fukui University, 3-1-1 Saiwai, Hitachi, Ibaraki, 317-0073 (Japan)
Fast breeder reactors (FBR) nuclear fuel cycle is needed for long-term nuclear sustainability while preventing global warming and maximum utilizing the limited uranium (U) resources. The 'Framework for Nuclear Energy Policy' by the Japanese government on October 2005 stated that commercial FBR deployment will start around 2050 under its suitable conditions by the successive replacement of light water reactors (LWR) to FBR. Even after Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant accident which made Japanese tendency slow down the nuclear power generation activities, Japan should have various options for energy resources including nuclear, and also consider the delay of FBR deployment and increase of LWR spent fuel (LWR-SF) storage amounts. As plutonium (Pu) for FBR deployment will be supplied from LWR-SF reprocessing and Japan will not possess surplus Pu, the authors have developed the flexible fuel cycle initiative (FFCI) for the transition from LWR to FBR. The FFCI system is based on the possibility to stored recycled materials (U, Pu)temporarily for a suitable period according to the FBR deployment rate to control the Pu demand/supply balance. This FFCI system is also effective after the Fukushima accident for the reduction of LWR-SF and future LWR-to-FBR transition. (authors)
Radiation measurements of uranium ingots from the electrometallurgical treatment of spent fuel.
Westphal, B. R.; Liaw, J. R.; Krsul, J. R.; Maddison, D. W.; Jensen, B. A.
Radiation measurements and gamma spectroscopy analyses were made on numerous uranium ingots produced during the treatment of Experimental Breeder Reactor-II (EBR-II) spent nuclear fuel. The objective of these measurements was to provide background data for shielding concerns and potential process optimization. The uranium ingots resulted from the processing of both driver and blanket fuel by the electrometallurgical treatment process. The observed variation in the measurements was traced to the levels of certain fission product residues that remained in the uranium ingots produced during spent fuel treatment. A minor process change to hold the material at an elevated temperature for a specified length of time was found to significantly reduce concentrations of high-activity fission products and, thus the radiation field.
Spent Fuel Test-Climax: An evaluation of the technical feasibility of geologic storage of spent nuclear fuel in granite: Final report
Patrick, W.C. (comp.)
In the Climax stock granite on the Nevada Test Site, eleven canisters of spent nuclear reactor fuel were emplaced, and six electrical simulators were energized. When test data indicated that the test objectives were met during the 3-year storage phase, the spent-fuel canisters were retrieved and the thermal sources were de-energized. The project demonstrated the feasibility of packaging, transporting, storing, and retrieving highly radioactive fuel assemblies in a safe and reliable manner. In addition to emplacement and retrieval operations, three exchanges of spent-fuel assemblies between the SFT-C and a surface storage facility, conducted during the storage phase, furthered this demonstration. The test led to development of a technical measurements program. To meet these objectives, nearly 1000 instruments and a computer-based data acquisition system were deployed. Geotechnical, seismological, and test status data were recorded on a continuing basis for the three-year storage phase and six-month monitored cool-down of the test. This report summarizes the engineering and scientific endeavors which led to successful design and execution of the test. The design, fabrication, and construction of all facilities and handling systems are discussed, in the context of test objectives and a safety assessment. The discussion progresses from site characterization and experiment design through data acquisition and analysis of test data in the context of design calculations. 117 refs., 52 figs., 81 tabs.
Spent Nuclear Fuel (SNF) Project Product Specification
This document establishes the limits and controls for the significant parameters that could potentially affect the safety and/or quality of the Spent Nuclear Fuel (SNF) packaged for processing, transport, and storage. The product specifications in this document cover the SNF packaged in Multi-Canister Overpacks to be transported throughout the SNF Project.
Comparison of spent nuclear fuel management alternatives
Beebe, C.L.; Caldwell, M.A,
This paper reports the process an results of a trade study of spent nuclear fuel (SNF)management alternatives. The purpose of the trade study was to provide: (1) a summary of various SNF management alternatives, (2) an objective comparison of the various alternatives to facilitate the decision making process, and (3) documentation of trade study rational and the basis for decisions.
Mehta, P.K.
CEMENTS FROM SPENT OIL SHALE P.K. Mehta and P. Persoff AprilCement Manufacture from Oil Shale, U.S. Patent 2,904,445,CEMENTS FROM SPENT OIL SHALE P, K, Mehta Civil Engineering
Operation of N Reactor and Fuels Fabrication Facilities, Hanford Reservation, Richland, Benton County, Washington: Environmental assessment
Not Available
Environmental data, calculations and analyses show no significant adverse radiological or nonradiological impacts from current or projected future operations resulting from N Reactor, Fuels Fabrication and Spent Fuel Storage Facilities. Nonoccupational radiation exposures resulting from 1978 N Reactor operations are summarized and compared to allowable exposure limits.
Assessment of Nuclear Resonance Fluorescence for Spent Nuclear Fuel Assay
Quiter, Brian
Spent Fuel Assay Using Nuclear Resonance Fluo- rescence,� Annual Meeting of the Institute of Nuclear Material Management,
EIS-0203F; DOE Programmatic Spent Nuclear Fuel Management and...
Broader source: Energy.gov (indexed) [DOE]
Department of Energy Programmatic Spent Nuclear Fuel Management and Idaho National Engineering Laboratory Environmental Restoration and Waste Management Programs Final...
Determination of Plutonium Content in Spent Fuel with Nondestructive Assay
Tobin, S. J.
for safeguards of LEU and MOX spent fuel,� Internationalsystems in use today (Safeguards Mox Python Detector, 1 Fork
Natural convection heat transfer within horizontal spent nuclear fuel assemblies
Canaan, R.E.
Natural convection heat transfer is experimentally investigated in an enclosed horizontal rod bundle, which characterizes a spent nuclear fuel assembly during dry storage and/or transport conditions. The basic test section consists of a square array of sixty-four stainless steel tubular heaters enclosed within a water-cooled rectangular copper heat exchanger. The heaters are supplied with a uniform power generation per unit length while the surrounding enclosure is maintained at a uniform temperature. The test section resides within a vacuum/pressure chamber in order to subject the assembly to a range of pressure statepoints and various backfill gases. The objective of this experimental study is to obtain convection correlations which can be used in order to easily incorporate convective effects into analytical models of horizontal spent fuel systems, and also to investigate the physical nature of natural convection in enclosed horizontal rod bundles in general. The resulting data consist of: (1) measured temperatures within the assembly as a function of power, pressure, and backfill gas; (2) the relative radiative contribution for the range of observed temperatures; (3) correlations of convective Nusselt number and Rayleigh number for the rod bundle as a whole; and (4) correlations of convective Nusselt number as a function of Rayleigh number for individual rods within the array.
Delayed Gamma-Ray Spectroscopy for Spent Nuclear Fuel Assay
Campbell, Luke W.; Hunt, Alan W.; Ludewigt, Bernhard A.; Mozin, Vladimir V.
High-energy, beta-delayed gamma-ray spectroscopy is investigated as a non-destructive assay technique for the determination of plutonium mass in spent nuclear fuel. This approach exploits the unique isotope-specific signatures contained in the delayed gamma-ray emission spectra detected following active interrogation with an external neutron source. A high fidelity modeling approach is described that couples radiation transport, analytical decay/depletion, and a newly developed gamma-ray emission source reconstruction code. Initially simulated and analyzed was a �one-pass� delayed gamma-ray assay that focused on the long-lived signatures. Also presented are the results of an independent study that investigated �pulsed mode� measurements, to capture the more isotope-specific, short-lived signatures. Initial modeling results outlined in this paper suggest that delayed gamma-ray assay of spent nuclear fuel assemblies can be accomplished with a neutron generator of sufficient strength and currently available gamma-ray detectors.
The EU Approach for Responsible and Safe Management of Spent Fuel and Radioactive Waste - 12118
Blohm-Hieber, Ute; Necheva, Christina [European Commission, Directorate-General for Energy, Luxembourg L-2920 (Luxembourg)
In July 2011 legislation on responsible and safe management of spent fuel and radioactive waste was adopted in the European Union (EU). It aims at ensuring a high level of safety, avoiding undue burdens on future generations and enhancing transparency. EU Member States are responsible for the management of their spent fuel and/or radioactive waste. Each Member State remains free to define its fuel cycle policy. The spent fuel can be regarded either as a valuable resource that may be reprocessed or as radioactive waste that is destined for direct disposal. Whatever option is chosen, the disposal of high level waste, separated at reprocessing, or of spent fuel regarded as waste should be considered. The storage of radioactive waste, including long-term storage, is an interim solution, but not an alternative to disposal. To this end, each Member State has to establish, maintain and implement national policy, framework and programme for management of spent fuel and/or radioactive waste in the long term. Member States will invite international peer reviews to ensure that high safety standards are achieved. The EU approach is anchored in internationally endorsed principles and requirements of the IAEA safety standards and the Joint Convention and in this context makes them legally binding and enforceable in the EU. The EU approach of regulating the management of spent fuel and radioactive waste is anchored in the competence of the national regulatory authorities and in the internationally endorsed principles and requirements of the IAEA Safety Standards and the Joint Convention. Member States have to report to the Commission on the implementation of Directive 2011/70/Euratom for the first time by 23 August 2015, and every 3 years thereafter, taking advantage of the review and reporting under the Joint Convention. On the basis of the Member States' reports, the Commission will submit to the European Parliament and the Council a report on progress made and an inventory of radioactive waste and spent fuel present in the EU territory and the future prospects. Directive 2011/70/Euratom is a logical next step after the Council Directive 2009/71/Euratom on the nuclear safety of nuclear installations. The EU is the first major regional actor providing a binding legal framework on nuclear safety and on responsible and safe management of spent fuel and radioactive waste, and thus is a real model to progress spent fuel and waste management in a safe and responsible manner. (authors)
Measurement of Spent Fuel Assemblies - Overview of the Status of the Technology for Initiating Discussion at NATIONAL RESEARCH CENTRE KURCHATOV INSTITUTE June 2013
This presentation provides an overview of the status of the technology for the measurement of the fissile material content of spent nuclear reactor fuel. The emphasis is on how the needs of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the International Atomic Energy Agency are met by the available technology and what more needs to be done in this area.
THE ECONOMICS OF REPROCESSING vs DIRECT DISPOSAL OF SPENT NUCLEAR FUEL
Matthew Bunn; Steve Fetter; John P. Holdren; Bob van der Zwaan
This report assesses the economics of reprocessing versus direct disposal of spent nuclear fuel. The breakeven uranium price at which reprocessing spent nuclear fuel from existing light-water reactors (LWRs) and recycling the resulting plutonium and uranium in LWRs would become economic is assessed, using central estimates of the costs of different elements of the nuclear fuel cycle (and other fuel cycle input parameters), for a wide range of range of potential reprocessing prices. Sensitivity analysis is performed, showing that the conclusions reached are robust across a wide range of input parameters. The contribution of direct disposal or reprocessing and recycling to electricity cost is also assessed. The choice of particular central estimates and ranges for the input parameters of the fuel cycle model is justified through a review of the relevant literature. The impact of different fuel cycle approaches on the volume needed for geologic repositories is briefly discussed, as are the issues surrounding the possibility of performing separations and transmutation on spent nuclear fuel to reduce the need for additional repositories. A similar analysis is then performed of the breakeven uranium price at which deploying fast neutron breeder reactors would become competitive compared with a once-through fuel cycle in LWRs, for a range of possible differences in capital cost between LWRs and fast neutron reactors. Sensitivity analysis is again provided, as are an analysis of the contribution to electricity cost, and a justification of the choices of central estimates and ranges for the input parameters. The equations used in the economic model are derived and explained in an appendix. Another appendix assesses the quantities of uranium likely to be recoverable worldwide in the future at a range of different possible future prices.
Initial evaluation of dry storage issues for spent nuclear fuels in wet storage at the Idaho Chemical Processing Plant
Guenther, R.J.; Johnson, A.B. Jr.; Lund, A.L.; Gilbert, E.R. [and others
The Pacific Northwest Laboratory has evaluated the basis for moving selected spent nuclear fuels in the CPP-603 and CPP-666 storage pools at the Idaho Chemical Processing Plant from wet to dry interim storage. This work is being conducted for the Lockheed Idaho Technologies Company as part of the effort to determine appropriate conditioning and dry storage requirements for these fuels. These spent fuels are from 22 test reactors and include elements clad with aluminum or stainless steel and a wide variety of fuel materials: UAl{sub x}, UAl{sub x}-Al and U{sub 3}O{sub 8}-Al cermets, U-5% fissium, UMo, UZrH{sub x}, UErZrH, UO{sub 2}-stainless steel cermet, and U{sub 3}O{sub 8}-stainless steel cermet. The study also included declad uranium-zirconium hydride spent fuel stored in the CPP-603 storage pools. The current condition and potential failure mechanisms for these spent fuels were evaluated to determine the impact on conditioning and dry storage requirements. Initial recommendations for conditioning and dry storage requirements are made based on the potential degradation mechanisms and their impacts on moving the spent fuel from wet to dry storage. Areas needing further evaluation are identified.
Radioactive Waste Management: Study of Spent Fuel Dissolution Rates in Geological Storage Using Dosimetry Modeling and Experimental Verification
Hansen, Brady; Miller, William
This research will provide improved predictions into the mechanisms and effects of radiolysis on spent nuclear fuel dissolution in a geological respository through accurate dosimetry modeling of the dose to water, mechanistic chemistry modeling of the resulting radiolytic reactions and confirmatory experimental measurements. This work will combine effort by the Nuclear Science and Engineering Institute (NSEI) and the Missouri University Research Reactor (MURR) at the University of Missouri-Columbia, and the expertise and facilities at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL).
Reactor Safety Research Programs
Dotson, CW
This document summarizes the work performed by Pacific Northwest laboratory from October 1 through December 31, 1979, for the Division of Reactor Safety Research within the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Evaluation of nondestructive examination (NDE) techniques and instrumentation are reported; areas of investigation include demonstrating the feasibilty of determining structural graphite strength, evaluating the feasibilty of detecting and analyzing flaw growth in reactor pressure boundary systems, examining NDE reliability and probabilistic fracture mechanics, and assessing the remaining integrity of pressurized water reactor steam generator tubes where service-induced degradation has been indicated. Test assemblies and analytical support are being provided for experimental programs at other facilities. These programs include the loss-of-coolant accident simulation tests at the NRU reactor, Chalk River, Canada; the fuel rod deformation and post-accident coolability tests for the ESSOR Test Reactor Program, lspra, Italy; the blowdown and reflood tests in the test facility at Cadarache, France; the instrumented fuel assembly irradiation program at Halden, Norway; and the experimental programs at the Power Burst Facility, Idaho National Engineering Laboratory. These programs will provide data for computer modeling of reactor system and fuel performance during various abnormal operating conditions.
Spent fuel sabotage test program, characterization of aerosol dispersal : interim final report.
Gregson, Michael Warren; Brockmann, John E.; Loiseau, Olivier (Institut de Radioprotection et de Surete Nucleaire, France); Klennert, Lindsay A.; Nolte, Oliver (Fraunhofer Institut fur Toxikologie und Experimentelle Medizin, Germany); Molecke, Martin Alan; Autrusson, Bruno A. (Institut de Radioprotection et de Surete Nucleaire, France); Koch, Wolfgang (Fraunhofer Institut fur Toxikologie und Experimentelle Medizin, Germany); Pretzsch, Gunter Guido (Gesellschaft fur Anlagen- und Reaktorsicherheit, Germany); Brucher, Wenzel (Gesellschaft fur Anlagen- und Reaktorsicherheit, Germany); Steyskal, Michele D.
This multinational, multi-phase spent fuel sabotage test program is quantifying the aerosol particles produced when the products of a high energy density device (HEDD) interact with and explosively particulate test rodlets that contain pellets of either surrogate materials or actual spent fuel. This program provides source-term data that are relevant to plausible sabotage scenarios in relation to spent fuel transport and storage casks and associated risk assessments. We present details and significant results obtained from this program from 2001 through 2007. Measured aerosol results include: respirable fractions produced; amounts, nuclide content, and produced particle size distributions and morphology; measurements of volatile fission product species enhanced sorption--enrichment factors onto respirable particles; and, status on determination of the spent fuel ratio, SFR, needed for scaling studies. Emphasis is provided on recent Phase 3 tests using depleted uranium oxide pellets plus non-radioactive fission product dopants in surrogate spent fuel test rodlets, plus the latest surrogate cerium oxide results and aerosol laboratory supporting calibration work. The DUO{sub 2}, CeO{sub 2}, plus fission product dopant aerosol particle results are compared with available historical data. We also provide a status review on continuing preparations for the final Phase 4 in this program, tests using individual short rodlets containing actual spent fuel from U.S. PWR reactors, with both high- and lower-burnup fuel. The source-term data, aerosol results, and program design have been tailored to support and guide follow-on computer modeling of aerosol dispersal hazards and radiological consequence assessments. This spent fuel sabotage, aerosol test program was performed primarily at Sandia National Laboratories, with support provided by both the U.S. Department of Energy and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. This program has significant input from, and is cooperatively supported and coordinated by both the U.S. and international program participants in Germany, France, and others, as part of the International Working Group for Sabotage Concerns of Transport and Storage Casks (WGSTSC).
Fission Product Impact Reduction via Protracted In-core Retention in Very High Temperature Reactor (VHTR) Transmutation Scenarios
Alajo, Ayodeji Babatunde
is performed, the spent fuel can be partitioned and separated into 3 streams: depleted uranium (to be recycled with plutonium in reactors), TRU and FP. The TRU content of spent fuel is potentially a useable material. TRU can be recycled in advanced reactors... percent depleted uranium and 1.1 percent higher actinides [25]. Based on the 4.6w/o fission product content, it can be estimated that 10GWd/MTU burnup corresponds to about 1.0w/o of fission products in the spent fuel. Given the burnup of U.S. legacy...
Spent nuclear fuel project integrated schedule plan
Squires, K.G.
The Spent Nuclear Fuel Integrated Schedule Plan establishes the organizational responsibilities, rules for developing, maintain and status of the SNF integrated schedule, and an implementation plan for the integrated schedule. The mission of the SNFP on the Hanford site is to provide safe, economic, environmentally sound management of Hanford SNF in a manner which stages it to final disposition. This particularly involves K Basin fuel.
Jassby, Daniel L. (Princeton, NJ)
A nuclear pumped laser capable of producing long pulses of very high power laser radiation is provided. A toroidal fusion reactor provides energetic neutrons which are slowed down by a moderator. The moderated neutrons are converted to energetic particles capable of pumping a lasing medium. The lasing medium is housed in an annular cell surrounding the reactor. The cell includes an annular reflecting mirror at the bottom and an annular output window at the top. A neutron reflector is disposed around the cell to reflect escaping neutrons back into the cell. The laser radiation from the annular window is focused onto a beam compactor which generates a single coherent output laser beam.
Heat Transfer Simulation of Reactor Cavity Cooling System Experimental Facility using RELAP5-3D and Generation of View Factors using MCNP
Wu, Huali
with nine pipes in the cavity, return and supply manifolds connecting standing pipes with water tank and a cylindrical water tank situated at top of the cavity (as shown in Figure 5). In the facility, the cylindrical reactor vessel is approximately... Simulation ......................................................................... 14 2.3.1 Water Tank as Single Volume Without Secondary Loop ............................. 14 2.3.2 Water Tank as Pipe with Secondary Loop...
Solid tags for identifying failed reactor components
Bunch, Wilbur L. (Richland, WA); Schenter, Robert E. (Richland, WA)
A solid tag material which generates stable detectable, identifiable, and measurable isotopic gases on exposure to a neutron flux to be placed in a nuclear reactor component, particularly a fuel element, in order to identify the reactor component in event of its failure. Several tag materials consisting of salts which generate a multiplicity of gaseous isotopes in predetermined ratios are used to identify different reactor components.
Potential of Mirror Systems as Future Fusion Power Reactors
Kessler, Guenter; Kulcinski, Gerald L. [University of Madison (United States)
Mirror based fusion reactors - as other fusion reactor concepts - have considerable environmental and safety advantages. They could make available energy resources for many 1000 years. Mirror type fusion reactors have additional technical advantages over other fusion reactor concepts. These are: simple design topology, steady state power generation, decoupling of end plugs from central power producing regions, small power units as demonstration facilities.
Spent fuel drying system test results (second dry-run)
Klinger, G.S.; Oliver, B.M.; Abrefah, J.; Marschman, S.C.; MacFarlan, P.J.; Ritter, G.A.
The water-filled K-Basins in the Hanford 100 Area have been used to store N-Reactor spent nuclear fuel (SNF) since the 1970s. Because some leaks have been detected in the basins and some of the fuel is breached due to handling damage and corrosion, efforts are underway to remove the fuel elements from wet storage. An Integrated Process Strategy (IPS) has been developed to package, dry, transport, and store these metallic uranium fuel elements in an interim storage facility on the Hanford Site (WHC 1995). Information required to support the development of the drying processes, and the required safety analyses, is being obtained from characterization tests conducted on fuel elements removed from the K-Basins. A series of whole element drying tests (reported in separate documents, see Section 7.0) have been conducted by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) on several intact and damaged fuel elements recovered from both the K-East and K-West Basins. This report documents the results of the second dry-run test, which was conducted without a fuel element. With the concurrence of project management, the test protocol for this run, and subsequent drying test runs, was modified. These modifications were made to allow for improved data correlation with drying procedures proposed under the IPS. Details of these modifications are discussed in Section 3.0.
Sustainability Considerations in Spent Light-water Nuclear Fuel Retrievability
Wood, Thomas W.; Rothwell, Geoffrey
This paper examines long-term cost differences between two competing Light Water Reactor (LWR) fuels: Uranium Oxide (UOX) and Mixed Uranium Oxide-Plutonium Oxide (MOX). Since these costs are calculated on a life-cycle basis, expected savings from lower future MOX fuel prices can be used to value the option of substituting MOX for UOX, including the value of maintaining access to the used UOX fuel that could be reprocessed to make MOX. The two most influential cost drivers are the price of natural uranium and the cost of reprocessing. Significant and sustained reductions in reprocessing costs and/or sustained increases in uranium prices are required to give positive value to the retrievability of Spent Nuclear Fuel. While this option has positive economic value, it might not be exercised for 50 to 200 years. Therefore, there are many years for a program during which reprocessing technology can be researched, developed, demonstrated, and deployed. Further research is required to determine whether the cost of such a program would yield positive net present value and/or increases the sustainability of LWR energy systems.
N-Reactor (U-metal) Fuel Characteristics for Disposal Criticality Analysis
Taylor, Larry Lorin
DOE-owned spent nuclear fuels encompass many fuel types. In an effort to facilitate criticality analysis for these various fuel types, they were categorized into nine characteristic fuel groups with emphasis on fuel matrix composition. Out of each fuel group, a representative fuel type was chosen for analysis as a bounding case within that fuel group. Generally, burnup data, fissile enrichments, and total fuel and fissile mass govern the selection of the representative or candidate fuel within that group. Additionally, the criticality analysis will also require data to support design of the canister internals, thermal, and radiation shielding. The purpose of this report is to consolidate and provide in a concise format, material and information/data needed to perform supporting analyses to qualify N-Reactor fuels for acceptance into the designated repository. The N Reactor fuels incorporate zirconium cladding and uranium metal with unique fabrication details in terms of physical size, and method of construction. The fuel construction and post-irradiation handling have created attendant issues relative to cladding failure in the underwater storage environment. These fuels were comprised of low-enriched metal (0.947 to 1.25 wt% 235U) that were originally intended to generate weapons-grade plutonium for national defense. Modifications in subsequent fuel design and changes in the mode of reactor operation in later years were focused more toward power production.
SILER: Seismic-Initiated events risk mitigation in Lead-cooled Reactors
Forni, M. [ENEA, Via Martin di Monte Sole 4, 40129 Bologna (Italy); De Grandis, S. [SINTEC, Via Santo Stefano 20, 40125 Bologna (Italy)
SILER is a Collaborative Project, partially funded by the European Commission, aimed at studying the risk associated to seismic initiated events in Generation IV Heavy Liquid Metal reactors and developing adequate protection measures. The attention is focused on the evaluation of the effects of earthquakes (with particular regards to beyond design seismic events) and to the identification of mitigation strategies, acting both on structures and components design (as well as on the development of seismic isolation devices) which can also have positive effects on economics, leading to an high level of plant design standardization. Attention is also devoted to the identification of plant layout solutions able to avoid risks of radioactive release from both the core and other structures (i.e. the spent fuel storage pools). Specific effort is paid to the development of guidelines and design recommendations for addressing the seismic issue in next generation reactor systems. In addition, consideration will be devoted to transfer the knowledge developed in the project to Generation III advanced systems, in line with the objective of the SNE-TP SRA to support present and future Light Water Reactors and their further development, for which safety issues are key aspects to be addressed. Note, in this respect, that the benefits of base isolation in terms of response to design seismic actions are already widely recognized for Generation III LWRs, along with the possibility of a significant standardization of structural and equipment design. SILER activities started on October 1 st 2011 and are carried out by 18 partners: ENEA (Italy, Coordinator), AREVA NP SAS (France), SCK-CEN (Belgium), FIP Industriale (Italy), MAURER SOHENE (Germany), EC-JRC (Ispra (Italy)), SINTEC (Italy), KTH (Sweden), BOA-BKT (Germany), IDOM (Spain), ANSALDO (Italy), IPUL (Latvia), NUMERIA (Italy), VCE (Austria), SRS (Italy), CEA (France), EA (Spain), NUVIA (France). (authors)
Integrated data base report - 1994: US spent nuclear fuel and radioactive waste inventories, projections, and characteristics
The Integrated Data Base Program has compiled historic data on inventories and characteristics of both commercial and U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) spent nuclear fuel and commercial and U.S. government-owned radioactive wastes. Except for transuranic wastes, inventories of these materials are reported as of December 31, 1994. Transuranic waste inventories are reported as of December 31, 1993. All spent nuclear fuel and radioactive waste data reported are based on the most reliable information available from government sources, the open literature, technical reports, and direct contacts. The information forecasted is consistent with the latest DOE/Energy Information Administration (EIA) projections of U.S. commercial nuclear power growth and the expected DOE-related and private industrial and institutional activities. The radioactive materials considered, on a chapter-by-chapter basis, are spent nuclear fuel, high-level waste, transuranic waste, low-level waste, commercial uranium mill tailings, DOE Environmental Restoration Program contaminated environmental media, commercial reactor and fuel-cycle facility decommissioning wastes, and mixed (hazardous and radioactive) low-level waste. For most of these categories, current and projected inventories are given through the calendar-year 2030, and the radioactivity and thermal power are calculated based on reported or estimated isotopic compositions.
The Impact of Microbially Influenced Corrosion on Spent Nuclear Fuel and Storage Life
J. H. Wolfram; R. E. Mizia; R. Jex; L. Nelson; K. M. Garcia
A study was performed to evaluate if microbial activity could be considered a threat to spent nuclear fuel integrity. The existing data regarding the impact of microbial influenced corrosion (MIC) on spent nuclear fuel storage does not allow a clear assessment to be made. In order to identify what further data are needed, a literature survey on MIC was accomplished with emphasis on materials used in nuclear fuel fabrication, e.g., A1, 304 SS, and zirconium. In addition, a survey was done at Savannah River, Oak Ridge, Hanford, and the INEL on the condition of their wet storage facilities. The topics discussed were the SNF path forward, the types of fuel, ramifications of damaged fuel, involvement of microbial processes, dry storage scenarios, ability to identify microbial activity, definitions of water quality, and the use of biocides. Information was also obtained at international meetings in the area of biological mediated problems in spent fuel and high level wastes. Topics dis cussed included receiving foreign reactor research fuels into existing pools, synergism between different microbes and other forms of corrosion, and cross contamination.
Economic Evaluation of Electrical Power Generation Using Laser Inertial Fusion Energy (LIFE)
Tm Anklam; Wayne Meier; Al Erl; Robin Miles; Aaron Simon
With the completion of the National Ignition Facility (NIF) and upcoming ignition experiments, there is renewed interest in laser fusion-fission hybrids and pure fusion systems for base load power generation. An advantage of a laser fusion based system is that it would produce copious neutrons ( ~ 1.8x10 20 /s for a 500 MW fusion source). This opens the door to hybrid systems with once through, high burn-up, closed fuel cycles. With abundant fusion neutrons, only modest fission gain (5 to 10) is needed for power production. Depleted uranium can be used as the fission fuel, effectively eliminating the need for uranium mining and enrichment. With high burn up, a hybrid would generate only 5 % to 10% the volume of high-level nuclear waste per kilowatt hour that a once through light water reactor (LWR) does. Reprocessing is no longer needed to close the fuel cycle as the spent fuel can, after interim cooling, go directly to geologic disposal. While the depleted uranium fuel cycle offers advantages of simplicity and proliferation avoidance, it has the most challenging fuel lifetime requirements. Fissile fuel such as plutonium, or plutonium and minor actinides separated from spent nuclear fuel, would have roughly twice the fission gain and incur only about 25 % of the radiation damage to reach the same burn up level as depleted uranium. These missions are interesting in their own right and also provide an opportunity for early market entry of laser fusion based energy sources. A third fuel cycle option is to burn spent fuel directly, without prior separation of the plutonium and minor actinides. The neutronic and economic performance of this fuel cycle is very similar to the depleted uranium system. The primary difference is the need to fabricate new LIFE fuel from spent LWR fuel. The advantage of this fuel cycle is that it would burn the residual actinides in spent nuclear fuel, greatly reducing long term radio-toxicity and heat load, while avoiding the need to chemically separate spent LWR fuel.
Recycling spent sandblasting grit and similar wastes as aggregate in asphaltic concrete. Technical data sheet
Heath, J.C.; Nelson, B.
The Naval Facilities Engineering Service Center (NFESC), Port Hueneme, California, and Naval Facilities Engineering Command Engineering Field Activity, West, San Bruno, California, took overall leadership in identifying and testing methods to manage waste generated from a machine shop located at Hunters Point Annex, at Naval Station, Treasure Island, California. Ship cleaning and equipment maintenance resulted in the accumulation of 4,665 tons of spent sandblasting grit at the site. The spent grit, consisting of silica sand plus a small amount of slag-derived grit, had the physical characteristics of coarse-grained beach sand and also contained fragments of coatings. The spent grit had the potential for exhibiting hazardous characteristics since the coatings included lead-based primers, copper, and butyltin-containing antifouling topcoats. The most beneficial application of reusing the spent grit was to use it as a replacement for some of the fine aggregate in asphaltic concrete. A test program was established that included characterization, bench-scale testing, long-term pilot scale testing, and a full-scale demonstration. Full-scale asphalt production provided samples which proved both the chemical leaching resistance and physical performance characteristics were acceptable.
Catalytic hydrolysis of urea with fly ash for generation of ammonia in a batch reactor for flue gas conditioning and NOx reduction
Sahu, J.N.; Gangadharan, P.; Patwardhan, A.V.; Meikap, B.C. [Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur (India). Dept. of Chemical Engineering
Ammonia is a highly volatile noxious material with adverse physiological effects, which become intolerable even at very low concentrations and present substantial environmental and operating hazards and risk. Yet ammonia has long been known to be used for feedstock of flue gas conditioning and NOx reduction. Urea as the source of ammonia for the production of ammonia has the obvious advantages that no ammonia shipping, handling, and storage is required. The process of this invention minimizes the risks and hazards associated with the transport, storage, and use of anhydrous and aqueous ammonia. Yet no such rapid urea conversion process is available as per requirement of high conversion in shorter time, so here we study the catalytic hydrolysis of urea for fast conversion in a batch reactor. The catalyst used in this study is fly ash, a waste material originating in great amounts in combustion processes. A number of experiments were carried out in a batch reactor at different catalytic doses, temperatures, times, and at a constant concentration of urea solution 10% by weight, and equilibrium and kinetic studies have been made.
High Energy Delayed Gamma Spectroscopy for Plutonium Assay of Spent Fuel
Campbell, Luke W.; Misner, Alex C.; Smith, Leon E.; Reese, Steve; Robinson, Joshua
The direct measurement of plutonium in spent reactor fuel is an unmet challenge in international safeguards. In this simulation study, we investigate the use of the delayed gamma rays from fission product nuclei to determine the amount of fissile isotopes (Pu-239, Pu-241, and U-235) in irradiated light water reactor fuel assemblies. Fission is stimulated with an interrogating neutron source, and the radiation from the short lived fission products is measured. This measured gamma spectrum is then fit to a linear combination of spectra from pure Pu-239, Pu-241, and U-235 to determine the proportion of fissile isotopes present. In this paper, we describe the modelling and analysis methods used to represent the background of radioemissions from long-lived isotopes originally present in the spent fuel and the short time scale delayed gamma signal. Results are presented for simulations using a nominal instrument design on a library of fuel assemblies with burnups ranging from 0 to 60 GWd/MTU.
Halstead, Robert J.; Dilger, Fred
No comprehensive, up-to-date, official database exists for spent nuclear fuel shipments in the United States. The authors review the available data sources, and conclude that the absence of such a database can only be rectified by a major research effort, similar to that carried out by Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in the early 1990s. Based on a variety of published references, and unpublished data from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), the authors estimate cumulative U.S. shipments of commercial spent fuel for the period 1964-2001. The cumulative estimates include quantity shipped, number of cask-shipments, and shipment-miles, by truck and by rail. The authors review previous estimates of future spent fuel shipments, including contractor reports prepared for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), NRC, and the State of Nevada. The DOE Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) for Yucca Mountain includes projections of spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive was te shipments for two inventory disposal scenarios (24 years and 38 years) and two national transportation modal scenarios (''mostly legal-weight truck'' and ''mostly rail''). Commercial spent fuel would compromise about 90 percent of the wastes shipped to the repository. The authors estimate potential shipments to Yucca Mountain over 38 years (2010-2048) for the DOE ''mostly legal-weight truck'' and ''mostly rail'' scenarios, and for an alternative modal mix scenario based on current shipping capabilities of the 72 commercial reactor sites. The cumulative estimates of future spent fuel shipments include quantity shipped, number of cask-shipments, and shipment-miles, by legal-weight truck, heavy-haul truck, rail and barge.
Surrogate Spent Nuclear Fuel Vibration Integrity Investigation
Wang, Jy-An John [ORNL; Wang, Hong [ORNL; Bevard, Bruce Balkcom [ORNL; Howard, Rob L [ORNL
Transportation packages for spent nuclear fuel (SNF) must meet safety requirements under normal and accident conditions as specified by federal regulations. During transportation, SNF experiences unique conditions and challenges to cladding integrity due to the vibrational and impact loading encountered during road or rail shipment. ORNL has been developing testing capabilities that can be used to improve our understanding of the impacts of vibration loading on SNF integrity, especially for high burn-up SNF in normal transportation operation conditions. This information can be used to meet nuclear industry and U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission needs in the area of safety of SNF storage and transportation operations.
TEPP - Spent Nuclear Fuel | Department of Energy
Office of Environmental Management (EM)
AFDC Printable Version Share this resource Send a link to EERE: Alternative Fuels Data Center Home Page to someone by E-mail Share EERE: Alternative Fuels Data Center Home Page on Facebook Tweet about EERE: Alternative Fuels Data Center Home Page on Twitter Bookmark EERE: Alternative1 First Use of Energy for All Purposes (Fuel and Nonfuel), 2002; Level: National5Sales for4,645 3,625 1,006 492 742 33 1112011 Strategic2Uranium Transferon the PassingRouting TEC Working GroupEnergy- Spent
Assessment of Nuclear Resonance Fluorescence for Spent Nuclear Fuel Assay
Quiter, Brian; Ludewigt, Bernhard; Ambers, Scott
In nuclear resonance fluorescence (NRF) measurements, resonances are excited by an external photon beam leading to the emission of gamma rays with specific energies that are characteristic of the emitting isotope. NRF promises the unique capability of directly quantifying a specific isotope without the need for unfolding the combined responses of several fissile isotopes as is required in other measurement techniques. We have analyzed the potential of NRF as a non-destructive analysis technique for quantitative measurements of Pu isotopes in spent nuclear fuel (SNF). Given the low concentrations of 239Pu in SNF and its small integrated NRF cross sections, the main challenge in achieving precise and accurate measurements lies in accruing sufficient counting statistics in a reasonable measurement time. Using analytical modeling, and simulations with the radiation transport code MCNPX that has been experimentally tested recently, the backscatter and transmission methods were quantitatively studied for differing photon sources and radiation detector types. Resonant photon count rates and measurement times were estimated for a range of photon source and detection parameters, which were used to determine photon source and gamma-ray detector requirements. The results indicate that systems based on a bremsstrahlung source and present detector technology are not practical for high-precision measurements of 239Pu in SNF. Measurements that achieve the desired uncertainties within hour-long measurements will either require stronger resonances, which may be expressed by other Pu isotopes, or require quasi-monoenergetic photon sources with intensities that are approximately two orders of magnitude higher than those currently being designed or proposed.This work is part of a larger effort sponsored by the Next Generation Safeguards Initiative to develop an integrated instrument, comprised of individual NDA techniques with complementary features, that is fully capable of determining Pu mass in spent fuel assemblies.
Spent fuel management fee methodology and computer code user's manual.
Engel, R.L.; White, M.K.
The methodology and computer model described here were developed to analyze the cash flows for the federal government taking title to and managing spent nuclear fuel. The methodology has been used by the US Department of Energy (DOE) to estimate the spent fuel disposal fee that will provide full cost recovery. Although the methodology was designed to analyze interim storage followed by spent fuel disposal, it could be used to calculate a fee for reprocessing spent fuel and disposing of the waste. The methodology consists of two phases. The first phase estimates government expenditures for spent fuel management. The second phase determines the fees that will result in revenues such that the government attains full cost recovery assuming various revenue collection philosophies. These two phases are discussed in detail in subsequent sections of this report. Each of the two phases constitute a computer module, called SPADE (SPent fuel Analysis and Disposal Economics) and FEAN (FEe ANalysis), respectively.
Fate of Noble Metals during the Pyroprocessing of Spent Nuclear Fuel
B.R. Westphal; D. Vaden; S.X. Li; G.L. Fredrickson; R.D. Mariani
During the pyroprocessing of spent nuclear fuel by electrochemical techniques, fission products are separated as the fuel is oxidized at the anode and refined uranium is deposited at the cathode. Those fission products that are oxidized into the molten salt electrolyte are considered active metals while those that do not react are considered noble metals. The primary noble metals encountered during pyroprocessing are molybdenum, zirconium, ruthenium, rhodium, palladium, and technetium. Pyroprocessing of spent fuel to date has involved two distinctly different electrorefiner designs, in particular the anode to cathode configuration. For one electrorefiner, the anode and cathode collector are horizontally displaced such that uranium is transported across the electrolyte medium. As expected, the noble metal removal from the uranium during refining is very high, typically in excess of 99%. For the other electrorefiner, the anode and cathode collector are vertically collocated to maximize uranium throughput. This arrangement results in significantly less noble metals removal from the uranium during refining, typically no better than 20%. In addition to electrorefiner design, operating parameters can also influence the retention of noble metals, albeit at the cost of uranium recovery. Experiments performed to date have shown that as much as 100% of the noble metals can be retained by the cladding hulls while affecting the uranium recovery by only 6%. However, it is likely that commercial pyroprocessing of spent fuel will require the uranium recovery to be much closer to 100%. The above mentioned design and operational issues will likely be driven by the effects of noble metal contamination on fuel fabrication and performance. These effects will be presented in terms of thermal properties (expansion, conductivity, and fusion) and radioactivity considerations. Ultimately, the incorporation of minor amounts of noble metals from pyroprocessing into fast reactor metallic fuel will be shown to be of no consequence to reactor performance.
A strategy for transition from a uranium fueled, open cycle SFR to a transuranic fueled, closed cycle sodium cooled fast reactor
Richard, Joshua (Joshua Glenn)
Reactors utilizing a highly energetic neutron spectrum, often termed fast reactors, offer large fuel utilization improvements over the thermal reactors currently used for nuclear energy generation. Conventional fast reactor ...
The effect of the composition of plutonium loaded on the reactivity change and the isotopic composition of fuel produced in a fast reactor
Blandinskiy, V. Yu., E-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com [National Research Center Kurchatov Institute (Russian Federation)
This paper presents the results of a numerical investigation into burnup and breeding of nuclides in metallic fuel consisting of a mixture of plutonium and depleted uranium in a fast reactor with sodium coolant. The feasibility of using plutonium contained in spent nuclear fuel from domestic thermal reactors and weapons-grade plutonium is discussed. It is shown that the largest production of secondary fuel and the least change in the reactivity over the reactor lifetime can be achieved when employing plutonium contained in spent nuclear fuel from a reactor of the RBMK-1000 type.
Self isolating high frequency saturable reactor
Moore, James A. (Powell, TN)
The present invention discloses a saturable reactor and a method for decoupling the interwinding capacitance from the frequency limitations of the reactor so that the equivalent electrical circuit of the saturable reactor comprises a variable inductor. The saturable reactor comprises a plurality of physically symmetrical magnetic cores with closed loop magnetic paths and a novel method of wiring a control winding and a RF winding. The present invention additionally discloses a matching network and method for matching the impedances of a RF generator to a load. The matching network comprises a matching transformer and a saturable reactor.
Control of reactor coolant flow path during reactor decay heat removal
Hunsbedt, Anstein N. (Los Gatos, CA)
An improved reactor vessel auxiliary cooling system for a sodium cooled nuclear reactor is disclosed. The sodium cooled nuclear reactor is of the type having a reactor vessel liner separating the reactor hot pool on the upstream side of an intermediate heat exchanger and the reactor cold pool on the downstream side of the intermediate heat exchanger. The improvement includes a flow path across the reactor vessel liner flow gap which dissipates core heat across the reactor vessel and containment vessel responsive to a casualty including the loss of normal heat removal paths and associated shutdown of the main coolant liquid sodium pumps. In normal operation, the reactor vessel cold pool is inlet to the suction side of coolant liquid sodium pumps, these pumps being of the electromagnetic variety. The pumps discharge through the core into the reactor hot pool and then through an intermediate heat exchanger where the heat generated in the reactor core is discharged. Upon outlet from the heat exchanger, the sodium is returned to the reactor cold pool. The improvement includes placing a jet pump across the reactor vessel liner flow gap, pumping a small flow of liquid sodium from the lower pressure cold pool into the hot pool. The jet pump has a small high pressure driving stream diverted from the high pressure side of the reactor pumps. During normal operation, the jet pumps supplement the normal reactor pressure differential from the lower pressure cold pool to the hot pool. Upon the occurrence of a casualty involving loss of coolant pump pressure, and immediate cooling circuit is established by the back flow of sodium through the jet pumps from the reactor vessel hot pool to the reactor vessel cold pool. The cooling circuit includes flow into the reactor vessel liner flow gap immediate the reactor vessel wall and containment vessel where optimum and immediate discharge of residual reactor heat occurs.
Development of Materials for Supercritical-Water-Cooled Reactor
Broader source: Energy.gov [DOE]
Supercritical-Water-Cooled Reactor (SCWR) was selected as one of the promising candidates in Generation IV reactors for its prominent advantages; those are the high thermal efficiency, the system...
President Reagan Calls for a National Spent Fuel Storage Facility...
National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)
Reagan Calls for a National Spent Fuel Storage Facility | National Nuclear Security Administration Facebook Twitter Youtube Flickr RSS People Mission Managing the Stockpile...
Huizenga leads safety of spent fuel management, radioactive waste...
Broader source: All U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office Webpages (Extended Search)
Huizenga leads safety of spent fuel management, radioactive waste management meeting in Vienna | National Nuclear Security Administration Facebook Twitter Youtube Flickr RSS People...
Transportation capabilities study of DOE-owned spent nuclear fuel
Clark, G.L.; Johnson, R.A.; Smith, R.W. [Packaging Technology, Inc., Tacoma, WA (United States); Abbott, D.G.; Tyacke, M.J. [Lockheed Idaho Technologies Co., Idaho Falls, ID (United States)
This study evaluates current capabilities for transporting spent nuclear fuel owned by the US Department of Energy. Currently licensed irradiated fuel shipping packages that have the potential for shipping the spent nuclear fuel are identified and then matched against the various spent nuclear fuel types. Also included are the results of a limited investigation into other certified packages and new packages currently under development. This study is intended to support top-level planning for the disposition of the Department of Energy`s spent nuclear fuel inventory.
Nondestructive Spent Fuel Assay Using Nuclear Resonance Fluorescence
Quiter, Brian
Spent Fuel Library for Assessing Varied Nondestructive Assay Techniques for Nuclear Safeguards," LA-UR 09-01188, ANS Advances in Nuclear Fuel Management
Regeneration of field-spent activated carbon catalysts for low...
Broader source: All U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office Webpages (Extended Search)
The spent carbon catalysts were regenerated by washing with a surfactant followed by drying and calcination. The physicochemical properties before and after the regeneration were...
Spent Nuclear Fuel project integrated safety management plan
Daschke, K.D.
This document is being revised in its entirety and the document title is being revised to ``Spent Nuclear Fuel Project Integrated Safety Management Plan.
Development of a methodology for the assessment of shallow-flaw fracture in nuclear reactor pressure vessels: Generation of biaxial shallow-flaw fracture toughness data
McAfee, W.J.; Bass, B.R.; Bryson, J.W.
A technology to determine shallow-flaw fracture toughness of reactor pressure vessel (RPV) steels is being developed for application to the safety assessment of RPVs containing postulated shallow-surface flaws. Shallow-flaw fracture toughness of RPV material has been shown to be higher than that for deep flaws, because of the relaxation of crack-tip constraint. This report describes the preliminary test results for a series of cruciform specimens with a uniform depth surface flaw. These specimens are all of the same size with the same depth flaw. Temperature and biaxial load ratio are the independent variables. These tests demonstrated that biaxial loading could have a pronounced effect on shallow-flaw fracture toughness in the lower transition temperature region for RPV materials. Through that temperature range, the effect of full biaxial (1:1) loading on uniaxial, shallow-flaw toughness varied from no effect near the lower shelf to a reduction of approximately 58% at higher temperatures.
Glasstone, S.; Sesonske, A.
Chapters are presented concerning energy from nuclear fission; nuclear reactions and radiations; diffusion and slowing-down of neutrons; principles of reactor analysis; nuclear reactor kinetics and control; energy removal; non-fuel reactor materials; the reactor fuel system; radiation protection and environmental effects; nuclear reactor shielding; nuclear reactor safety; and power reactor systems.
Pyroprocess for processing spent nuclear fuel
Miller, William E. (Naperville, IL); Tomczuk, Zygmunt (Lockport, IL)
This is a pyroprocess for processing spent nuclear fuel. The spent nuclear fuel is chopped into pieces and placed in a basket which is lowered in to a liquid salt solution. The salt is rich in ZrF.sub.4 and containing alkali or alkaline earth fluorides, and in particular, the salt chosen was LiF-50 mol % ZrF.sub.4 with a eutectic melting point of 500.degree. C. Prior to lowering the basket, the salt is heated to a temperature of between 550.degree. C. and 700.degree. C. in order to obtain a molten solution. After dissolution the oxides of U, Th, rare earth and other like oxides, the salt bath solution is subject to hydro-fluorination to remove the oxygen and then to a fluorination step to remove U as gaseous UF.sub.6. In addition, after dissolution, the basket contains PuO.sub.2 and undissolved parts of the fuel rods, and the basket and its contents are processed to remove the Pu.
Systems impacts of spent fuel disassembly alternatives
Not Available
Three studies were completed to evaluate four alternatives to the disposal of intact spent fuel assemblies in a geologic repository. A preferred spent fuel waste form for disposal was recommended on consideration of (1) package design and fuel/package interaction, (2) long-term, in-repository performance of the waste form, and (3) overall process performance and costs for packaging, handling, and emplacement. The four basic alternative waste forms considered were (1) end fitting removal, (2) fission gas venting, (3) disassembly and close packing, and (4) shearing/immobilization. None of the findings ruled out any alternative on the basis of waste package considerations or long-term performance of the waste form. The third alternative offers flexibility in loading that may prove attractive in the various geologic media under consideration, greatly reduces the number of packages, and has the lowest unit cost. These studies were completed in October, 1981. Since then Westinghouse Electric Corporation and the Office of Nuclear Waste Isolation have completed studies in related fields. This report is now being published to provide publicly the background material that is contained within. 47 references, 28 figures, 31 tables.
Lessons Learned From Gen I Carbon Dioxide Cooled Reactors
David E. Shropshire
This paper provides a review of early gas cooled reactors including the Magnox reactors originating in the United Kingdom and the subsequent development of the Advanced Gas-cooled Reactors (AGR). These early gas cooled reactors shared a common coolant medium, namely carbon dioxide (CO2). A framework of information is provided about these early reactors and identifies unique problems/opportunities associated with use of CO2 as a coolant. Reactor designers successfully rose to these challenges. After years of successful use of the CO2 gas cooled reactors in Europe, the succeeding generation of reactors, called the High Temperature Gas Reactors (HTGR), were designed with Helium gas as the coolant. Again, in the 21st century, with the latest reactor designs under investigation in Generation IV, there is a revived interest in developing Gas Cooled Fast Reactors that use CO2 as the reactor coolant. This paper provides a historical perspective on the 52 CO2 reactors and the reactor programs that developed them. The Magnox and AGR design features and safety characteristics were reviewed, as well as the technologies associated with fuel storage, reprocessing, and disposal. Lessons-learned from these programs are noted to benefit the designs of future generations of gas cooled nuclear reactors.
BWR Source Term Generation and Evaluation
J.C. Ryman
This calculation is a revision of a previous calculation (Ref. 7.5) that bears the same title and has the document identifier BBAC00000-01717-0210-00006 REV 01. The purpose of this revision is to remove TBV (to-be-verified) -41 10 associated with the output files of the previous version (Ref. 7.30). The purpose of this and the previous calculation is to generate source terms for a representative boiling water reactor (BWR) spent nuclear fuel (SNF) assembly for the first one million years after the SNF is discharged from the reactors. This calculation includes an examination of several ways to represent BWR assemblies and operating conditions in SAS2H in order to quantify the effects these representations may have on source terms. These source terms provide information characterizing the neutron and gamma spectra in particles per second, the decay heat in watts, and radionuclide inventories in curies. Source terms are generated for a range of burnups and enrichments (see Table 2) that are representative of the waste stream and stainless steel (SS) clad assemblies. During this revision, it was determined that the burnups used for the computer runs of the previous revision were actually about 1.7% less than the stated, or nominal, burnups. See Section 6.6 for a discussion of how to account for this effect before using any source terms from this calculation. The source term due to the activation of corrosion products deposited on the surfaces of the assembly from the coolant is also calculated. The results of this calculation support many areas of the Monitored Geologic Repository (MGR), which include thermal evaluation, radiation dose determination, radiological safety analyses, surface and subsurface facility designs, and total system performance assessment. This includes MGR items classified as Quality Level 1, for example, the Uncanistered Spent Nuclear Fuel Disposal Container (Ref. 7.27, page 7). Therefore, this calculation is subject to the requirements of the Quality Assurance Requirements and Description (Ref. 7.28). The performance of the calculation and development of this document are carried out in accordance with AP-3.124, ''Design Calculation and Analyses'' (Ref. 7.29).
Spent Nuclear Fuel (SNF) Project Cold Vacuum Drying (CVD) Facility Operations Manual
The mission of the Spent Nuclear Fuel (SNF) Project Cold Vacuum Drying Facility (CVDF) is to achieve the earliest possible removal of free water from Multi-Canister Overpacks (MCOs). The MCOs contain metallic uranium SNF that have been removed from the 100K Area fuel storage water basins (i.e., the K East and K West Basins) at the US. Department of Energy Hanford Site in Southeastern Washington state. Removal of free water is necessary to halt water-induced corrosion of exposed uranium surfaces and to allow the MCOs and their SNF payloads to be safely transported to the Hanford Site 200 East Area and stored within the SNF Project Canister Storage Building (CSB). The CVDF is located within a few hundred yards of the basins, southwest of the 165KW Power Control Building and the 105KW Reactor Building. The site area required for the facility and vehicle circulation is approximately 2 acres. Access and egress is provided by the main entrance to the 100K inner area using existing roadways. The CVDF will remove free. water from the MCOs to reduce the potential for continued fuel-water corrosion reactions. The cold vacuum drying process involves the draining of bulk water from the MCO and subsequent vacuum drying. The MCO will be evacuated to a pressure of 8 torr or less and backfilled with an inert gas (helium). The MCO will be sealed, leak tested, and then transported to the CSB within a sealed shipping cask. (The MCO remains within the same shipping Cask from the time it enters the basin to receive its SNF payload until it is removed from the Cask by the CSB MCO handling machine.) The CVDF subproject acquired the required process systems, supporting equipment, and facilities. The cold vacuum drying operations result in an MCO containing dried fuel that is prepared for shipment to the CSB by the Cask transportation system. The CVDF subproject also provides equipment to dispose of solid wastes generated by the cold vacuum drying process and transfer process water removed from the MCO back to the K Basins.
Feasibility Study of Supercritical Light Water Cooled Fast Reactors for Actinide Burning and Electric Power Production, Progress Report for Work Through September 2002, 4th Quarterly Report
Mac Donald, Philip Elsworth
The use of light water at supercritical pressures as the coolant in a nuclear reactor offers the potential for considerable plant simplification and consequent capital and O&M cost reduction compared with current light water reactor (LWR) designs. Also, given the thermodynamic conditions of the coolant at the core outlet (i.e. temperature and pressure beyond the water critical point), very high thermal efficiencies of the power conversion cycle are possible (i.e. up to about 45%). Because no change of phase occurs in the core, the need for steam separators and dryers as well as for BWR-type re-circulation pumps is eliminated, which, for a given reactor power, results in a substantially shorter reactor vessel and smaller containment building than the current BWRs. Furthermore, in a direct cycle the steam generators are not needed. If no additional moderator is added to the fuel rod lattice, it is possible to attain fast neutron energy spectrum conditions in a supercritical water-cooled reactor (SCWR). This type of core can make use of either fertile or fertile-free fuel and retain a hard spectrum to effectively burn plutonium and minor actinides from LWR spent fuel while efficiently generating electricity. One can also add moderation and design a thermal spectrum SCWR. The Generation IV Roadmap effort has identified the thermal spectrum SCWR (followed by the fast spectrum SCWR) as one of the advanced concepts that should be developed for future use. Therefore, the work in this NERI project is addressing both types of SCWRs.
Electrochemical cell apparatus having axially distributed entry of a fuel-spent fuel mixture transverse to the cell lengths
Reichner, Philip (Plum Borough, PA); Dollard, Walter J. (Churchill Borough, PA)
An electrochemical apparatus (10) is made having a generator section (22) containing axially elongated electrochemical cells (16), a fresh gaseous feed fuel inlet (28), a gaseous feed oxidant inlet (30), and at least one gaseous spent fuel exit channel (46), where the spent fuel exit channel (46) passes from the generator chamber (22) to combine with the fresh feed fuel inlet (28) at a mixing apparatus (50), reformable fuel mixture channel (52) passes through the length of the generator chamber (22) and connects with the mixing apparatus (50), that channel containing entry ports (54) within the generator chamber (22), where the axis of the ports is transverse to the fuel electrode surfaces (18), where a catalytic reforming material is distributed near the reformable fuel mixture entry ports (54).
Spent Nuclear Fuel Dry Transfer System Cold Demonstration Project Final Report
Christensen, Max R; McKinnon, M. A.
The spent nuclear fuel dry transfer system (DTS) provides an interface between large and small casks and between storage-only and transportation casks. It permits decommissioning of reactor pools after shutdown and allows the use of large storage-only casks for temporary onsite storage of spent nuclear fuel irrespective of reactor or fuel handling limitations at a reactor site. A cold demonstration of the DTS prototype was initiated in August 1996 at the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (INEEL). The major components demonstrated included the fuel assembly handling subsystem, the shield plug/lid handling subsystem, the cask interface subsystem, the demonstration control subsystem, a support frame, and a closed circuit television and lighting system. The demonstration included a complete series of DTS operations from source cask receipt and opening through fuel transfer and closure of the receiving cask. The demonstration included both normal operations and recovery from off-normal events. It was designed to challenge the system to determine whether there were any activities that could be made to jeopardize the activities of another function or its safety. All known interlocks were challenged. The equipment ran smoothly and functioned as designed. A few "bugs" were corrected. Prior to completion of the demonstration testing, a number of DTS prototype systems were modified to apply lessons learned to date. Additional testing was performed to validate the modifications. In general, all the equipment worked exceptionally well. The demonstration also helped confirm cost estimates that had been made at several points in the development of the system.
Plutonium Consumption Program, CANDU Reactor Project final report
Not Available
DOE is investigating methods for long term dispositioning of weapons grade plutonium. One such method would be to utilize the plutonium in Mixed OXide (MOX) fuel assemblies in existing CANDU reactors. CANDU (Canadian Deuterium Uranium) reactors are designed, licensed, built, and supported by Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL), and currently use natural uranium oxide as fuel. The MOX spent fuel assemblies removed from the reactor would be similar to the spent fuel currently produced using natural uranium fuel, thus rendering the plutonium as unattractive as that in the stockpiles of commercial spent fuel. This report presents the results of a study sponsored by the DOE for dispositioning the plutonium using CANDU technology. Ontario Hydro`s Bruce A was used as reference. The fuel design study defined the optimum parameters to disposition 50 tons of Pu in 25 years (or 100 tons). Two alternate fuel designs were studied. Safeguards, security, environment, safety, health, economics, etc. were considered. Options for complete destruction of the Pu were also studied briefly; CANDU has a superior ability for this. Alternative deployment options were explored and the potential impact on Pu dispositioning in the former Soviet Union was studied. An integrated system can be ready to begin Pu consumption in 4 years, with no changes required to the reactors other than for safe, secure storage of new fuel.
Shultis, J. Kenneth
RADIATION ANALYSIS OF A SPENT-FUEL STORAGE CASK by J.K. Shultis Department of Mechanical;Radiation Analysis of a Spect-Fuel Storage Cask by J.K.Shultis Dept. Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering a single Transnuclear spent-fuel storage cask holding 68 design-basis fuel assemblies (a TN-68 cask
Measurement and analysis of gamma-rays emitted from spent nuclear fuel above 3 MeV
Rodriguez, Douglas C.; Anderson, Elaina R.; Anderson, Kevin K.; Campbell, Luke W.; Fast, James E.; Jarman, Kenneth D.; Kulisek, Jonathan A.; Orton, Christopher R.; Runkle, Robert C.; Stave, Sean
The Next Generation Safeguard Initiative (NGSI) includes an effort to determine the mass content of fissile isotopes contained within spent fuel through the spectroscopy of high-energy delayed gamma rays. Studies being performed indicate the primary difficulty is the ability to detect the desired signal in the presence of the intense background associated with spent fuel fission products. An enabling technology for this application is high-resolution high-purity germanium (HPGe) detectors capable of operating efficiently in at extremely high count rates. This presentation will describe the prospects of high-rate germanium detectors and delayed-gamma techniques, primarily discussing the efforts to merge these into a unique and viable system for measuring spent fuel.
McCarty, Perry L. (Stanford, CA); Bachmann, Andre (Palo Alto, CA)
A bioconversion reactor for the anaerobic fermentation of organic material. The bioconversion reactor comprises a shell enclosing a predetermined volume, an inlet port through which a liquid stream containing organic materials enters the shell, and an outlet port through which the stream exits the shell. A series of vertical and spaced-apart baffles are positioned within the shell to force the stream to flow under and over them as it passes from the inlet to the outlet port. The baffles present a barrier to the microorganisms within the shell causing them to rise and fall within the reactor but to move horizontally at a very slow rate. Treatment detention times of one day or less are possible.
A method for determining the spent-fuel contribution to transport cask containment requirements
Sanders, T.L.; Seager, K.D. [Sandia National Labs., Albuquerque, NM (United States); Rashid, Y.R.; Barrett, P.R. [ANATECH Research Corp., La Jolla, CA (United States); Malinauskas, A.P. [Oak Ridge National Lab., TN (United States); Einziger, R.E. [Pacific Northwest Lab., Richland, WA (United States); Jordan, H. [EG and G Rocky Flats, Inc., Golden, CO (United States). Rocky Flats Plant; Duffey, T.A.; Sutherland, S.H. [APTEK, Inc., Colorado Springs, CO (United States); Reardon, P.C. [GRAM, Inc., Albuquerque, NM (United States)
This report examines containment requirements for spent-fuel transport containers that are transported under normal and hypothetical accident conditions. A methodology is described that estimates the probability of rod failure and the quantity of radioactive material released from breached rods. This methodology characterizes the dynamic environment of the cask and its contents and deterministically models the peak stresses that are induced in spent-fuel cladding by the mechanical and thermal dynamic environments. The peak stresses are evaluated in relation to probabilistic failure criteria for generated or preexisting ductile tearing and material fractures at cracks partially through the wall in fuel rods. Activity concentrations in the cask cavity are predicted from estimates of the fraction of gases, volatiles, and fuel fines that are released when the rod cladding is breached. Containment requirements based on the source term are calculated in terms of maximum permissible volumetric leak rates from the cask. Calculations are included for representative cask designs.
Evaluation of Effect of Fuel Assembly Loading Patterns on Thermal and Shielding Performance of a Spent Fuel Storage/Transportation Cask
Cuta, Judith M.; Jenquin, Urban P.; McKinnon, Mikal A.
The licensing of spent fuel storage casks is generally based on conservative analyses that assume a storage system being uniformly loaded with design basis fuel. The design basis fuel typically assumes a maximum assembly enrichment, maximum burn up, and minimum cooling time. These conditions set the maximum decay heat loads and radioactive source terms for the design. Recognizing that reactor spent fuel pools hold spent fuel with an array of initial enrichments, burners, and cooling times, this study was performed to evaluate the effect of load pattern on peak cladding temperature and cask surface dose rate. Based on the analysis, the authors concluded that load patterns could be used to reduce peak cladding temperatures in a cask without adversely impacting the surface dose rates.
BWR spent fuel storage cask performance test. Volume 1. Cask handling experience and decay heat, heat transfer, and shielding data
McKinnon, M.A.; Doman, J.W.; Tanner, J.E.; Guenther, R.J.; Creer, J.M.; King, C.E.
This report documents a heat transfer and shielding performance test conducted on a Ridihalgh, Eggers and Associates REA 2023 boiling water reactor (BWR) spent fuel storage cask. The testing effort consisted of three parts: pretest preparations, performance testing, and post-test activities. Pretest preparations included conducting cask handling dry runs and characterizing BWR spent fuel assemblies from Nebraska Public Power District's Cooper Nuclear Station. The performance test matrix included 14 runs consisting of two loadings, two cask orientations, and three backfill environments. Post-test activities included calorimetry and axial radiation scans of selected fuel assemblies, in-basin sipping of each assembly, crud collection, video and photographic scans, and decontamination of the cask interior and exterior.
Nero, A.V.
Nuclear Power Reactors PROTECTION AGAINST SABOTAGE Protection Against Industrial Sabotage I1C-4 Decominarion and Decommissioning
Berry, T.; Milliken, C.; Martinez-Rodriguez, M.; Hathcock, D.; Heitkamp, M.
