DRY STORAGE FEASIBILITY OF LWR SPENT FUEL

Introduction

Dry storage of Low-Water Reactor (LWR) fuel has been a major issue in the control of waste
storage and recycling plants concerned with nuclear projects. In the US and Nuclear Power
production countries, there is a need to extend the dry inert storage of the spent fuel beyond its
originally anticipated 20-year duration. There are indeed many methodologies developed to
support the initial licensing and storage for up to 20years in order to enable the longer storage
periods being envisioned. The fact that many plants would rather abandon the reprocessing
option and delay in opening a permanent repository where they can dispose the spent nuclear
fuel thus changing strategy to utilities that involve reracking spent fuel pools and operating
independent spent fuel storage installations. A Nuclear Regulatory Commission approved
previously storage cask systems for about 35GWd/MTU but it has come clear that the discharge
burn-ups has steadily increased and this is a trend that could probably continue for the better part
of a futuristic forecast.

McKinnon and Cunningham suggest that the increased burn-up generally result in increased
levels of oxidation and hydriding of the cladding; higher fuel rod internal pressures due to higher
fission gas being released from the fuel pellets and consequently, higher hoop stresses in the
cladding. Increase in oxidation decreases the effective load-bearing metal thickness of the
cladding hence the contribution off high stresses which can be sufficiently high hoop stress and
high temperatures to lead to deformations and rupture of the cladding. McKinnon and
Cunningham assert that the mechanical properties of specific interest include creep, ductility
under impact loading conditions and fracture toughness (2003). Therefore as discharge burnups
levels continue to increase, additional studies need to be done to determine how dry storage of
the LWR can be achieved to ensure that the storage in lasting about 100years can the effects of
the mechanical properties of interest can resolve issues associated with the transportation,
handling and disposal operations.

Extending Dry Storage of the Spent LWR fuel

Einzinger, McKinnon and Machiels confirm that the first 20 years of storage of the LWR fuel,
properties of the components change due to the elevated temperatures, presence of moisture,
effects or radiation and these all imply environmental risks and health hazards. They assert that
during the normal storage in an inert atmosphere, there is the potential of the cladding
mechanical properties changing as a result of annealing or the interaction of the cask materials.
These emissions could also change due to storage conditions and with air leakages into the cask,
additional degradation occurs through oxidation in the breached rods that lead to fission gas
release (1999). It is postulated that accident scenarios would be similar for the period of storage
whether between 20-100years, due to the fact that most storages are governed by operational
events. The overall work being critical is the behaviour of the fuel, and as noted by Einzinger,
McKinnon and Machiels that spent fuel at the burn-ups below approximately 45 GWd/MTU can
be dry stored for 100years. This kind of storage that is long term will require the determination
of the temperature limits based on the evaluation of the stress-driven degradation mechanisms of
the cladding (1999).

Shenoy, states that spent fuel elements discharge from a reactor plant are very much ideal waste
forms for a permanent disposal in a geologic repository. It is suggested that the graphite fuel
elements and the ceramic coating on the fuel particles are as manufactured engineered barriers
which will always provide an excellent near field containment of the radio-nuclides and this will
minimize reliance on the waste package and surrounding geologic media for a very long period
of containment. There are therefore conditions of safe fuel storage bearing in mind critical
conditions, conditions of decay heat removal as well as radiation doses. Disposal feasibility,
according to Shenoy, considers a number of categories such as: Proliferation risks and safeguards
requirements; Radiological risks to the general public for very long time following a permanent
closure of the repository; Suitability and licensability of the final waste form for the permanent
disposal; Cost for the disposal inclusive of the waste package costs, tunneling costs, land-area
requirements and disposal operation.

Storage and Disposal

It is generally recognized that in the future, the main source of spent fuel would be from the light
water reactor (LWR) and that the LWR fuel is very different from magnox that is a major
development progamme on the PWR was started. This included the experimentation to validate
the theoretical analysis considering decay heat output from the discharged fuel 6mnths out of the
reactor up to 100 years. The technical criteria drawn by the British Energy Sector Society, entails
the weighting of important criteria with ranking given that includes some most heavily depended
on items:

 Temperature of the fuel in storage

 Avoidance of criticality for fuel in the unirradiated condition

 Assurance of heat removal

 The dose uptake to the operations and public

 Environmental protection

 Volume of waste produced

 Physical protection

 Safeguards assurance
  Storage should not prejudice final disposal route.

A modular vault dry storage system has been developed according to the British Nuclear Energy
Sector and has the following characteristics to make it suitable for all types of heat producing
nuclear materials including the LWR fuel. This design is very specific for storage of research or
production fuels with various burn-ups, enrichment and decay heat characteristics and it contains
three major systems: The Reception Bay that is where spent fuel is received from the pool on-site
and dispatched at the end of life; Secondly, the storage modules where spent fuel is stored and
lastly, the fuel handling machine that raises and transfers irradiated fuel assemblies or containers
from the cask in the reception bay to the storage position in the storage modules.

Storage Conditions

The maximum temperature in the cask occurs after the loading and dry-out hence these are
limited by various considerations. The fluctuations due to the external temperatures and that of
the cask decreases due to the drop in decay heat.

During the 100 year period, the fuel will experience two temperature regimes according to
Mckinnon and Machiels. The first occurs during the first 10years when the fuel temperature
drops from a maximum of about 380°C, depending on the fuel to approximately 100°C.
According to McKinnon and Machiels, the second regime is for the remaining storage period
when the temperatures are decreasing slightly but can generally be given a constant upper bound
of approximately 100°C. In the cask of the dry storage, the spent fuel is subjected to gamma
fields of about 105R/H and a neutron flux that is greater than 1MeV of approximately 104 to 106
n/cm2-s. It is suggested that during the 100year dry storage period the total dosage ranges from
4gamma to 7neutron orderd of the magnitude less than for two to four year residence in the
reactor.

McKinnon and Machiels explain that the gamma field decreases with the age of the fuel and
increases proportionately to the burn-up and at the maximum expected burn-up for the LWR fuel
that should be approximately 60 GWd/MTU, the dose rates would no more than double those
calculated for a current cask.

An example of the dry storage criteria has been used in several countries like in Canada and
Germany. In Canada CANDU fuel has been dry stored in over 200 concrete canisters using an
air atmosphere and no adverse or unexpected performance reported since 1985 (McKinnon &
Machiels, 1999).

In conclusion, the overall reslts indicate that based on the fuel behaviour, spent fuel usually at the
burn-ups that is approximately below 45 GWd/MTU can be dry stored for 100years and this long
duration of storage will not adversely affect the normal transfer and transport activities during or
at the end of the storage period.
References

Einzinger, R. E., McKinnon, M. A., & Machiels, A. J. (1999) Extending Dry Storage of Spent
LWR Fuel for up to 100 years, CA: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.

McKinnon, M. A. & Cunningham, M. E. ( ) Dry Storage Demonstration for High-Burnup Spent

Nuclear Fuel- Feasibility Study CA: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory