A Framework to Assess Advanced Reactor Spent Fuel Management Facility Deployment

Abstract

Advanced nuclear reactors offer various operational advantages over existing light water reactors but could produce types of spent nuclear fuel (SNF) with a wide variety of forms and characteristics depending on how many different concepts are deployed. Each advanced reactor SNF type potentially poses unique management challenges. New planning efforts will be necessary to anticipate how the management requirements of advanced reactor SNF will affect the deployment of an integrated waste management system. This paper applies a framework of high-level facility deployment milestones to a generic SNF management system, reviewing them together with the advanced reactor SNF characteristics and management requirements. This allows for the investigation of factors that influence facility and system deployment, and ultimately, the identification of challenges facing the deployment of different kinds of SNF management facilities.

The back end of the once-through fuel cycle is examined for four advanced reactor system technology types: sodium-cooled fast reactors, high-temperature gas-cooled reactors, liquid-fuel molten salt reactors, and lead-cooled fast reactors. It is observed that milestones earlier in the facility deployment process (e.g., siting and facility design) are more impacted by the uniqueness of advanced reactor SNF characteristics than others (e.g., construction and testing). Ultimately, none of the differences are seen as fundamentally disqualifying in a technical sense; however, they should be considered early, potentially as part of reactor design, to avoid issues in the future.

Keywords:

• Nuclear waste
• advanced reactors
• spent nuclear fuel
• integrated waste management

Acknowledgments

The submitted paper was created by UChicago Argonne, LLC, operator of Argonne National Laboratory (ANL). ANL’s work was supported by DOE, Office of Nuclear Energy, under contract DE-AC02-06CH11357. The authors are grateful for the discussions, recommendations, and reviews from colleagues Gordon Petersen and Josh Jarrell, INL; Rob Howard, and Mark Nutt, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory; Roger Blomquist, ANL; Kevin Connolly, Oak Ridge National Laboratory; Brian Gutherman, Gutherman Technical Services, LLC; and Jorge Narvaez, Jack Wheeler, and Natalia Saraeva, DOE.

This is a technical paper that does not account for contractual limitations or obligations under the Standard Contract for Disposal of Spent Nuclear Fuel and/or High-Level Radioactive Waste (Standard Contract) (10 CFR Part 961). To the extent discussions or recommendations in this report conflict with the provisions of the Standard Contract, the Standard Contract governs the obligations of the parties, and this presentation in no manner supersedes, overrides, or amends the Standard Contract.

This paper reflects technical work that could support future decision making by DOE. No inferences should be drawn from this presentation regarding future actions by DOE, which are limited both by the terms of the Standard Contract and a lack of Congressional appropriations for DOE to fulfill its obligations under the Nuclear Waste Policy Act, including licensing and construction of a SNF repository.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by DOE Office of Nuclear Energy.