This project developed methodology and field deployable tools (test kits) to analyze the chemical and microbiological condition of the fuel storage medium and determine the oxide thickness on the spent fuel basin materials. The overall objective of this project was to determine the amount of time fuel has spent in a storage basin to determine if the operation of the reactor and storage basin is consistent with safeguard declarations or expectations. This project developed and validated forensic tools that can be used to predict the age and condition of spent nuclear fuels stored in liquid basins based on key physical, chemical and microbiological basin characteristics. Key parameters were identified based on a literature review, the parameters were used to design test cells for corrosion analyses, tools were purchased to analyze the key parameters, and these were used to characterize an active spent fuel basin, the Savannah River Site (SRS) L-Area basin. The key parameters identified in the literature review included chloride concentration, conductivity, and total organic carbon level. Focus was also placed on aluminum based cladding because of their application to weapons production. The literature review was helpful in identifying important parameters, but relationships between these parameters and corrosion rates were not available. Bench scale test systems were designed, operated, harvested, and analyzed to determine corrosion relationships between water parameters and water conditions, chemistry and microbiological conditions. The data from the bench scale system indicated that corrosion rates were dependent on total organic carbon levels and chloride concentrations. The highest corrosion rates were observed in test cells amended with sediment, a large microbial inoculum and an organic carbon source. A complete characterization test kit was field tested to characterize the SRS L-Area spent fuel basin. The sampling kit consisted of a TOC analyzer, a YSI multiprobe, and a thickness probe. The tools were field tested to determine their ease of use, reliability, and determine the quality of data that each tool could provide. Characterization was done over a two day period in June 2011, and confirmed that the L Area basin is a well operated facility with low corrosion potential.
Pebble bed modular reactor safeguards: developing new approaches and implementing safeguards by design
Beyer, Brian David [Los Alamos National Laboratory; Beddingfield, David H [Los Alamos National Laboratory; Durst, Philip [INL; Bean, Robert [INL
The design of the Pebble Bed Modular Reactor (PBMR) does not fit or seem appropriate to the IAEA safeguards approach under the categories of light water reactor (LWR), on-load refueled reactor (OLR, i.e. CANDU), or Other (prismatic HTGR) because the fuel is in a bulk form, rather than discrete items. Because the nuclear fuel is a collection of nuclear material inserted in tennis-ball sized spheres containing structural and moderating material and a PBMR core will contain a bulk load on the order of 500,000 spheres, it could be classified as a 'Bulk-Fuel Reactor.' Hence, the IAEA should develop unique safeguards criteria. In a multi-lab DOE study, it was found that an optimized blend of: (i) developing techniques to verify the plutonium content in spent fuel pebbles, (ii) improving burn-up computer codes for PBMR spent fuel to provide better understanding of the core and spent fuel makeup, and (iii) utilizing bulk verification techniques for PBMR spent fuel storage bins should be combined with the historic IAEA and South African approaches of containment and surveillance to verify and maintain continuity of knowledge of PBMR fuel. For all of these techniques to work the design of the reactor will need to accommodate safeguards and material accountancy measures to a far greater extent than has thus far been the case. The implementation of Safeguards-by-Design as the PBMR design progresses provides an approach to meets these safeguards and accountancy needs.
High Temperature Reactor (HTR) Deep Burn Core and Fuel Analysis: Design Selection for the Prismatic Block Reactor
Francesco Venneri; Chang-Keun Jo; Jae-Man Noh; Yonghee Kim; Claudio Filippone; Jonghwa Chang; Chris Hamilton; Young-Min Kim; Ji-Su Jun; Moon-Sung Cho; Hong-Sik Lim; MIchael A. Pope; Abderrafi M. Ougouag; Vincent Descotes; Brian Boer
The Deep Burn (DB) Project is a U.S. Department of Energy sponsored feasibility study of Transuranic Management using high burnup fuel in the high temperature helium cooled reactor (HTR). The DB Project consists of seven tasks: project management, core and fuel analysis, spent fuel management, fuel cycle integration, TRU fuel modeling, TRU fuel qualification, and HTR fuel recycle. In the Phase II of the Project, we conducted nuclear analysis of TRU destruction/utilization in the HTR prismatic block design (Task 2.1), deep burn fuel/TRISO microanalysis (Task 2.3), and synergy with fast reactors (Task 4.2). The Task 2.1 covers the core physics design, thermo-hydraulic CFD analysis, and the thermofluid and safety analysis (low pressure conduction cooling, LPCC) of the HTR prismatic block design. The Task 2.3 covers the analysis of the structural behavior of TRISO fuel containing TRU at very high burnup level, i.e. exceeding 50% of FIMA. The Task 4.2 includes the self-cleaning HTR based on recycle of HTR-generated TRU in the same HTR. Chapter IV contains the design and analysis results of the 600MWth DB-HTR core physics with the cycle length, the average discharged burnup, heavy metal and plutonium consumptions, radial and axial power distributions, temperature reactivity coefficients. Also, it contains the analysis results of the 450MWth DB-HTR core physics and the analysis of the decay heat of a TRU loaded DB-HTR core. The evaluation of the hot spot fuel temperature of the fuel block in the DB-HTR (Deep-Burn High Temperature Reactor) core under full operating power conditions are described in Chapter V. The investigated designs are the 600MWth and 460MWth DB-HTRs. In Chapter VI, the thermo-fluid and safety of the 600MWth DB-HTRs has been analyzed to investigate a thermal-fluid design performance at the steady state and a passive safety performance during an LPCC event. Chapter VII describes the analysis results of the TRISO fuel microanalysis of the 600MWth and 450MWth DB-HTRs. The TRISO fuel microanalysis covers the gas pressure buildup in a coated fuel particle including helium production, the thermo-mechanical behavior of a CFP, the failure probabilities of CFPs, the temperature distribution in a CPF, and the fission product (FP) transport in a CFP and a graphite. In Chapter VIII, it contains the core design and analysis of sodium cooled fast reactor (SFR) with deep burn HTR reactor. It considers a synergistic combination of the DB-MHR and an SFR burner for a safe and efficient transmutation of the TRUs from LWRs. Chapter IX describes the design and analysis results of the self-cleaning (or self-recycling) HTR core. The analysis is considered zero and 5-year cooling time of the spent LWR fuels.
Wende, Charles W. J. (Augusta, GA); Babcock, Dale F. (Wilmington, DE); Menegus, Robert L. (Wilmington, DE)
A nuclear reactor includes an active portion with fissionable fuel and neutron moderating material surrounded by neutron reflecting material. A control element in the active portion includes a group of movable rods constructed of neutron-absorbing material. Each rod is movable with respect to the other rods to vary the absorption of neutrons and effect control over neutron flux.
James P. Mosquera Director, Reactor Plant Components
of the application of nuclear reactor power to capital ships of the U.S. Navy, and other assigned projects. Mr for steam generator technology (within the Nuclear Components Division); and power plant systems engineer working for the U.S. Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program (a.k.a. Naval Reactors). This program is a joint
Sensitivity Analysis of Reprocessing Cooling Times on Light Water Reactor and Sodium Fast Reactor Fuel Cycles
R. M. Ferrer; S. Bays; M. Pope
The purpose of this study is to quantify the effects of variations of the Light Water Reactor (LWR) Spent Nuclear Fuel (SNF) and fast reactor reprocessing cooling time on a Sodium Fast Reactor (SFR) assuming a single-tier fuel cycle scenario. The results from this study show the effects of different cooling times on the SFR�s transuranic (TRU) conversion ratio (CR) and transuranic fuel enrichment. Also, the decay heat, gamma heat and neutron emission of the SFR�s fresh fuel charge were evaluated. A 1000 MWth commercial-scale SFR design was selected as the baseline in this study. Both metal and oxide CR=0.50 SFR designs are investigated.
Reactor Physics Assessment of the Inclusion of Unseparated Neptunium in MOX Reactor Fuel
Ellis, Ronald James [ORNL
Reducing the number of actinide separation streams in a spent fuel recovery process would reduce the cost and complexity of the process, and lower the quantity and numbers of solvents needed. It is more difficult and costly to separate Np and recombine it with Am-Cm prior to co-conversion than to simply co-strip it with the U-Pu-Np. Inclusion of the Np in mixed oxide (MOX) fuel for light water reactor (LWR) applications should not seriously affect the operating behavior of the reactor, nor should it pose insurmountable fuel design issues. In this work, the U, Pu, and Np from typical discharged and cooled PWR spent nuclear fuel are assumed to be used together in the preparation of MOX fuel for use in a pressurized water reactor (PWR). The reactor grade Pu isotopic vector is used in the model and the relative mass ratio of the Pu and Np content (Np/Pu mass is 0.061) from the cooled spent fuel is maintained but the overall Pu-Np MOX wt% is adjusted with respect to the U content (assumed to be at 0.25 wt% 235U enrichment) to offset reactivity and cycle length effects. The SCALE 5.1 scientific package (especially modules TRITON, NEWT, ORIGEN-S, ORIGEN-ARP) was used for the calculations presented in this paper. A typical Westinghouse 17x17 fuel assembly design was modeled at nominal PWR operating conditions. It was seen that U-Pu-Np MOX fuel with NpO2 and PuO2 representing 11.5wt% of the total MOX fuel would be similar to standard MOX fuel in which PuO2 is 9wt% of the fuel. The reactivity, isotopic composition, and neutron and ? sources, and the decay heat details for the discharged MOX fuel are presented and discussed in this paper.
Jassby, D.L.
A nuclear pumped laser capable of producing long pulses of very high power laser radiation is provided. A toroidal fusion reactor provides energetic neutrons which are slowed down by a moderator. The moderated neutrons are converted to energetic particles capable of pumping a lasing medium. The lasing medium is housed in an annular cell surrounding the reactor. The cell includes an annular reflecting mirror at the bottom and an annular output window at the top. A neutron reflector is disposed around the cell to reflect escaping neutrons back into the cell. The laser radiation from the annular window is focused onto a beam compactor which generates a single coherent output laser beam. 10 figs.
Spherical torus fusion reactor
Peng, Yueng-Kay M. (Oak Ridge, TN)
A fusion reactor is provided having a near spherical-shaped plasma with a modest central opening through which straight segments of toroidal field coils extend that carry electrical current for generating a toroidal magnet plasma confinement fields. By retaining only the indispensable components inboard of the plasma torus, principally the cooled toroidal field conductors and in some cases a vacuum containment vessel wall, the fusion reactor features an exceptionally small aspect ratio (typically about 1.5), a naturally elongated plasma cross section without extensive field shaping, requires low strength magnetic containment fields, small size and high beta. These features combine to produce a spherical torus plasma in a unique physics regime which permits compact fusion at low field and modest cost.
R. L. Demmer
The Idaho National Laboratory (INL) has been at the forefront of developing methods to reduce the cost and schedule of deactivating spent fuel pools (SFP). Several pools have been deactivated at the INL using an underwater approach with divers. These projects provided a basis for the INL cooperation with the Dresden Nuclear Power Station Unit 1 SFP (Exelon Generation Company) deactivation. It represents the first time that a commercial nuclear power plant (NPP) SFP was decommissioned using this underwater coating process. This approach has advantages in many aspects, particularly in reducing airborne contamination and allowing safer, more cost effective deactivation. The INL pioneered underwater coating process was used to decommission three SFPs with a total combined pool volume of over 900,000 gallons. INL provided engineering support and shared project plans to successfully initiate the Dresden project. This report outlines the steps taken by INL and Exelon to decommission SFPs using the underwater coating process. The rationale used to select the underwater coating process and the advantages and disadvantages are described. Special circumstances are also discussed, such as the use of a remotely-operated underwater vehicle to visually and radiologically map the pool areas that were not readily accessible. A larger project, the INTEC-603 SFP in-situ (grouting) deactivation, is reviewed. Several specific areas where special equipment was employed are discussed and a Lessons Learned evaluation is included.
Analysis of radiation doses from operation of postulated commercial spent fuel transportation systems: Main report
Schneider, K.J.; Hostick, C.J.; Ross, W.A.; Peterson, R.W.; Smith, R.I.; Stiles, D.L.; Daling, P.M.; Weakley, S.A.; Grinde, R.B.; Young, J.R.
This report contains a system study of estimated radiation doses to the public and workers resulting from the transport of spent fuel from commercial nuclear power reactors to a geologic repository. The report contains a detailed breakdown of activities and a description of time/distance/dose-rate estimates for each activity within the system. Collective doses are estimated for each of the major activities at the reactor site, in transit, and at the repository receiving facility. Annual individual doses to the maximally exposed individuals or groups of individuals are also estimated. A total of 17 alternatives and subalternatives to the postulated reference transportation system are identified, conceptualized, and their dose-reduction potentials and costs estimated. Resulting ratios of ..delta..cost/..delta..collective system dose for each alternative relative to the postulated reference transportation system are given. Most of the alternatives evaluated are estimated to provide both cost and dose reductions. Major reductions in transportation system dose and cost are estimated to result from using higher-capacity rail and truck casks, and particularly when replacing legalweight truck casks with ''advanced design'' overweight truck casks. The greatest annual dose reduction to the highest exposed individual workers (i.e., at the repository) is estimated to be achieved by using remote handling equipment for the cask handling operations at the repository. Additional shielding is also effective in reducing doses to both radiation workers at the reactor and repository and to transport workers. 69 refs., 36 figs., 156 tabs.
Spent Fuel Transportation Package Performance Study - Experimental Design Challenges
Snyder, A. M.; Murphy, A. J.; Sprung, J. L.; Ammerman, D. J.; Lopez, C.
Numerous studies of spent nuclear fuel transportation accident risks have been performed since the late seventies that considered shipping container design and performance. Based in part on these studies, NRC has concluded that the level of protection provided by spent nuclear fuel transportation package designs under accident conditions is adequate. [1] Furthermore, actual spent nuclear fuel transport experience showcase a safety record that is exceptional and unparalleled when compared to other hazardous materials transportation shipments. There has never been a known or suspected release of the radioactive contents from an NRC-certified spent nuclear fuel cask as a result of a transportation accident. In 1999 the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) initiated a study, the Package Performance Study, to demonstrate the performance of spent fuel and spent fuel packages during severe transportation accidents. NRC is not studying or testing its current regulations, a s the rigorous regulatory accident conditions specified in 10 CFR Part 71 are adequate to ensure safe packaging and use. As part of this study, NRC currently plans on using detailed modeling followed by experimental testing to increase public confidence in the safety of spent nuclear fuel shipments. One of the aspects of this confirmatory research study is the commitment to solicit and consider public comment during the scoping phase and experimental design planning phase of this research.
Regenerative Heater Optimization for Steam Turbo-Generation Cycles of Generation IV Nuclear Power Plants with a Comparison of Two Concepts for the Westinghouse International Reactor Innovative and Secure (IRIS)
Williams, W.C.
The intent of this study is to discuss some of the many factors involved in the development of the design and layout of a steam turbo-generation unit as part of a modular Generation IV nuclear power plant. Of the many factors involved in the design and layout, this research will cover feed water system layout and optimization issues. The research is arranged in hopes that it can be generalized to any Generation IV system which uses a steam powered turbo-generation unit. The research is done using the ORCENT-II heat balance codes and the Salisbury methodology to be reviewed herein. The Salisbury methodology is used on an original cycle design by Famiani for the Westinghouse IRIS and the effects due to parameter variation are studied. The vital parameters of the Salisbury methodology are the incremental heater surface capital cost (S) in $/ft{sup 2}, the value of incremental power (I) in $/kW, and the overall heat transfer coefficient (U) in Btu/ft{sup 2}-degrees Fahrenheit-hr. Each is varied in order to determine the effects on the cycles overall heat rate, output, as well as, the heater surface areas. The effects of each are shown. Then the methodology is then used to compare the optimized original Famiani design consisting of seven regenerative feedwater heaters with an optimized new cycle concept, INRC8, containing four regenerative heaters. The results are shown. It can be seen that a trade between the complexity of the seven stage regenerative Famiani cycle and the simplicity of the INRC8 cycle can be made. It is desired that this methodology can be used to show the ability to evaluate modularity through the value of size a complexity of the system as well as the performance. It also shows the effectiveness of the Salisbury methodology in the optimization of regenerative cycles for such an evaluation.
Gas-Cooled Fast Reactor (GFR) FY05 Annual Report
K. D. Weaver; T. Marshall; T. Totemeier; J. Gan; E.E. Feldman; E.A Hoffman; R.F. Kulak; I.U. Therios; C. P. Tzanos; T.Y.C. Wei; L-Y. Cheng; H. Ludewig; J. Jo; R. Nanstad; W. Corwin; V. G. Krishnardula; W. F. Gale; J. W. Fergus; P. Sabharwall; T. Allen
The gas-cooled fast reactor (GFR) was chosen as one of the Generation IV nuclear reactor systems to be developed based on its excellent potential for sustainability through reduction of the volume and radio toxicity of both its own fuel and other spent nuclear fuel, and for extending/utilizing uranium resources orders of magnitude beyond what the current open fuel cycle can realize. In addition, energy conversion at high thermal efficiency is possible with the current designs being considered, thus increasing the economic benefit of the GFR. However, research and development challenges include the ability to use passive decay heat removal systems during accident conditions, survivability of fuels and in-core materials under extreme temperatures and radiation, and economical and efficient fuel cycle processes. Nevertheless, the GFR was chosen as one of only six Generation IV systems to be pursued based on its ability to meet the Generation IV goals in sustainability, economics, safety and reliability, proliferation resistance and physical protection. Current research and development on the Gas-Cooled Fast Reactor (GFR) has focused on the design of safety systems that will remove the decay heat during accident conditions, ion irradiations of candidate ceramic materials, joining studies of oxide dispersion strengthened alloys; and within the Advanced Fuel Cycle Initiative (AFCI) the fabrication of carbide fuels and ceramic fuel matrix materials, development of non-halide precursor low density and high density ceramic coatings, and neutron irradiation of candidate ceramic fuel matrix and metallic materials. The vast majority of this work has focused on the reference design for the GFR: a helium-cooled, direct power conversion system that will operate with on outlet temperature of 850 C at 7 MPa. In addition to the work being performed in the United States, seven international partners under the Generation IV International Forum (GIF) have identified their interest in participating in research related to the development of the GFR. These are Euratom (European Commission), France, Japan, South Africa, South Korea, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. Of these, Euratom (including the United Kingdom and Switzerland), France, and Japan have active research activities with respect to the GFR. The research includes GFR design and safety, and fuels/in-core materials/fuel cycle projects. This report outlines the current design status of the GFR, and includes work done in the areas mentioned above for this fiscal year. In addition, this report fulfills the Level 2 milestones, ''Complete annual status report on GFR reactor design'', and ''Complete annual status report on pre-conceptual GFR reactor designs'' in work package GI0401K01. GFR funding for FY05 included FY04 carryover funds, and was comprised of multiple tasks. These tasks involved a consortium of national laboratories and universities, including the Idaho National Laboratory (INL), Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Auburn University (AU), Idaho State University (ISU), and the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW-M). The total funding for FY05 was $1000K, with FY04 carryover of $174K. The cost breakdown can be seen in Table 1.
Numerical Simulation of Titanium Production in the Plasma Quench Reactor
Numerical Simulation of Titanium Production in the Plasma Quench Reactor Ray A. Beny and Randall A the nucleation of condensates in the steady-state supersonic nozzle flow generated in a plasma quench reactor reactions. The device has been termed the Plasma Quench Reactor or PQR. The PQR has demonstrated the ability
analyzing steam generator: Topics by E-print Network
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We present ow simulations in the Steam Generator of a pressurized water nuclear reactor using coherence between the zoom and the full domain. Key words: Steam Generator,...
advanced steam generators: Topics by E-print Network
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We present ow simulations in the Steam Generator of a pressurized water nuclear reactor using coherence between the zoom and the full domain. Key words: Steam Generator,...
asco steam generators: Topics by E-print Network
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We present ow simulations in the Steam Generator of a pressurized water nuclear reactor using coherence between the zoom and the full domain. Key words: Steam Generator,...
Market driven strategy for acquisition of waste acceptance and transportation services for commercial spent fuel in the United States
Lemeshewky, W.; Macaluso, C.; Smith, P. [Dept. of Energy, Washington, DC (United States); Teer, B. [JAI Corp., Fairfax, VA (United States)
The Department of Energy has the responsibility for the shipment of spent nuclear fuel (SNF) from commercial reactors to a Federal facility for storage and/or disposal. DOE has developed a strategy for a market driven approach for the acquisition of transportation services and equipment which will maximize the participation of private industry. To implement this strategy, DOE is planning to issue a Request for Proposal (RFP) for the provision of the required services and equipment to accept SNF from the utilities and transport the SNF to a Federal facility. The paper discusses this strategy and describes the RFP.
A Transportation Risk Assessment Tool for Analyzing the Transport of Spent Nuclear Fuel and High-Level Radioactive Waste to the Proposed Yucca Mountain Repository
Ralph Best; T. Winnard; S. Ross; R. Best
The Yucca Mountain Transportation Database was developed as a data management tool for assembling and integrating data from multiple sources to compile the potential transportation impacts presented in the Draft Environmental Impact Statement for a Geologic Repository for the Disposal of Spent Nuclear Fuel and High-Level Radioactive Waste at Yucca Mountain, Nye County, Nevada (DEIS). The database uses the results from existing models and codes such as RADTRAN, RISKIND, INTERLINE, and HIGHWAY to estimate transportation-related impacts of transporting spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste from commercial reactors and U. S. Department of Energy (DOE) facilities to Yucca Mountain. The source tables in the database are compendiums of information from many diverse sources including: radionuclide quantities for each waste type; route and route characteristics for rail, legal-weight truck, heavy haul. truck, and barge transport options; state-specific accident and fatality rates for routes selected for analysis; packaging and shipment data by waste type; unit risk factors; the complex behavior of the packaged waste forms in severe transport accidents; and the effects of exposure to radiation or the isotopic specific effects of radionclides should they be released in severe transportation accidents. The database works together with the codes RADTRAN (Neuhauser, et al, 1994) and RISKlND (Yuan, et al, 1995) to calculate incident-free dose and accident risk. For the incident-free transportation scenario, the database uses RADTRAN and RISKIND-generated data to calculate doses to offlink populations, onlink populations, people at stops, crews, inspectors, workers at intermodal transfer stations, guards at overnight stops, and escorts, as well as non-radioactive pollution health effects. For accident scenarios, the database uses RADTRAN-generated data to calculate dose risks based on ingestion, inhalation, resuspension, immersion (cloudshine), and groundshine as well as non-radioactive traffic fatalities. The Yucca Mountain EIS Transportation Database was developed using Microsoft Access 97{trademark} software and the Microsoft Windows NT{trademark} operating system. The database consists of tables for storing data, forms for selecting data for querying, and queries for retrieving the data in a predefined format. Database queries retrieve records based on input parameters and are used to calculate incident-free and accident doses using unit risk factors obtained from RADTRAN results. The next section briefly provides some background that led to the development of the database approach used in preparing the Yucca Mountain DEIS. Subsequent sections provide additional details on the database structure and types of impacts calculated using the database.
Nozzle for electric dispersion reactor
Sisson, W.G.; Harris, M.T.; Scott, T.C.; Basaran, O.A.
A nozzle for an electric dispersion reactor includes two coaxial cylindrical bodies, the inner one of the two delivering disperse phase fluid into a continuous phase fluid. A potential difference generated by a voltage source creates a dispersing electric field at the end of the inner electrode. 5 figs.
Nozzle for electric dispersion reactor
Sisson, Warren G. (Oak Ridge, TN); Basaran, Osman A. (Oak Ridge, TN); Harris, Michael T. (Knoxville, TN)
A nozzle for an electric dispersion reactor includes two concentric electrodes, the inner one of the two delivering disperse phase fluid into a continuous phase fluid. A potential difference generated by a voltage source creates a dispersing electric field at the end of the inner electrode.
Nozzle for electric dispersion reactor
Sisson, Warren G. (Oak Ridge, TN); Harris, Michael T. (Knoxville, TN); Scott, Timothy C. (Knoxville, TN); Basaran, Osman A. (Oak Ridge, TN)
A nozzle for an electric dispersion reactor includes two coaxial cylindrical bodies, the inner one of the two delivering disperse phase fluid into a continuous phase fluid. A potential difference generated by a voltage source creates a dispersing electric field at the end of the inner electrode.
Nozzle for electric dispersion reactor
Sisson, Warren G. (Oak Ridge, TN); Basaran, Osman A. (Oak Ridge, TN); Harris, Michael T. (Knoxville, TN)
A nozzle for an electric dispersion reactor includes two concentric electrodes, the inner one of the two delivering disperse phase fluid into a continuous phase fluid. A potential difference generated by a voltage source creates a dispersing electric field at the end of the inner electrode.
Nozzle for electric dispersion reactor
Sisson, Warren G. (Oak Ridge, TN); Harris, Michael T. (Knoxville, TN); Scott, Timothy C. (Knoxville, TN); Basaran, Osman A. (Oak Ridge, TN)
A nozzle for an electric dispersion reactor includes two coaxial cylindrical bodies, the inner one of the two delivering disperse phase fluid into a continuous phase fluid. A potential difference generated by a voltage source creates a dispersing electric field at the end of the inner electrode.
Nozzle for electric dispersion reactor
Sisson, W.G.; Harris, M.T.; Scott, T.C.; Basaran, O.A.
A nozzle for an electric dispersion reactor includes two coaxial cylindrical bodies, the inner one of the two delivering disperse phase fluid into a continuous phase fluid. A potential difference generated by a voltage source creates a dispersing electric field at the end of the inner electrode. 5 figs.
Nozzle for electric dispersion reactor
Sisson, W.G.; Basaran, O.A.; Harris, M.T.
A nozzle for an electric dispersion reactor includes two concentric electrodes, the inner one of the two delivering disperse phase fluid into a continuous phase fluid. A potential difference generated by a voltage source creates a dispersing electric field at the end of the inner electrode. 4 figs.
Phoenix: A Reactor Burnup Code With Uncertainty Quantification�
Spence, Grant R
composition, and cross-section, while only running the simulation a single time. This ability provides an enormous benefit to researchers using the code for spent fuel reprocessing, safeguards, nuclear nonproliferation, and intelligence applications. 6... reprocessing, reactor operation, and many nuclear intelligence applications. Developing burnup software, like any computational software, 2 can be a difficult process. It requires defining the parameters necessary to solve isotopic depletion equations...
Test plan for long-term, low-temperature oxidation of BWR spent fuel
Einziger, R.E.
Preliminary studies indicated the need for more spent fuel oxidation data in order to determine the probable behavior of spent fuel in a tuff repository. Long-term, low-temperature testing was recommended in a comprehensive technical approach to (1) confirm the findings of the short-term thermogravimetric analysis tests; (2) evaluate the effects of variables such as burnup, atmospheric moisture,and fuel type on the oxidation rate; and (3) extend the oxidation data base to representative repository temperatures and better define the temperature dependence of the operative oxidation mechanisms. This document presents the test plan to study the effects of atmospheric moisture and temperature on oxidation rate and phase formation using a large number of boiling-water reactor fuel samples. Tests will run for up to two years, use characterized fragmented and pulverized fuel samples, cover a temperature range of 110{degree}C to 175{degree}C, and be conducted with an atmospheric moisture content ranging from <{minus}55{degree}C to {approximately}80{degree}C dew point. After testing, the samples will be examined and made available for leaching testing. 15 refs., 2 figs., 2 tabs.
Spent fuel test - Climax: technical measurements. Interim report, fiscal year 1981
Patrick, W.C.; Ballou, L.B.; Butkovich, T.R.
The Spent Fuel Test-Climax (SFT-C) is located 420 m below surface in the Climax granite stock on the Nevada Test Site. Eleven canisters of spent nuclear reactor fuel were emplaced, and six electrical simulators were energized from April to May 1980, initiating the 3- to 5-year-duration test. The SFT-C operational objective of demonstrating the feasibility of packaging, transporting, storing, and retrieving highly radioactive fuel assemblies in a safe and reliable manner has been met. Technical objectives of the test led to development of a technical measurements program, which is the subject of this report. Geotechnical, seismological, and test status data have been recorded on a continuing basis for the first 1-1/2 years of the test on more than 900 channels. Much of the acquired data are now available for analysis and are presented here. Highlights of activities this year include completion of site characterization field work, major modifications to the data acquisition and the management systems, and the addition of instrument evaluation as an explicit objective of the test.
Management Of Hanford KW Basin Knockout Pot Sludge As Spent Nuclear Fuel
Raymond, R. E. [CH2M HIll Plateau Remediation Company, Richland, WA (United States); Evans, K. M. [AREVA, Avignon (France)
CH2M HILL Plateau Remediation Company (CHPRC) and AREVA Federal Services, LLC (AFS) have been working collaboratively to develop and deploy technologies to remove, transport, and interim store remote-handled sludge from the 10S-K West Reactor Fuel Storage Basin on the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Hanford Site near Richland, WA, USA. Two disposal paths exist for the different types of sludge found in the K West (KW) Basin. One path is to be managed as Spent Nuclear Fuel (SNF) with eventual disposal at an SNF at a yet to be licensed repository. The second path will be disposed as remote-handled transuranic (RH-TRU) waste at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in Carlsbad, NM. This paper describes the systems developed and executed by the Knockout Pot (KOP) Disposition Subproject for processing and interim storage of the sludge managed as SNF, (i.e., KOP material).
Results from Nevada Nuclear Waste Storage Investigations (NNWSI) Series 3 spent fuel dissolution tests
Wilson, C.N.
The dissolution and radionuclide release behavior of spent fuel in groundwater is being studied by the Yucca Mountain Project (YMP), formerly the Nevada Nuclear Waste Storage Investigations (NNWSI) Project. Specimens prepared from pressurized water reactor fuel rod segments were tested in sealed stainless steel vessels in Nevada Test Site J-13 well water at 85{degree}C and 25{degree}C. The test matrix included three specimens of bare-fuel particles plus cladding hulls, two fuel rod segments with artificially defected cladding and water-tight end fittings, and an undefected fuel rod section with watertight end fittings. Periodic solution samples were taken during test cycles with the sample volumes replenished with fresh J-13 water. Test cycles were periodically terminated and the specimens restarted in fresh J-13 water. The specimens were run for three cycles for a total test duration of 15 months. 22 refs., 32 figs., 26 tabs.
An Empirical Approach to Bounding the Axial Reactivity Effects of PWR Spent Nuclear Fuel
P. M. O'Leary; J. M. Scaglione
One of the significant issues yet to be resolved for using burnup credit (BUC) for spent nuclear fuel (SNF) is establishing a set of depletion parameters that produce an adequately conservative representation of the fuel's isotopic inventory. Depletion parameters (such as local power, fuel temperature, moderator temperature, burnable poison rod history, and soluble boron concentration) affect the isotopic inventory of fuel that is depleted in a pressurized water reactor (PWR). However, obtaining the detailed operating histories needed to model all PWR fuel assemblies to which BUC would be applied is an onerous and costly task. Simplifications therefore have been suggested that could lead to using ''bounding'' depletion parameters that could be broadly applied to different fuel assemblies. This paper presents a method for determining a set of bounding depletion parameters for use in criticality analyses for SNF.
Spent fuel dry storage technology development: thermal evaluation of sealed storage cask containing spent fuel
Schmitten, P.F.; Wright, J.B.
A PWR spent fuel assembly was encapsulated inside the E-MAD Hot Bay and placed in a instrumented above surface storage cell during December 1978 for thermal testing. Instrumentation provided to measure canister, liner and concrete temperatures consisted of thermocouples which were inserted into tubes on the outside of the canister and liner and in three radial positions in the concrete. Temperatures from the SSC test assembly have been recorded throughout the past 16 months. Canister and liner temperatures have reached their peak values of 200{sup 0}F and 140{sup 0}F, respectively. Computer predictions of the transient and steady-state temperatures show good agreement with the test data.
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include steam turbine generators, steam turbine mechanical drives, process steam, process heat exchangers and reactors, district energy systems, and thermal desalination processes....
Effect of Helium Accumulation on the Spent Fuel Microstructure
Ferry, Cecile [Department of Physico-chemistry, Commissariat a l'Energie Atomique, CEA-Saclay, Gif-sur-Yvette, 91191 (France); Piron, Jean-Paul [Commisariat a l'Energie Atomique, CEA - Cadarache, Saint-Paul Lez Durance, 13108 (France); Stout, Ray [Rho Beta Sigma Affaires, Livermore, CA, CA 94550 (United States)
In a nuclear spent fuel repository, the aqueous rapid release of radio-activity from exposed spent fuel surfaces will depend on the pellet microstructure at the arrival time of water into the disposal container. Research performed on spent fuel evolution in a closed system has shown that the evolution of microstructure under disposal conditions should be governed by the cumulated {alpha}-decay damage and the subsequent helium behavior. The evolution of fission gas bubble characteristics under repository conditions has to be assessed. In UO{sub 2} fuels with a burnup of 47.5 GWd/t, the pressure in fission gas bubbles, including the pressure increase from {alpha}-decay helium atoms, is not expected to reach the critical bubble pressure that will cause failure, thus micro-cracking in UO{sub 2} spent fuel grains is not expected. (authors)
area spent fuel: Topics by E-print Network
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2009-05-15 8 Nuclear Waste Imaging and Spent Fuel Verification by Muon Tomography CERN Preprints Summary: This paper explores the use of cosmic ray muons to image the...
atucha spent fuel: Topics by E-print Network
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2009-05-15 8 Nuclear Waste Imaging and Spent Fuel Verification by Muon Tomography CERN Preprints Summary: This paper explores the use of cosmic ray muons to image the...
ahwr spent fuel: Topics by E-print Network
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2009-05-15 8 Nuclear Waste Imaging and Spent Fuel Verification by Muon Tomography CERN Preprints Summary: This paper explores the use of cosmic ray muons to image the...
Risk and Responsibility Sharing in Nuclear Spent Fuel Management
De Roo, Guillaume
With the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982, the responsibility of American utilities in the long-term management of spent nuclear fuel was limited to the payment of a fee. This narrow involvement did not result in faster ...
Application of ALARA principles to shipment of spent nuclear fuel
Greenborg, J.; Brackenbush, L.W.; Murphy, D.W. Burnett, R.A.; Lewis, J.R.
The public exposure from spent fuel shipment is very low. In view of this low exposure and the perfect safety record for spent fuel shipment, existing systems can be considered satisfactory. On the other hand, occupational exposure reduction merits consideration and technology improvement to decrease dose should concentrate on this exposure. Practices that affect the age of spent fuel in shipment and the number of times the fuel must be shipped prior to disposal have the largest impact. A policy to encourage a 5-year spent fuel cooling period prior to shipment coupled with appropriate cask redesign to accommodate larger loads would be consistent with ALARA and economic principles. And finally, bypassing high population density areas will not in general reduce shipment dose.
Mehta, P.K.
ON HYDRAULIC CEMENTS FROM SPENT OIL SHALE P.K. Mehta and P.Cement Manufacture from Oil Shale, U.S. Patent 2,904,445,203 (1974), E. D. York, Amoco Oil Co. , letter to J, P. Fox,
Mehta, P.K.
20 to 40% of the oil shale, and explosively rubblizing andCEMENTS FROM SPENT OIL SHALE P.K. Mehta and P. Persoff AprilCement Manufacture from Oil Shale, U.S. Patent 2,904,445,
Advanced Computational Thermal Fluid Physics (CTFP) and Its Assessment for Light Water Reactors and Supercritical Reactors
D.M. McEligot; K. G. Condie; G. E. McCreery; H. M. McIlroy; R. J. Pink; L.E. Hochreiter; J.D. Jackson; R.H. Pletcher; B.L. Smith; P. Vukoslavcevic; J.M. Wallace; J.Y. Yoo; J.S. Lee; S.T. Ro; S.O. Park
Background: The ultimate goal of the study is the improvement of predictive methods for safety analyses and design of Generation IV reactor systems such as supercritical water reactors (SCWR) for higher efficiency, improved performance and operation, design simplification, enhanced safety and reduced waste and cost. The objective of this Korean / US / laboratory / university collaboration of coupled fundamental computational and experimental studies is to develop the supporting knowledge needed for improved predictive techniques for use in the technology development of Generation IV reactor concepts and their passive safety systems. The present study emphasizes SCWR concepts in the Generation IV program.
Space power reactor ground test in the Experimental Gas Cooled Reactor (EGCR) at Oak Ridge
Fontana, M.H.; Holcomb, R.S.; Cooper, R.H.
The Experimental Gas Cooled Reactor (EGCR) facility and the supporting technical infrastructure at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory have the capabilities of performing ground tests of space nuclear power reactor systems. A candidate test would be a 10 MWt lithium cooled reactor, generating potassium vapor that would drive a power turbine. The facility is a large containment vessel originally intended to test the EGCR. Large, contained, and shielded spaces are available for testing, assembly, disassembly, and post-test examination.
Thermal Cooling Limits of Sbotaged Spent Fuel Pools
Dr. Thomas G. Hughes; Dr. Thomas F. Lin
To develop the understanding and predictive measures of the post �loss of water inventory� hazardous conditions as a result of the natural and/or terrorist acts to the spent fuel pool of a nuclear plant. This includes the thermal cooling limits to the spent fuel assembly (before the onset of the zircaloy ignition and combustion), and the ignition, combustion, and the subsequent propagation of zircaloy fire from one fuel assembly to others
Spent nuclear fuel Canister Storage Building CDR Review Committee report
Dana, W.P.
The Canister Storage Building (CSB) is a subproject under the Spent Nuclear Fuels Major System Acquisition. This subproject is necessary to design and construct a facility capable of providing dry storage of repackaged spent fuels received from K Basins. The CSB project completed a Conceptual Design Report (CDR) implementing current project requirements. A Design Review Committee was established to review the CDR. This document is the final report summarizing that review
Conditioning of spent nuclear fuel for permanent disposal
Laidler, J.J.
A compact, efficient method for conditioning spent nuclear fuel is under development This method, known as pyrochemical processing, or {open_quotes}pyroprocessing,{close_quotes} provides a separation of fission products from the actinide elements present in spent fuel and further separates pure uranium from the transuranic elements. The process can facilitate the timely and environmentally-sound treatment of the highly diverse collection of spent fuel currently in the inventory of the United States Department of Energy (DOE). The pyroprocess utilizes elevated-temperature processes to prepare spent fuel for fission product separation; that separation is accomplished by a molten salt electrorefining step that provides efficient (99.9%) separation of transuranics. The resultant waste forms from the pyroprocess are stable under envisioned repository environment conditions and highly leach-resistant. Treatment of any spent fuel type produces a set of common high-level waste forms, one a mineral and the other a metal alloy, that can be readily qualified for repository disposal and preclude the substantial costs that would be associated with the qualification of the numerous spent fuel types included in the DOE inventory.
Structure of processes in flow reactor and closed reactor: Flow reactor
Greifswald, Ernst-Moritz-Arndt-Universität
Structure of processes in flow reactor and closed reactor: Flow reactor Closed reactor Active Zone -- chemical quasi- equilibria, similarity principles and macroscopic kinetics", in: Lectures on Plasma Physics
Decommissioning of the high flux beam reactor at Brookhaven Lab
Hu, J.P. [National Synchrotron Light Source, Brookhaven Laboratory, Upton, NY 11973 (United States); Reciniello, R.N. [Radiological Control Div., Brookhaven Laboratory, Upton, NY 11973 (United States); Holden, N.E. [National Nuclear Data Center, Brookhaven Laboratory, Upton, NY 11973 (United States)
The high-flux beam reactor (HFBR) at the Brookhaven National Laboratory was a heavy water cooled and moderated reactor that achieved criticality on Oct. 31, 1965. It operated at a power level of 40 megawatts. An equipment upgrade in 1982 allowed operations at 60 megawatts. After a 1989 reactor shutdown to reanalyze safety impact of a hypothetical loss of coolant accident, the reactor was restarted in 1991 at 30 megawatts. The HFBR was shut down in December 1996 for routine maintenance and refueling. At that time, a leak of tritiated water was identified by routine sampling of groundwater from wells located adjacent to the reactor's spent fuel pool. The reactor remained shut down for almost three years for safety and environmental reviews. In November 1999 the United States Dept. of Energy decided to permanently shut down the HFBR. The decontamination and decommissioning of the HFBR complex, consisting of multiple structures and systems to operate and maintain the reactor, were complete in 2009 after removing and shipping off all the control rod blades. The emptied and cleaned HFBR dome, which still contains the irradiated reactor vessel, is presently under 24/7 surveillance for safety. Detailed dosimetry performed for the HFBR decommissioning during 1996-2009 is described in the paper. (authors)
Decommissioning Plan of the Musashi Reactor and Its Progress
Tanzawa, Tomio [Atomic Energy Research Laboratory, Musashi Institute of Technology, Ozenji 971, Asao-ku, Kawasaki, 215-0013 (Japan)
The Musashi Reactor is a TRIGA-II, tank-type research reactor, as shown in Table 1. The reactor had been operated at maximum thermal power level of 100 kW since first critical, January 30, 1963. Reactor operation was shut down due to small leakage of water from the reactor tank on December 21,1989. After shutdown, investigation of the causes, making plan of repair and discussions on restart or decommissioning had been done. Finally, decision of decommissioning was made in May, 2003. The initial plan of the decommissioning was submitted to the competent authority in January, 2004. Now, the reactor is under decommissioning. The plan of decommissioning and its progress are described. In conclusion: considering the status of undertaking plan of the waste disposal facility for the low level radioactive waste from research reactors, the phased decommissioning was selected for the Musashi Reactor. First phase of the decommissioning activities including the actions of permanent shutdown and delivering the spent nuclear fuels to US DOE was completed.
Fabrication and Pre-irradiation Characterization of a Minor Actinide and Rare Earth Containing Fast Reactor Fuel Experiment for Irradiation in the Advanced Test Reactor
Timothy A. Hyde
The United States Department of Energy, seeks to develop and demonstrate the technologies needed to transmute the long-lived transuranic actinide isotopes contained in spent nuclear fuel into shorter lived fission products, thereby decreasing the volume of material requiring disposal and reducing the long-term radiotoxicity and heat load of high-level waste sent to a geologic repository. This transmutation of the long lived actinides plutonium, neptunium, americium and curium can be accomplished by first separating them from spent Light Water Reactor fuel using a pyro-metalurgical process, then reprocessing them into new fuel with fresh uranium additions, and then transmuted to short lived nuclides in a liquid metal cooled fast reactor. An important component of the technology is developing actinide-bearing fuel forms containing plutonium, neptunium, americium and curium isotopes that meet the stringent requirements of reactor fuels and materials.
Corrosion property of 9Cr-ODS steel in nitric acid solution for spent nuclear fuel reprocessing
Takeuchi, M.; Koizumi, T. [Japan Atomic Energy Agency, Tokai-mura, Naka-gun, Ibaraki 319-1195 (Japan); Inoue, M.; Koyama, S.I. [Japan Atomic Energy Agency, Oarai-machi, Higashi-ibaraki-gun, Ibaraki 311-1393 (Japan)
Corrosion tests of oxide dispersion strengthened with 9% Cr (9Cr-ODS) steel, which is one of the desirable materials for cladding tube of sodium-cooled fast reactors, in pure nitric acid solution, spent FBR fuel solution, and its simulated solution were performed to understand the corrosion behavior in a spent nuclear fuel reprocessing. In this study, the 9Cr-ODS steel with lower effective chromium content was evaluated to understand the corrosion behavior conservatively. As results, the tube-type specimens of the 9Cr-ODS steels suffered severe weight loss owing to active dissolution at the beginning of the immersion test in pure nitric acid solution in the range from 1 to 3.5 M. In contrast, the weight loss was decreased and they showed a stable corrosion in the higher nitric acid concentration, the dissolved FBR fuel solution, and its simulated solution by passivation. The corrosion rates of the 9Cr-ODS steel in the dissolved FBR fuel solution and its simulated solution were 1-2 mm/y and showed good agreement with each other. The passivation was caused by the shift of corrosion potential to noble side owing to increase in nitric acid concentration or oxidative ions in the dissolved FBR fuel solution and the simulated spent fuel solution. (authors)
Kelly, Ryan 1989-
The Generation IV Pebble Bed Modular Reactor (PMBR) design may be used for electricity production, co-generation applications (industrial heat, hydrogen production, desalination, etc.), and could potentially eliminate some high level nuclear wastes...
Hybrid adsorptive membrane reactor
Tsotsis, Theodore T. (Huntington Beach, CA); Sahimi, Muhammad (Altadena, CA); Fayyaz-Najafi, Babak (Richmond, CA); Harale, Aadesh (Los Angeles, CA); Park, Byoung-Gi (Yeosu, KR); Liu, Paul K. T. (Lafayette Hill, PA)
A hybrid adsorbent-membrane reactor in which the chemical reaction, membrane separation, and product adsorption are coupled. Also disclosed are a dual-reactor apparatus and a process using the reactor or the apparatus.
Solid State Reactor Final Report
Mays, G.T.
The Solid State Reactor (SSR) is an advanced reactor concept designed to take advantage of Oak Ridge National Laboratory's (ORNL's) recently developed graphite foam that has enhanced heat transfer characteristics and excellent high-temperature mechanical properties, to provide an inherently safe, self-regulated, source of heat for power and other potential applications. This work was funded by the U.S. Department of Energy's Nuclear Energy Research Initiative (NERI) program (Project No. 99-064) from August 1999 through September 30, 2002. The initial concept of utilizing the graphite foam as a basis for developing an advanced reactor concept envisioned that a suite of reactor configurations and power levels could be developed for several different applications. The initial focus was looking at the reactor as a heat source that was scalable, independent of any heat removal/power conversion process. These applications might include conventional power generation, isotope production and destruction (actinides), and hydrogen production. Having conducted the initial research on the graphite foam and having performed the scoping parametric analyses from neutronics and thermal-hydraulic perspectives, it was necessary to focus on a particular application that would (1) demonstrate the viability of the overall concept and (2) require a reasonably structured design analysis process that would synthesize those important parameters that influence the concept the most as part of a feasible, working reactor system. Thus, the application targeted for this concept was supplying power for remote/harsh environments and a design that was easily deployable, simplistic from an operational standpoint, and utilized the new graphite foam. Specifically, a 500-kW(t) reactor concept was pursued that is naturally load following, inherently safe, optimized via neutronic studies to achieve near-zero reactivity change with burnup, and proliferation resistant. These four major areas of research were undertaken: (1) establishing the design and safety-related basis via neutronic and reactor control assessments with the graphite foam as heat transfer medium; (2) evaluating the thermal performance of the graphite foam for heat removal, reactor stability, reactor operations, and overall core thermal characteristics; (3) characterizing the physical properties of the graphite foam under normal and irradiated conditions to determine any effects on structure, dimensional stability, thermal conductivity, and thermal expansion; and (4) developing a power conversion system design to match the reactor operating parameters.
Glasstone, S.; Sesonske, A.
A book is reviewed which emphasizes topics directly related to the light water reactor power plant and the fast reactor power system. Current real-world problems are addressed throughout the text, and a chapter on safety includes much of the postThree Mile Island impact on operating systems. Topics covered include Doppler broadening, neutron resonances, multigroup diffusion theory, reactor kinetics, reactor control, energy removal, nonfuel materials, reactor fuel, radiation protection, environmental effects, and reactor safety.
Pollution prevention through reactor design
Hopper, J.R. [Lamar Univ., Beaumont, TX (United States)
Generation of waste in the chemical processing industries has its beginning in the heart of the process--the reaction system. Pollution prevention will have the greatest impact in minimizing the generation of waste through the design and operation of chemical reactors by reducing generation at the source--source reduction. Pollution prevention by modification of reaction parameters is defined as changing the selectivity of the reaction so that undesirable reactions which produce waste products are minimized while at the same time producing the desirable products.
NUHOWS - Storage and Transportation of Irradiated Reactor Components in Large Packages - 13439
Rae, Glen A. [Transnuclear, Inc., 7135 Minstrel Way, Columbia, MD 21045 (United States)] [Transnuclear, Inc., 7135 Minstrel Way, Columbia, MD 21045 (United States)
Most irradiated reactor components (hardware such as Control Rod Blades, Fuel Channels, Poison Curtains, etc.) generated at reactors previously required significant processing for size reduction due to the available transportation casks not being physically capable of containing unprocessed material. As of July 1, 2008, disposal for this typical waste class (B and C) became inaccessible (for the major part of the nation) due to the Barnwell, SC disposal facility being closed to all but its three compact states (CT, NJ and SC). Currently in the United States, most facilities are storing their irradiated hardware on-site in the spent fuel pools. Until recently with the opening of the Waste Control Specialists' Texas disposal facility, utilities faced the challenges of spent fuel pool space and capacity management. However, even with WCS's disposal availability, the site currently has annual Curie limitations for disposal, which will continue to promote interim on-site storage until such time as disposal is available. In response, Transnuclear Inc., (TN) an AREVA company, proceeded with designing a new large Radioactive Waste Container (RWC) that can be used to package irradiated hardware without the need for significant processing. The design features of the RWC allows for intermittent loadings of the hardware for better packaging efficiency, higher packaging density, space savings and reduced cost. This RWC is also compatible with TN's on-site modular vault storage system. Once completely loaded, the RWC can be transported to an on-site storage facility, an off-site storage facility and/or an available disposal facility. To accommodate the transportation, TN has designed a large transportation cask, the MP197HB. As the original design was for transporting fuel, it contains the necessary shielding to allow for the transport of unprocessed irradiated reactor components, while significantly reducing the amount of irradiated hardware shipments required with the use of the new RWC. This paper provides information on the unique design features of the RWC, storage module vaults, MP197HB Transportation Cask and cost saving benefits of using the large RWC for packaging, storage, transport and disposal. (authors)
Spent Nuclear Fuel (SNF) Project Product Specification
The process for removal of Spent Nuclear Fuel (SNF) from the K Basins has been divided into major sub-systems. The Fuel Retrieval System (FRS) removes fuel from the existing storage canisters, cleans it, and places it into baskets. The multi-canister overpack (MCO) loading system places the baskets into an MCO that has been pre-loaded in a cask. The cask, containing a loaded MCO, is then transferred to the Cold Vacuum Drying (CVD) Facility. After drying at the CVD Facility, the cask, and MCO, are transferred to the Canister Storage Building (CSB), where the MCO is removed from the cask, staged, inspected, sealed (by welding), and stored until a suitable permanent disposal option is implemented. The purpose of this document is to specify the process related characteristics of an MCO at the interface between major process systems. The characteristics are derived from the primary technical documents that form the basis for safety analysis and design calculations. This document translates the calculation assumptions into implementation requirements and describes the method of verifying that the requirement is achieved. These requirements are used to define validation test requirements and describe requirements that influence multiple sub-project safety analysis reports. This product specification establishes limits and controls for each significant process parameter at interfaces between major sub-systems that potentially affect the overall safety and/or quality of the SNF packaged for processing, transport, and interim dry storage. The product specifications in this document cover the SNF packaged in MCOs to be transported throughout the SNF Project. The description of the product specifications are organized in the document as follows: Section 2.0--Summary listing of product specifications at each major sub-system interface. Section 3.0--Summary description providing guidance as to how specifications are complied with by equipment design or processing within a major sub-system. Section 4.0--Specific technical basis description for each product specification. The scope of this product specification does not include data collection requirements to support accountability or environmental compliance activities.
Development of Enriched Borated Aluminum Alloy for Basket Material of Cask for Spent Nuclear Fuel
Mikio Sakai; Tadatsugu Sakaya; Hiroaki Fujiwara; Akira Sakai [Ishikawajima-Harima Heavy Industries Company Ltd., 1 Shin-Nakaharacho, Isogoku, Yokohama 235-8501 (Japan)
Concrete cask system is focused as the candidate one for spent fuel dry storage facilities from economic potential in Japan. Concrete cask consists of a concrete storage cask and a steel canister. A canister containing nuclear spent fuel is shipped by a transportation cask from a nuclear power plant to an interim storage facility. The canister is transferred from the transportation cask to a storage cask by a transfer cask in the storage facility. IHI has developed a concrete cask horizontal transfer system. This transfer system indicates that a canister is transferred to a storage cask horizontally. This transfer system has a merit against canister drop accident in transfer operation, i.e. spent fuel assemblies can be kept safe during the transfer operation. There are guide rails inside of the concrete cask, and the canister is installed into the storage cask with sliding on the rails. To develop the horizontal transfer system, IHI carried out a heat load test and numerical analyses by CFD. Heat load experiment was carried out by using a full-scale prototype canister, storage cask and transfer vessel. The decay heat was simulated by an electric heater installed in the canister. Assuming high burn-up spent fuel storage, heat generation was set between 20.0 kW and 25.0 kW. This experiment was focused on the concrete temperature distribution. We confirmed that the maximum concrete temperature in transfer operation period was lower than 40 deg. C (Heat generation 22.5 kW). Moreover we confirmed the maximum concrete temperature passed 24 hours with horizontal orientation was below 90 deg. C (Heat generation 22.5 kW). We analyzed the thermal performance of the concrete cask with horizontal transfer condition and normal storage condition. Thermal analyses for horizontal transfer operation were carried out based on the experimental conditions. The tendency of the analytical results was in good agreement with experimental results. The purpose of vertical thermal analysis was to estimate the concrete temperature increase in the case a canister contacts with guide rails in normal storage. It has a possibility that a canister contacts with guide rails during storage period after concrete cask is upended from transfer operation. The temperature increase due to this contact was calculated 5 deg. C at small local area. This result implies that the affect of the contact is very small. This paper addresses that the storage cask concrete is kept its integrity in transfer operation period and normal storage period. (authors)
Westinghouse Small Modular Reactor balance of plant and supporting systems design
Memmott, M. J.; Stansbury, C.; Taylor, C. [Westinghouse Electric Company LLC, 600 Cranberry Woods Drive, Cranberry Twp. PA 16066 (United States)
The Westinghouse Small Modular Reactor (SMR) is an 800 MWt (>225 MWe) integral pressurized water reactor (iPWR), in which all of the components typically associated with the nuclear steam supply system (NSSS) of a nuclear power plant are incorporated within a single reactor pressure vessel. This paper is the second in a series of four papers which describe the design and functionality of the Westinghouse SMR. It focuses, in particular, upon the supporting systems and the balance of plant (BOP) designs of the Westinghouse SMR. Several Westinghouse SMR systems are classified as safety, and are critical to the safe operation of the Westinghouse SMR. These include the protection and monitoring system (PMS), the passive core cooling system (PXS), and the spent fuel cooling system (SFS) including pools, valves, and piping. The Westinghouse SMR safety related systems include the instrumentation and controls (I and C) as well as redundant and physically separated safety trains with batteries, electrical systems, and switch gears. Several other incorporated systems are non-safety related, but provide functions for plant operations including defense-in-depth functions. These include the chemical volume control system (CVS), heating, ventilation and cooling (HVAC) systems, component cooling water system (CCS), normal residual heat removal system (RNS) and service water system (SWS). The integrated performance of the safety-related and non-safety related systems ensures the safe and efficient operation of the Westinghouse SMR through various conditions and transients. The turbine island consists of the turbine, electric generator, feedwater and steam systems, moisture separation systems, and the condensers. The BOP is designed to minimize assembly time, shipping challenges, and on-site testing requirements for all structures, systems, and components. (authors)
MacDonald, P.E.; Shah, V.N.; Ward, L.W.; Ellison, P.G.
A review and summary of the available information on steam generator tubing failures and the impact of these failures on plant safety is presented. The following topics are covered: pressurized water reactor (PWR), Canadian deuterium uranium (CANDU) reactor, and Russian water moderated, water cooled energy reactor (VVER) steam generator degradation, PWR steam generator tube ruptures, the thermal-hydraulic response of a PWR plant with a faulted steam generator, the risk significance of steam generator tube rupture accidents, tubing inspection requirements and fitness-for-service criteria in various countries, and defect detection reliability and sizing accuracy. A significant number of steam generator tubes are defective and are removed from service or repaired each year. This wide spread damage has been caused by many diverse degradation mechanisms, some of which are difficult to detect and predict. In addition, spontaneous tube ruptures have occurred at the rate of about one every 2 years over the last 20 years, and incipient tube ruptures (tube failures usually identified with leak detection monitors just before rupture) have been occurring at the rate of about one per year. These ruptures have caused complex plant transients which have not always been easy for the reactor operators to control. Our analysis shows that if more than 15 tubes rupture during a main steam line break, the system response could lead to core melting. Although spontaneous and induced steam generator tube ruptures are small contributors to the total core damage frequency calculated in probabilistic risk assessments, they are risk significant because the radionuclides are likely to bypass the reactor containment building. The frequency of steam generator tube ruptures can be significantly reduced through appropriate and timely inspections and repairs or removal from service.
Safety Aspects of Dry Spent Fuel Storage and Spent Fuel Management - 13559
Botsch, W.; Smalian, S.; Hinterding, P. [TUV NORD Nuclear c/o TUV NORD EnSys Hannover GmbH and Co.KG, Dept. Radiation Protection and Waste Disposal, Am TueV 1, 30519 Hannover (Germany)] [TUV NORD Nuclear c/o TUV NORD EnSys Hannover GmbH and Co.KG, Dept. Radiation Protection and Waste Disposal, Am TueV 1, 30519 Hannover (Germany); Voelzke, H.; Wolff, D.; Kasparek, E. [BAM Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing Division 3.4 Safety of Storage Containers Unter den Eichen 44-46, 12203 Berlin (Germany)] [BAM Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing Division 3.4 Safety of Storage Containers Unter den Eichen 44-46, 12203 Berlin (Germany)
Dry storage systems are characterized by passive and inherent safety systems ensuring safety even in case of severe incidents or accidents. After the events of Fukushima, the advantages of such passively and inherently safe dry storage systems have become more and more obvious. As with the storage of all radioactive materials, the storage of spent nuclear fuel (SF) and high-level radioactive waste (HLW) must conform to safety requirements. Following safety aspects must be achieved throughout the storage period: - safe enclosure of radioactive materials, - safe removal of decay heat, - securing nuclear criticality safety, - avoidance of unnecessary radiation exposure. The implementation of these safety requirements can be achieved by dry storage of SF and HLW in casks as well as in other systems such as dry vault storage systems or spent fuel pools, where the latter is neither a dry nor a passive system. Furthermore, transport capability must be guaranteed during and after storage as well as limitation and control of radiation exposure. The safe enclosure of radioactive materials in dry storage casks can be achieved by a double-lid sealing system with surveillance of the sealing system. The safe removal of decay heat must be ensured by the design of the storage containers and the storage facility. The safe confinement of radioactive inventory has to be ensured by mechanical integrity of fuel assembly structures. This is guaranteed, e.g. by maintaining the mechanical integrity of the fuel rods or by additional safety measures for defective fuel rods. In order to ensure nuclear critically safety, possible effects of accidents have also to be taken into consideration. In case of dry storage it might be necessary to exclude the re-positioning of fissile material inside the container and/or neutron moderator exclusion might be taken into account. Unnecessary radiation exposure can be avoided by the cask or canister vault system itself. In Germany dry storage of SF in casks fulfills both transport and storage requirements. Mostly, storage facilities are designed as concrete buildings above the ground, but due to regional constraints, one storage facility has also been built as a rock tunnel. The decay heat is always removed by natural air flow; further technical equipment is not needed. The removal of decay heat and shielding had been modeled and calculated by state-of-the-art computer codes before such a facility has been built. TueV and BAM present their long experience in the licensing process for sites and casks and inform about spent nuclear fuel management and issues concerning dry storage of spent nuclear fuel. Different storage systems and facilities in Germany, Europe and world-wide are compared with respect to the safety aspects mentioned above. Initial points are the safety issues of wet storage of SF, and it is shown how dry storage systems can ensure the compliance with the mentioned safety criteria over a long storage period. The German storage concept for dry storage of SF and HLW is presented and discussed. Exemplarily, the process of licensing, erection and operation of selected German dry storage facilities is presented. (authors)
Trace Fission Product Ratios for Nuclear Forensics Attribution of Weapons-Grade Plutonium from Fast Breeder Reactor Blankets
Osborn, Jeremy
), whereas that used in an FBR blanket fuel is depleted uranium (0.25 atom percent 235U). The energy production in the FBR core is from the seed fuel subassemblies containing mixed oxides (MOX) of PuO2 and UO2. A plot of fast and thermal neutron energy... of the program involves a fleet of fast breeder reactors. The stage two fast breeder reactors, beginning with the PFBR, will be fueled with reactor-grade plutonium and depleted uranium from the reprocessed spent fuel of stage one reactors and will breed more...
Computational chemistry in Argonne`s Reactor Analysis Division
Gelbard, E.; Agrawal, R.; Fanning, T.
Roughly 3 years ago work on Argonne`s Integral Fast Reactor ({open_quotes}IFR{close_quotes}) was terminated and at that time, ANL funding was redirected to a number of alternative programs. One such alternative was waste management and, since disposal of spent fuel from ANL`s EBR-II reactor presents some special problems, this seemed an appropriate area for ANL work. Methods for the treatment and disposal of spent fuel (particularly from EBR-II but also from other sources) are now under very active investigation at ANL. The very large waste form development program is mainly experimental at this point, but within the Reactor Analysis ({open_quotes}RA{close_quotes}) Division a small computational chemistry program is underway, designed to supplement the experimental program. One of the most popular proposals for the treatment of much of our high-level wastes is vitrification. As noted below, this approach has serious drawbacks for EBR-II spent fuel. ANL has proposed, instead, that spent fuel first be pretreated by a special metallurgical process which produces, as waste, chloride salts of the various fission products; these salts would then be adsorbed in zeolite A, which is subsequently bonded with glass to produce a waste form suitable for disposal. So far it has been the main mission of RA`s computational chemistry program to study the process by which leaching occurs when the glass-bonded zeolite waste form is exposed to water. It is the purpose of this paper to describe RA`s computational chemistry program, to discuss the computational techniques involved in such a program, and in general to familiarize the M. and C. Division with a computational area which is probably unfamiliar to most of its member. 11 refs., 2 figs.
US Department of Energy Storage of Spent Fuel and High Level Waste
Sandra M Birk
ABSTRACT This paper provides an overview of the Department of Energy's (DOE) spent nuclear fuel (SNF) and high level waste (HLW) storage management. Like commercial reactor fuel, DOE's SNF and HLW were destined for the Yucca Mountain repository. In March 2010, the DOE filed a motion with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to withdraw the license application for the repository at Yucca Mountain. A new repository is now decades away. The default for the commercial and DOE research reactor fuel and HLW is on-site storage for the foreseeable future. Though the motion to withdraw the license application and delay opening of a repository signals extended storage, DOE's immediate plans for management of its SNF and HLW remain the same as before Yucca Mountain was designated as the repository, though it has expanded its research and development efforts to ensure safe extended storage. This paper outlines some of the proposed research that DOE is conducting and will use to enhance its storage systems and facilities.
Modeling of Spent Fuel Oxidation at Low Temperature
Poulesquen, Arnaud; Ferry, Cecile [Department of Physico Chemistry, CEA, Gif sur Yvette, 91191 (France); Desgranges, Lionel [Department of Spent Fuel Studies, CEA, St Paul lez Durance, 13108 (France)
During dry storage, the oxidation of the spent fuel in case of cladding and container failure (accidental scenario) could be detrimental for further handling of the spent fuel rod and for the safety of the facilities. Depending on whether the uranium dioxide is under the form of powder or pellet, irradiated or unirradiated, the weight gain curves do not present the same shape. To account for these different behaviours, two models have been developed. Firstly, the oxidation of unirradiated powders has been modelled based on the coexistence, during the oxidation, of two intermediate products, U{sub 4}O{sub 9} and U{sub 3}O{sub 7}. The comparison between the calculation and the literature data is good in terms of weight gain curves and chemical diffusion coefficient of oxygen within the two phases. Secondly, the oxidation of spent fuel fragments is approached by a convolution procedure between a grain oxidation model and an empirical parameter which represents the linear oxidation speed of grain boundary or an average distance able to cover the entire spent fuel fragment. This procedure of calculation allows in one hand to account for the incubation period noticed on unirradiated pellets or spent fuel and in another hand to link the empirical parameter to physical as porosity, cracks or linear power, or operational parameters such as fission gas release (FGR) respectively. A comparison of this new modelling with experimental data will be proposed. (authors)
Paris-Sud XI, Université de
PHYSICS AND ENGINEERING OF NUCLEAR REACTORS AT THE ECOLE NATIONALE SUP�?RIEURE DE PHYSIQUE DE. In this context, it is necessary to design and evaluate new generations of nuclear reactors as defined by the Gen. Introduction Nuclear reactors currently generate nearly one fourth of the electricity in the world, and nuclear
Evaluation of the tritium content in light water reactor control and absorber rods to obtain data for the fuel cycle backend
Bleier, A.; Neeb, K.H.; Gelfort, E.; Mischke, J.
Tritium inventories and tritium distribution have been determined in boron glass absorber rods discharged from a pressurized water reactor first-cycle core and in spent boron carbide (B/sub 4/C) control rods from a boiling water reactor. The total tritium inventory in the boron glass absorber rods from the Stade nuclear reactor amounts to approx. =8.0 x 10/sup 10/ Bq (2.2 Ci) per rod. Of this, 99.6% was fixed in the boron glass itself and 0.4% in the Al/sub 2/O/sub 3/ pellets. The 4 x 10/sup -3/% fractions in the tube cladding and support pipe and the 1 x 10/sup -2/% fraction in the fill gas accounted for an insignificant part of the total tritium inventory of the rod. This experimentally determined tritium inventory was a factor of 5 larger than that suggested by the calculated estimate. The discrepancy between analyzed and calculated values can be explained by tritium formation from lithium impurities in the boron glass, where a 30-ppm lithium content would be adequate for this tritium inventory to be generated by the reaction /sup 6/Li(n,..cap alpha..)/sup 3/H. Evaluation of the B/sub 4/C control rods from the Lingen nuclear reactor after 3 yr of operation gave a 3.2 x 10/sup 10/Bq(0.85-Ci)tritium inventory per B/sub 4/C rod, while the total tritium inventory for a control rod assembly containing 60 B/sub 4/C rods was approx. =1.9 x 10/sup 12/ Bq (50 Ci). The tritium generated was essentially bound 100% in the B/sub 4/C, since the hulls contained only 6 x 10/sup -3/% and the fill gas only 2 x 10/sup -4/%.
Mission Need Statement: Idaho Spent Fuel Facility Project
Barbara Beller
Approval is requested based on the information in this Mission Need Statement for The Department of Energy, Idaho Operations Office (DOE-ID) to develop a project in support of the mission established by the Office of Environmental Management to "complete the safe cleanup of the environmental legacy brought about from five decades of nuclear weapons development and government-sponsored nuclear energy research". DOE-ID requests approval to develop the Idaho Spent Fuel Facility Project that is required to implement the Department of Energy's decision for final disposition of spent nuclear fuel in the Geologic Repository at Yucca Mountain. The capability that is required to prepare Spent Nuclear Fuel for transportation and disposal outside the State of Idaho includes characterization, conditioning, packaging, onsite interim storage, and shipping cask loading to complete shipments by January 1,2035. These capabilities do not currently exist in Idaho.
Information handbook on independent spent fuel storage installations
Raddatz, M.G.; Waters, M.D.
In this information handbook, the staff of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission describes (1) background information regarding the licensing and history of independent spent fuel storage installations (ISFSIs), (2) a discussion of the licensing process, (3) a description of all currently approved or certified models of dry cask storage systems (DCSSs), and (4) a description of sites currently storing spent fuel in an ISFSI. Storage of spent fuel at ISFSIs must be in accordance with the provisions of 10 CFR Part 72. The staff has provided this handbook for information purposes only. The accuracy of any information herein is not guaranteed. For verification or for more details, the reader should refer to the respective docket files for each DCSS and ISFSI site. The information in this handbook is current as of September 1, 1996.
Elements present in leach solutions from unsaturated spent fuel tests
Finn, P.A.; Bates, J.K.; Hoh, J.C.; Emery, J.W.; Hafenrichter, L.D.; Buck, E.C.; Gong, M.
Preliminary results for the composition of the leachate from unsaturated tests at 90{degrees}C with spent fuel for 55--134 days with J-13 groundwater are reported. The pH of the leachate solutions was found to be acidic, ranging from 4 to 7. The actinide concentrations were 10{sup 5} greater than those reported for saturated spent fuel tests in which the leachate pH was 8. We also found that most species in the leachate were present as colloids containing both americium and curium. The presence of actinides in a form not currently included in repository radionuclide transport models provides information that can be used in spent fuel reaction modeling, the performance assessment of the repository and the design of the engineering barrier system. This report was prepared as part of the Yucca Mountain Site Characterization Project
Advanced burner test reactor preconceptual design report.
Chang, Y. I.; Finck, P. J.; Grandy, C.; Cahalan, J.; Deitrich, L.; Dunn, F.; Fallin, D.; Farmer, M.; Fanning, T.; Kim, T.; Krajtl, L.; Lomperski, S.; Moisseytsev, A.; Momozaki, Y.; Sienicki, J.; Park, Y.; Tang, Y.; Reed, C.; Tzanos, C; Wiedmeyer, S.; Yang, W.; Chikazawa, Y.; JAEA
The goals of the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP) are to expand the use of nuclear energy to meet increasing global energy demand, to address nuclear waste management concerns and to promote non-proliferation. Implementation of the GNEP requires development and demonstration of three major technologies: (1) Light water reactor (LWR) spent fuel separations technologies that will recover transuranics to be recycled for fuel but not separate plutonium from other transuranics, thereby providing proliferation-resistance; (2) Advanced Burner Reactors (ABRs) based on a fast spectrum that transmute the recycled transuranics to produce energy while also reducing the long term radiotoxicity and decay heat loading in the repository; and (3) Fast reactor fuel recycling technologies to recover and refabricate the transuranics for repeated recycling in the fast reactor system. The primary mission of the ABR Program is to demonstrate the transmutation of transuranics recovered from the LWR spent fuel, and hence the benefits of the fuel cycle closure to nuclear waste management. The transmutation, or burning of the transuranics is accomplished by fissioning and this is most effectively done in a fast spectrum. In the thermal spectrum of commercial LWRs, some transuranics capture neutrons and become even heavier transuranics rather than being fissioned. Even with repeated recycling, only about 30% can be transmuted, which is an intrinsic limitation of all thermal spectrum reactors. Only in a fast spectrum can all transuranics be effectively fissioned to eliminate their long-term radiotoxicity and decay heat. The Advanced Burner Test Reactor (ABTR) is the first step in demonstrating the transmutation technologies. It directly supports development of a prototype full-scale Advanced Burner Reactor, which would be followed by commercial deployment of ABRs. The primary objectives of the ABTR are: (1) To demonstrate reactor-based transmutation of transuranics as part of an advanced fuel cycle; (2) To qualify the transuranics-containing fuels and advanced structural materials needed for a full-scale ABR; and (3) To support the research, development and demonstration required for certification of an ABR standard design by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The ABTR should also address the following additional objectives: (1) To incorporate and demonstrate innovative design concepts and features that may lead to significant improvements in cost, safety, efficiency, reliability, or other favorable characteristics that could promote public acceptance and future private sector investment in ABRs; (2) To demonstrate improved technologies for safeguards and security; and (3) To support development of the U.S. infrastructure for design, fabrication and construction, testing and deployment of systems, structures and components for the ABRs. Based on these objectives, a pre-conceptual design of a 250 MWt ABTR has been developed; it is documented in this report. In addition to meeting the primary and additional objectives listed above, the lessons learned from fast reactor programs in the U.S. and worldwide and the operating experience of more than a dozen fast reactors around the world, in particular the Experimental Breeder Reactor-II have been incorporated into the design of the ABTR to the extent possible.
Stabilization of spent calcium-based sorbent
Shires, P.J.; Katta, S.; Henningsen, G.B.
The overall objective of this project is to obtain experimental data on the reactions of calcium-based sorbents applicable to both air-blown coal gasification systems and second generation fluid bed coal combustion systems (partial gasification). The project is a 40-month effort. A key technical issue for the utilization of calcium sorbents in advanced coal technologies is the subsequent stabilization of the solid wastes (calcium sulfide/ash) produced by such systems.
The small modular reactor program at the Savannah River Site and the Savannah River National Laboratory.
The small modular reactor program at the Savannah River Site and the Savannah River National Laboratory.
Vachon, Lawrence J. (Clairton, PA)
This invention relates to safety means for preventing a gas cooled nuclear reactor from attaining criticality prior to start up in the event the reactor core is immersed in hydrogenous liquid. This is accomplished by coating the inside surface of the reactor coolant channels with a neutral absorbing material that will vaporize at the reactor's operating temperature.
Report to Congress on Plan for Interim Storage of Spent Nuclear Fuel from Decommissioned Reactors
Broader source: Energy.gov (indexed) [DOE]
AFDC Printable Version Share this resource Send a link to EERE: Alternative Fuels Data Center Home Page to someone by E-mail Share EERE: Alternative Fuels Data Center Home Page on Facebook Tweet about EERE: Alternative Fuels Data Center Home Page on Twitter Bookmark EERE: Alternative1 First Use of Energy for All Purposes (Fuel and Nonfuel), 2002; Level: National5Sales for4,645 3,625 1,006 492 742EnergyOn April 23, 2014, an OHASeptemberAssessments | Department ofSouthernofDepartmentReport6
NUHOMS modular spent-fuel storage system: Performance testing
Strope, L.A.; McKinnon, M.A. (Pacific Northwest Lab., Richland, WA (USA)); Dyksterhouse, D.J.; McLean, J.C. (Carolina Power and Light Co., Raleigh, NC (USA))
This report documents the results of a heat transfer and shielding performance evaluation of the NUTECH HOrizontal MOdular Storage (NUHOMS{reg sign}) System utilized by the Carolina Power and Light Co. (CP L) in an Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installation (ISFSI) licensed by the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). The ISFSI is located at CP L's H. B. Robinson Nuclear Plant (HBR) near Hartsville, South Carolina. The demonstration included testing of three modules, first with electric heaters and then with spent fuel. The results indicated that the system was conservatively designed, with all heat transfer and shielding design criteria easily met. 5 refs., 45 figs., 9 tabs.
Method for the regeneration of spent molten zinc chloride
Zielke, Clyde W. (McMurray, PA); Rosenhoover, William A. (Pittsburgh, PA)
In a process for regenerating spent molten zinc chloride which has been used in the hydrocracking of coal or ash-containing polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbonaceous materials derived therefrom and which contains zinc chloride, zinc oxide, zinc oxide complexes and ash-containing carbonaceous residue, by incinerating the spent molten zinc chloride to vaporize the zinc chloride for subsequent condensation to produce a purified molten zinc chloride: an improvement comprising the use of clay in the incineration zone to suppress the vaporization of metals other than zinc. Optionally water is used in conjunction with the clay to further suppress the vaporization of metals other than zinc.
On the Criticality Safety of Transuranic Sodium Fast Reactor Fuel Transport Casks
Samuel Bays; Ayodeji Alajo
This work addresses the neutronic performance and criticality safety issues of transport casks for fuel pertaining to low conversion ratio sodium cooled fast reactors, conventionally known as Advanced Burner Reactors. The criticality of a one, three, seven and 19-assembly cask capacity is presented. Both dry �helium� and flooded �water� filled casks are considered. No credit for fuel burnup or fission products was assumed. As many as possible of the conservatisms used in licensing light water reactor universal transport casks were incorporated into this SFR cask criticality design and analysis. It was found that at 7-assemblies or more, adding moderator to the SFR cask increases criticality margin. Also, removal of MAs from the fuel increases criticality margin of dry casks and takes a slight amount of margin away for wet casks. Assuming credit for borated fuel tube liners, this design analysis suggests that as many as 19 assemblies can be loaded in a cask if limited purely by criticality safety. If no credit for boron is assumed, the cask could possibly hold seven assemblies if low conversion ratio fast reactor grade fuel and not breeder reactor grade fuel is assumed. The analysis showed that there is a need for new cask designs for fast reactors spent fuel transportation. There is a potential of modifying existing transportation cask design as the starting point for fast reactor spent fuel transportation.
Preparation of the Second Shipment of Spent Nuclear Fuel from the Ustav Jaderneho Vyzkumu Rez (UJV Rez), a.s., Czech Republic to the Russian Federation for Reprocessing - 13478
Trtilek, Radek; Podlaha, Josef [UJV Rez, a. s., Hlavni 130, 25068 Husinec-Rez (Czech Republic)] [UJV Rez, a. s., Hlavni 130, 25068 Husinec-Rez (Czech Republic)
After more than 50 years of operation of the LVR-15 research reactor operated by the UJV Rez, a. s. (formerly Nuclear Research Institute - NRI), a large amount of the spent nuclear fuel (SNF) of Russian origin has been accumulated. In 2005 UJV Rez, a. s. jointed the Russian Research Reactor Fuel Return (RRRFR) program under the United States (US) - Russian Global Threat Reduction Initiative (GTRI) and started the process of SNF shipment from the LVR-15 research reactor back to the Russian Federation (RF). In 2007 the first shipment of SNF was realized. In 2011, preparation of the second shipment of spent fuel from the Czech Republic started. The experience obtained from the first shipment will be widely used, but some differences must be taken into the account. The second shipment will be realized in 2013 and will conclude the return transport of all, both fresh and spent, high-enriched nuclear fuel from the Czech Republic to the Russian Federation. After the shipment is completed, there will be only low-enriched nuclear fuel on the territory of the Czech Republic, containing maximum of 20% of U-235, which is the conventionally recognized limit between the low- and high-enriched nuclear materials. The experience (technical, organizational, administrative, logistic) obtained from the each SNF shipment as from the Czech Republic as from other countries using the Russian type research reactors are evaluated and projected onto preparation of next shipment of high enriched nuclear fuel back to the Russian Federation. The results shown all shipments provided by the UJV Rez, a. s. in the frame of the GTRI Program have been performed successfully and safely. It is expected the experience and results will be applied to preparation and completing of the Chinese Miniature Neutron Source Reactors (MNSR) Spent Nuclear Fuel Repatriation in the near future. (authors)
High Temperature Reactor (HTR) Deep Burn Core and Fuel Analysis: Design Selection for the Prismatic Block Reactor With Results from FY-2011 Activities
Michael A. Pope
The Deep Burn (DB) Project is a U.S. Department of Energy sponsored feasibility study of Transuranic Management using high burnup fuel in the high temperature helium cooled reactor (HTR). The DB Project consists of seven tasks: project management, core and fuel analysis, spent fuel management, fuel cycle integration, TRU fuel modeling, TRU fuel qualification, and HTR fuel recycle. In the Phase II of the Project, we conducted nuclear analysis of TRU destruction/utilization in the HTR prismatic block design (Task 2.1), deep burn fuel/TRISO microanalysis (Task 2.3), and synergy with fast reactors (Task 4.2). The Task 2.1 covers the core physics design, thermo-hydraulic CFD analysis, and the thermofluid and safety analysis (low pressure conduction cooling, LPCC) of the HTR prismatic block design. The Task 2.3 covers the analysis of the structural behavior of TRISO fuel containing TRU at very high burnup level, i.e. exceeding 50% of FIMA. The Task 4.2 includes the self-cleaning HTR based on recycle of HTR-generated TRU in the same HTR. Chapter IV contains the design and analysis results of the 600MWth DB-HTR core physics with the cycle length, the average discharged burnup, heavy metal and plutonium consumptions, radial and axial power distributions, temperature reactivity coefficients. Also, it contains the analysis results of the 450MWth DB-HTR core physics and the analysis of the decay heat of a TRU loaded DB-HTR core. The evaluation of the hot spot fuel temperature of the fuel block in the DB-HTR (Deep-Burn High Temperature Reactor) core under full operating power conditions are described in Chapter V. The investigated designs are the 600MWth and 460MWth DB-HTRs. In Chapter VI, the thermo-fluid and safety of the 600MWth DB-HTRs has been analyzed to investigate a thermal-fluid design performance at the steady state and a passive safety performance during an LPCC event. Chapter VII describes the analysis results of the TRISO fuel microanalysis of the 600MWth and 450MWth DB-HTRs. The TRISO fuel microanalysis covers the gas pressure buildup in a coated fuel particle including helium production, the thermo-mechanical behavior of a CFP, the failure probabilities of CFPs, the temperature distribution in a CPF, and the fission product (FP) transport in a CFP and a graphite. In Chapter VIII, it contains the core design and analysis of sodium cooled fast reactor (SFR) with deep burn HTR reactor. It considers a synergistic combination of the DB-MHR and an SFR burner for a safe and efficient transmutation of the TRUs from LWRs. Chapter IX describes the design and analysis results of the self-cleaning (or self-recycling) HTR core. The analysis is considered zero and 5-year cooling time of the spent LWR fuels.
Thomson, Wallace B. (Severna Park, MD)
A nuclear reactor comprising a cylindrical pressure vessel, an elongated annular core centrally disposed within and spaced from the pressure vessel, and a plurality of ducts disposed longitudinally of the pressure vessel about the periphery thereof, said core comprising an annular active portion, an annular reflector just inside the active portion, and an annular reflector just outside the active a portion, said annular active portion comprising rectangular slab, porous fuel elements radially disposed around the inner reflector and extending the length of the active portion, wedge-shaped, porous moderator elements disposed adjacent one face of each fuel element and extending the length of the fuel element, the fuel and moderator elements being oriented so that the fuel elements face each other and the moderator elements do likewise, adjacent moderator elements being spaced to provide air inlet channels, and adjacent fuel elements being spaced to provide air outlet channels which communicate with the interior of the peripheral ducts, and means for introducing air into the air inlet channels which passes through the porous moderator elements and porous fuel elements to the outlet channel.
Application of Neutron-Absorbing Structural-Amorphous metal (SAM) Coatings for Spent Nuclear Fuel (SNF) Container to Enhance Criticality Safety Controls
241 Pu, etc. ). To prevent nuclear criticality in spent fuelto enhance criticality safety for spent nuclear fuel inSpent Nuclear Fuel (SNF) Container to Enhance Criticality
Bryan, Samuel A.; Levitskaia, Tatiana G.; Lines, Amanda M.; Billing, Justin M.; Casella, Amanda J.; Johnsen, Amanda M.; Peterson, James M.; Thomas, Elizabeth M.
Advanced techniques that enhance safeguarding of spent fuel reprocessing plants are urgently needed. Our approach is based on the prerequisite that real-time monitoring of solvent extraction flowsheets at a spent fuel reprocessing plant provides the unique capability to quickly detect unwanted manipulations with fissile isotopes present in the radiochemical streams during reprocessing activities. The methods used to monitor these processes must be robust and capable of withstanding harsh radiation and chemical environments. A new on-line monitoring system satisfying these requirements and featuring Raman spectroscopy combined with a Coriolis and conductivity probes recently has been developed by our research team for tank waste retrieval. It provides immediate chemical data and flow parameters of high-level radioactive waste streams with high brine content generated during retrieval activities from nuclear waste storage tanks at the Hanford Site. The nature of the radiochemical streams at the spent fuel reprocessing plant calls for additional spectroscopic information that can be gained by using Vis-NIR capabilities augmenting Raman spectroscopy. A fiber optic Raman probe allows monitoring of high concentration species encountered in both aqueous and organic phases within the UREX suite of flowsheets, including metal oxide ions, such as uranyl, components of the organic solvent, inorganic oxo-anions, and water. Actinides and lanthanides are monitored remotely by Vis-NIR spectroscopy in aqueous and organic phases. In this report, we present our results on spectroscopic measurements of simulant flowsheet solutions and commercial fuels designed to demonstrate the applicability of Raman and Vis-NIR spectroscopic analysis for actual dissolver feed solutions.
Research on Spent Fuel Storage and Transportation in CRIEPI (Part 2 Concrete Cask Storage)
Koji Shirai; Jyunichi Tani; Taku Arai; Masumi Watatu; Hirofumi Takeda; Toshiari Saegusa; Philip L. Winston
Concrete cask storage has been implemented in the world. At a later stage of storage period, the containment of the canister may deteriorate due to stress corrosion cracking phenomena in a salty air environment. High resistant stainless steels against SCC have been tested as compared with normal stainless steel. Taking account of the limited time-length of environment with certain level of humidity and temperature range, the high resistant stainless steels will survive from SCC damage. In addition, the adhesion of salt from salty environment on the canister surface will be further limited with respect to the canister temperature and angle of the canister surface against the salty air flow in the concrete cask. Optional countermeasure against SCC with respect to salty air environment has been studied. Devices consisting of various water trays to trap salty particles from the salty air were designed to be attached at the air inlet for natural cooling of the cask storage building. Efficiency for trapping salty particles was evaluated. Inspection of canister surface was carried out using an optical camera inserted from the air outlet through the annulus of a concrete cask that has stored real spent fuel for more than 15 years. The camera image revealed no gross degradation on the surface of the canister. Seismic response of a full-scale concrete cask with simulated spent fuel assemblies has been demonstrated. The cask did not tip over, but laterally moved by the earthquake motion. Stress generated on the surface of the spent fuel assemblies during the earthquake motion were within the elastic region.
Multiple recycle of REMIX fuel based on reprocessed uranium and plutonium mixture in thermal reactors
Fedorov, Y.S.; Bibichev, B.A.; Zilberman, B.Y. [RPA - V.G.Khlopin Radium Institute, St-Petersburg (Russian Federation); Baryshnikov, M.V.; Kryukov, O.V.; Khaperskaya, A.V. [State Corporation ROSATOM, Moscow (Russian Federation)
REMIX fuel consumption in WWER-1000 is considered. REMIX fuel is fabricated from non-separated mixture of uranium and plutonium obtained during NPP spent fuel reprocessing with further makeup by enriched natural uranium. It makes possible to recycle several times the total amount of uranium and plutonium obtained from spent fuel with 100% loading of the WWER-1000 core. The stored SNF could be also involved in REMIX fuel cycle by enrichment of regenerated uranium. The same approach could be applied to closing the fuel cycle of CANDU reactors. (authors)
Public information circular for shipments of irradiated reactor fuel. Report for 16 Jul 79-1 May 82
Not Available
This circular has been prepared in response to numerous requests for information regarding routes used for the shipment of irradiated reactor (spent) fuel subject to regulation by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), and to meet the requirements of Public Law 96-295. The NRC staff must approve such routes prior to their first use. Spent fuel shipment routes, primarily for road transportation, but also including one rail route, are indicated on reproductions of DOT road maps. Also included are the amounts of material shipped during the approximate three year period that safeguards regulations for spent fuel shipments have been effective. In addition, the Commission provided information in this document regarding the NRC's safety and safeguards regulations for spent fuel shipments as well as safeguards incidents regarding same.
Spent nuclear fuel project design basis capacity study
Cleveland, K.J.
A parametric study of the Spent Nuclear Fuel Project system capacity is presented. The study was completed using a commercially available software package to develop a summary level model of the major project systems. Alternative configurations, sub-system cycle times, and operating scenarios were tested to identify their impact on total project duration and equipment requirements.
Shippingport Spent Fuel Canister (SSFC) Design Report Project W-518
The SSFC Design Report Describes A spent fuel canister for Shippingport Core 2 blanket fuel assemblies. The design of the SSFC is a minor modification of the MCO. The modification is limited to the Shield Plug which remains unchanged with regard to interfaces with the canister shell. The performance characteristics remain those for the MCO, which bounds the payload of the SSFC.
Recycling practices of spent MgO-C refractories
Kwong, Kyei-Sing; Bennett, James P.
The recycling options of spent MgO-C refractories from an electrical arc furnace (EAF) have been evaluated. The economic, quality of spent refractories and products made from it, the ease of implementation of a recycling practice and the interest of steel melt shops were considered. It was decided that the best option of most EAF shops would be to recycle spent MgO-C refractory as a foaming slag conditioner because of their MgO content. Crushed MgO-C spent refractories can be reused directly back into an EAF without complex and costly beneficiation. Even though this practice is simple, it is critical to know the optimum amount of MgO in the slag to achieve the best foaming quality. A computer model was designed to find the optimum MgO amount. This modeling also helps the melt shop extend refractory service life, increase the energy efficiency, increase productivity, and decrease the amount of slag. Issues related to the refractory recycling will be discussed.
Review of Drying Methods for Spent Nuclear Fuel
Large, W.S.
SRTC is developing technology for direct disposal of aluminum spent nuclear fuel (SNF). The development program includes analyses and tests to support design and safe operation of a facility for ''road ready'' dry storage of SNF-filled canisters. The current technology development plan includes review of available SNF drying methods and recommendation of a drying method for aluminum SNF.
Safety and core design of large liquid-metal cooled fast breeder reactors
Qvist, Staffan Alexander
type fast reactor of the IV generation for regional powerELECTRA-FCC: a centre for Generation IV system research andunder the framework of generation-IV nuclear pro- grams or
Atmospheric Pressure Reactor System | EMSL
Broader source: All U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office Webpages (Extended Search)
Atmospheric Pressure Reactor System Atmospheric Pressure Reactor System The atmospheric pressure reactor system is designed for testing the efficiency of various catalysts for the...
What to Expect When Readying to Move Spent Nuclear Fuel from...
Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) Indexed Site
What to Expect When Readying to Move Spent Nuclear Fuel from Commercial Nuclear Power Plants What to Expect When Readying to Move Spent Nuclear Fuel from Commercial Nuclear Power...
The Impacts of Dry-Storage Canister Designs on Spent Nuclear...
Office of Environmental Management (EM)
The Impacts of Dry-Storage Canister Designs on Spent Nuclear Fuel Handling, Storage, Transportation, and Disposal in the U.S. The Impacts of Dry-Storage Canister Designs on Spent...
Assessing the Feasibility of Using Neutron Resonance Transmission Analysis (NRTA) for Assaying Plutonium in Spent Fuel Assemblies
D. L. Chichester; J. W. Sterbentz
Neutron resonance transmission analysis (NRTA) is an active-interrogation nondestructive assay (NDA) technique capable of assaying spent nuclear fuel to determine plutonium content. Prior experimental work has definitively shown the technique capable of assaying plutonium isotope composition in spent-fuel pins to a precision of approximately 3%, with a spatial resolution of a few millimeters. As a Grand Challenge to investigate NDA options for assaying spent fuel assemblies (SFAs) in the commercial fuel cycle, Idaho National Laboratory has explored the feasibility of using NRTA to assay plutonium in a whole SFA. The goal is to achieve a Pu assay precision of 1%. The NRTA technique uses low-energy neutrons from 0.1-40 eV, at the bottom end of the actinide-resonance range, in a time-of-flight arrangement. Isotopic composition is determined by relating absorption of the incident neutrons to the macroscopic cross-section of the actinides of interest in the material, and then using this information to determine the areal density of the isotopes in the SFA. The neutrons used for NRTA are produced using a pulsed, accelerator-based neutron source. Distinguishable resonances exist for both the plutonium (239,240,241,242Pu) and uranium (235,236,238U) isotopes of interest in spent fuel. Additionally, in this energy range resonances exists for six important fission products (99Tc, 103Rh, 131Xe, 133Cs, 145Nd, and 152Sm) which provide additional information to support spent fuel plutonium assay determinations. Based on extensive modeling of the problem using Monte Carlo-based simulation codes, our preliminary results suggest that by rotating an SFA to acquire four symmetric views, sufficient neutron transmission can be achieved to assay a SFA. In this approach multiple scan information for the same pins may also be unfolded to potentially allow the determination of plutonium for sub-regions of the assembly. For a 17 ? 17 pressurized water reactor SFA, a simplistic preliminary analysis indicates the mass of 239Pu may be determined with a precision on the order of 5%, without the need for operator-supplied fuel information or operational histories. This paper will present our work to date on this topic, indicate our preliminary findings for a conceptual assay approach, discuss resilience against spoofing, and outline our future plans for evaluating the NRTA technique for SFA plutonium determination.
Proliferation resistance of small modular reactors fuels
Polidoro, F.; Parozzi, F. [RSE - Ricerca sul Sistema Energetico,Via Rubattino 54, 20134, Milano (Italy); Fassnacht, F.; Kuett, M.; Englert, M. [IANUS, Darmstadt University of Technology, Alexanderstr. 35, D-64283 Darmstadt (Germany)
In this paper the proliferation resistance of different types of Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) has been examined and classified with criteria available in the literature. In the first part of the study, the level of proliferation attractiveness of traditional low-enriched UO{sub 2} and MOX fuels to be used in SMRs based on pressurized water technology has been analyzed. On the basis of numerical simulations both cores show significant proliferation risks. Although the MOX core is less proliferation prone in comparison to the UO{sub 2} core, it still can be highly attractive for diversion or undeclared production of nuclear material. In the second part of the paper, calculations to assess the proliferation attractiveness of fuel in typical small sodium cooled fast reactor show that proliferation risks from spent fuel cannot be neglected. The core contains a highly attractive plutonium composition during the whole life cycle. Despite some aspects of the design like the sealed core that enables easy detection of unauthorized withdrawal of fissile material and enhances proliferation resistance, in case of open Non-Proliferation Treaty break-out, weapon-grade plutonium in sufficient quantities could be extracted from the reactor core.
Examining 239Pu and 240Pu Nuclear Resonance Fluorescence Measurements on Spent Fuel for Nuclear Safeguards
Quiter, Brian
Spent Fuel Assay Using Nuclear Resonance Fluo- rescence,� Annual Meeting of the Institute of Nuclear Material Management,
Conditioning and Repackaging of Spent Radioactive Cs-137 and Co-60 Sealed Sources in Egypt - 13490
Hasan, M.A.; Selim, Y.T.; El-Zakla, T. [Hot Labs and Waste Management Center, Atomic Energy Authority, 3 Ahmed El-Zomor St., El-Zohour District, Naser City, 11787, Cairo (Egypt)] [Hot Labs and Waste Management Center, Atomic Energy Authority, 3 Ahmed El-Zomor St., El-Zohour District, Naser City, 11787, Cairo (Egypt)
Radioactive Sealed sources (RSSs) are widely use all over the world in medicine, agriculture, industry, research, etc. The accidental misuse and exposure to RSSs has caused significant environmental contamination, serious injuries and many deaths. The high specific activity of the materials in many RSSs means that the spread of as little as microgram quantities can generate significant risk to human health and inhibit the use of buildings and land. Conditioning of such sources is a must to protect humans and environment from the hazard of ionizing radiation and contamination. Conditioning is also increase the security of these sources by decreasing the probability of stolen and/or use in terrorist attacks. According to the law No.7/2010, Egyptian atomic energy authority represented in the hot laboratories and waste management center (centralized waste facility, HLWMC) has the responsibility of collecting, conditioning, storing and management of all types of radioactive waste from all Egyptian territory including spent radioactive sealed sources (SRSSs). This paper explains the conditioning procedures for two of the most common SRSSs, Cs{sup 137} and Co{sup 60} sources which make up more than 90% of the total spent radioactive sealed sources stored in our centralized waste facility as one of the major activities of hot laboratories and waste management center. Conditioning has to meet three main objectives, be acceptable for storage, enable their safe transport, and comply with disposal requirements. (authors)
Storage of LWR spent fuel in air. Volume 3, Results from exposure of spent fuel to fluorine-contaminated air
Cunningham, M.E.; Thomas, L.E.
The Behavior of Spent Fuel in Storage (BSFS) Project has conducted research to develop data on spent nuclear fuel (irradiated U0{sub 2}) that could be used to support design, licensing, and operation of dry storage installations. Test Series B conducted by the BSFS Project was designed as a long-term study of the oxidation of spent fuel exposed to air. It was discovered after the exposures were completed in September 1990 that the test specimens had been exposed to an atmosphere of bottled air contaminated with an unknown quantity of fluorine. This exposure resulted in the test specimens reacting with both the oxygen and the fluorine in the oven atmospheres. The apparent source of the fluorine was gamma radiation-induced chemical decomposition of the fluoro-elastomer gaskets used to seal the oven doors. This chemical decomposition apparently released hydrofluoric acid (HF) vapor into the oven atmospheres. Because the Test Series B specimens were exposed to a fluorine-contaminated oven atmosphere and reacted with the fluorine, it is recommended that the Test Series B data not be used to develop time-temperature limits for exposure of spent nuclear fuel to air. This report has been prepared to document Test Series B and present the collected data and observations.
Final environmental impact statement. Management of commercially generated radioactive waste. Volume 2. Appendices
Not Available
This EIS analyzes the significant environmental impacts that could occur if various technologies for management and disposal of high-level and transuranic wastes from commercial nuclear power reactors were to be developed and implemented. This EIS will serve as the environmental input for the decision on which technology, or technologies, will be emphasized in further research and development activities in the commercial waste management program. The action proposed in this EIS is to (1) adopt a national strategy to develop mined geologic repositories for disposal of commercially generated high-level and transuranic radioactive waste (while continuing to examine subseabed and very deep hole disposal as potential backup technologies) and (2) conduct a R and D program to develop such facilities and the necessary technology to ensure the safe long-term containment and isolation of these wastes. The Department has considered in this statement: development of conventionally mined deep geologic repositories for disposal of spent fuel from nuclear power reactors and/or radioactive fuel reprocessing wastes; balanced development of several alternative disposal methods; and no waste disposal action. This volume contains appendices of supplementary data on waste management systems, geologic disposal, radiological standards, radiation dose calculation models, related health effects, baseline ecology, socio-economic conditions, hazard indices, comparison of defense and commercial wastes, design considerations, and wastes from thorium-based fuel cycle alternatives. (DMC)
Nero, A.V.
IMPACTS OF FOSSIL-FUEL NUCLEAR, GEOTHERMAL, AND ELECTRIC GENERATION IN CALIFORNIA Energy and Environment
An Assessment of Spent Fuel Reprocessing for Actinide Destruction and Resource Sustainability.
Cipiti, Benjamin B.; Smith, James D.
The reprocessing and recycling of spent nuclear fuel can benefit the nuclear fuel cycle by destroying actinides or extending fissionable resources if uranium supplies become limited. The purpose of this study was to assess reprocessing and recycling in both fast and thermal reactors to determine the effectiveness for actinide destruction and resource utilization. Fast reactor recycling will reduce both the mass and heat load of actinides by a factor of 2, but only after 3 recycles and many decades. Thermal reactor recycling is similarly effective for reducing actinide mass, but the heat load will increase by a factor of 2. Economically recoverable reserves of uranium are estimated to sustain the current global fleet for the next 100 years, and undiscovered reserves and lower quality ores are estimated to contain twice the amount of economically recoverable reserves--which delays the concern of resource utilization for many decades. Economic analysis reveals that reprocessed plutonium will become competitive only when uranium prices rise to about %24360 per kg. Alternative uranium sources are estimated to be competitive well below that price. Decisions regarding the development of a near term commercial-scale reprocessing fuel cycle must partially take into account the effectiveness of reactors for actnides destruction and the time scale for when uranium supplies may become limited. Long-term research and development is recommended in order to make more dramatic improvements in actinide destruction and cost reductions for advanced fuel cycle technologies.The original scope of this work was to optimize an advanced fuel cycle using a tool that couples a reprocessing plant simulation model with a depletion analysis code. Due to funding and time constraints of the late start LDRD process and a lack of support for follow-on work, the project focused instead on a comparison of different reprocessing and recycling options. This optimization study led to new insight into the fuel cycle. AcknowledgementThe authors would like to acknowledge the support of Laboratory Directed Research and Development Project 125862 for funding this research.
Implementation of safeguards and security for fissile materials disposition reactor alternative facilities
Jaeger, C.D.; Duggan, R.A.; Tolk, K.M.
A number of different disposition alternatives are being considered and include facilities which provide for long-ten-n and interim storage, convert and stabilize fissile materials for other disposition alternatives, immobilize fissile material in glass and/or ceramic material, fabricate fissile material into mixed oxide (MOX) fuel for reactors, use reactor based technologies to convert material into spent fuel, and dispose of fissile material using a number of geologic alternatives. Particular attention will be given to the reactor alternatives which include existing, partially completed, advanced or evolutionary LWRs and CANDU reactors. The various reactor alternatives are all very similar and include processing which converts Pu to a usable form for fuel fabrication, a MOX fuel fab facility located in either the US or in Europe, US LWRs or the CANDU reactors and ultimate disposal of spent fuel in a geologic repository. This paper focuses on how the objectives of reducing security risks and strengthening arms reduction and nonproliferation will be accomplished and the possible impacts of meeting these objectives on facility operations and design. Some of the areas in this paper include: (1) domestic and international safeguards requirements, (2) non-proliferation criteria and measures, (3) the threat, and (4) potential proliferation risks, the impacts on the facilities, and safeguards and security issues unique to the presence of Category 1 or strategic special nuclear material.
TRIGA Mark II nuclear reactor facility. Final report, 1 July 1980--30 June 1995
Ryan, B.C.
This report is a final culmination of activities funded through the Department of Energy`s (DOE) University Reactor Sharing Program, Grant DE-FG02-80ER10273, during the period 1 July 1980 through 30 June 1995. Progress reports have been periodically issued to the DOE, namely the Reactor Facility Annual Reports C00-2082/2219-7 through C00-2082/10723-21, which are contained as an appendix to this report. Due to the extent of time covered by this grant, summary tables are presented. Table 1 lists the fiscal year financial obligations of the grant. As listed in the original grant proposals, the DOE grant financed 70% of project costs, namely the total amount spent of these projects minus materials costs and technical support. Thus the bulk of funds was spent directly on reactor operations. With the exception of a few years, spending was in excess of the grant amount. As shown in Tables 2 and 3, the Reactor Sharing grant funded a immense number of research projects in nuclear engineering, geology, animal science, chemistry, anthropology, veterinary medicine, and many other fields. A list of these users is provided. Out of the average 3000 visitors per year, some groups participated in classes involving the reactor such as Boy Scout Merit Badge classes, teacher`s workshops, and summer internships. A large number of these projects met the requirements for the Reactor Sharing grant, but were funded by the University instead.
Vernetson, W.G.
Progress achieved at the University of Florida Training Reactor (UFTR) facility through the US Department of Energy's University Reactor Sharing Program is reported for the period of 1991--1992.
Undergraduate reactor control experiment
Edwards, R.M.; Power, M.A.; Bryan, M. (Pennsylvania State Univ., University Park (United States))
A sequence of reactor and related experiments has been a central element of a senior-level laboratory course at Pennsylvania State University (Penn State) for more than 20 yr. A new experiment has been developed where the students program and operate a computer controller that manipulates the speed of a secondary control rod to regulate TRIGA reactor power. Elementary feedback control theory is introduced to explain the experiment, which emphasizes the nonlinear aspect of reactor control where power level changes are equivalent to a change in control loop gain. Digital control of nuclear reactors has become more visible at Penn State with the replacement of the original analog-based TRIGA reactor control console with a modern computer-based digital control console. Several TRIGA reactor dynamics experiments, which comprise half of the three-credit laboratory course, lead to the control experiment finale: (a) digital simulation, (b) control rod calibration, (c) reactor pulsing, (d) reactivity oscillator, and (e) reactor noise.
Scott, Charles D. (Oak Ridge, TN); Davison, Brian H. (Knoxvile, TN)
A reactor vessel for reacting a solid particulate with a liquid reactant has a centrifugal pump in circulatory flow communication with the reactor vessel for providing particulate attrition, resulting in additional fresh surface where the reaction can occur.
Scott, C.D.; Davison, B.H.
A reactor vessel for reacting a solid particulate with a liquid reactant has a centrifugal pump in circulatory flow communication with the reactor vessel for providing particulate attrition, resulting in additional fresh surface where the reaction can occur. 2 figures.
Experiments Performed in Substantiation of the Conditioning of BN-350 Spent Cesium Traps Using Lead or Lead-Bismuth Alloy Filling Technology
O. Romanenko; I. Tazhibaeva; I. Yakovlev; A. Ivanov; D. Wells; A. Herrick; J. Michelbacher; S. Shiganakov
The technology of cleaning cesium radionuclides from sodium coolant at the BN-350 fast reactor was realized in the form of cesium traps of two types: stationary devices connected to the circuit that was to be cleaned and in-core devices installed into the core of reactor when it was not under operation. Carbon-graphite materials were used as sorbents to collect and concentrate radioactive cesium, accumulated in the BN-350 reactor circuits over the decades of their operation, in relatively small volume traps which provided effective radiation-safe conditions for personnel working in proximity to the coolant and equipment of the primary circuit during BN-350 decommissioning. Spent cesium traps, as products unfit for further use, represent solid radioactive wastes. The presence of chemically active sodium, potassium and cesium that are able to react violently with water results in series of problems related to their disposal in the Republic of Kazakhstan. Considering the technology of filling spent cesium traps with lead/lead-bismuth alloy as a priority one for their conditioning, evaluations for safety substantiation were implemented. A set of experiments was implemented aimed at verification of calculations performed in substantiation of the proposed technology: filling a full scale cesium trap mock-up with sodium followed by its draining to determine the optimal regimes of draining; filling bench scale cesium trap mock-ups with sodium and cesium followed by sodium draining and filling with lead or lead-bismuth alloy at different temperatures and filling rates to chose the optimal regimes for filling spent cesium traps; implementation of leachability tests to determine the rate of cesium release from the filling materials into water. This paper provides a description of the experimental program carried out and the main results obtained.
Fischer, Noah A. [Los Alamos National Laboratory
The reactor core input generator allows for MCNP input files to be tailored to design specifications and generated in seconds. Full reactor models can now easily be created by specifying a small set of parameters and generating an MCNP input for a full reactor core. Axial zoning of the core will allow for density variation in the fuel and moderator, with pin-by-pin fidelity, so that BWR cores can more accurately be modeled. LWR core work in progress: (1) Reflectivity option for specifying 1/4, 1/2, or full core simulation; (2) Axial zoning for moderator densities that vary with height; (3) Generating multiple types of assemblies for different fuel enrichments; and (4) Parameters for specifying BWR box walls. Fuel pin work in progress: (1) Radial and azimuthal zoning for generating further unique materials in fuel rods; (2) Options for specifying different types of fuel for MOX or multiple burn assemblies; (3) Additional options for replacing fuel rods with burnable poison rods; and (4) Control rod/blade modeling.
LCEs for Naval Reactor Benchmark Calculations
W.J. Anderson
The purpose of this engineering calculation is to document the MCNP4B2LV evaluations of Laboratory Critical Experiments (LCEs) performed as part of the Disposal Criticality Analysis Methodology program. LCE evaluations documented in this report were performed for 22 different cases with varied design parameters. Some of these LCEs (10) are documented in existing references (Ref. 7.1 and 7.2), but were re-run for this calculation file using more neutron histories. The objective of this analysis is to quantify the MCNP4B2LV code system's ability to accurately calculate the effective neutron multiplication factor (k{sub eff}) for various critical configurations. These LCE evaluations support the development and validation of the neutronics methodology used for criticality analyses involving Naval reactor spent nuclear fuel in a geologic repository.