Solid Radioactive Waste Strategy Report.pdf - UK EPR

EPR UK
N° NESH-G/2008/en/0123
REV. A PAGE 127 / 257
Both strategies have been selected by various utilities and countries. Others have not made
their choice yet and are in a “wait and see” position which also requires interim storage facilities
to be available. Therefore, whatever spent fuel back-end option is selected, interim storage
facilities are required to allow NPPs to continue to operate. Different storage facilities are
operated in the world, each adapted to a specific case: wet or dry technology, short term or long
term (up to 100 years), facility on each NPP site or a centralised facility. Moreover, the
objectives of these facilities are to protect public, personnel and environment and to keep the
fuel assemblies under safe conditions and to maintain their integrity to enable them to be
handled and export them for their eventual treatment.
In the UK, the current BERR base case makes the assumption that spent fuel will not be
reprocessed and that interim storage facilities for at least 100 years are required.
Various spent fuel storage technologies with different vendors/designers have been
implemented worldwide:
· Wet storage:
o
o
o
· Dry storage:
o
o
o
in almost all NPPs (common practice for initial cooling);
in centralised facilities coupled with reprocessing (LaHague in France,
Sellafield in UK, Mayak in Russia, Rokkashoin Japan);
in centralised long term interim storage facilities (Clab in Sweden, Gosgen in
Switzerland, Kozloduy in Bulgaria, Krasnoyarsk in Russia, Tihange in
Belgium).
In vaults (CASCAD and TOR in France, Paks in Hungary, Fort St Vrain in US,
Habog at Borselle in the Netherlands);
In metallic casks: at several NPPs including ISAR and Gorleben in Germany,
at Doel in Belgium, at Zwilag in Switzerland, at Surry in USA;
In NUHOMS systems on several US NPPs sites and at Metzamor in Armenia.
For the purpose of this report, interim storage technologies have been assessed to determine
which options are adapted for the UK EPR spent fuel. AREVA and its subsidiary companies
have extensive expertise in the field of spent fuel management enabling a range of different
facilities and technologies to be considered for the UK EPR. The solutions described hereafter
are AREVA ones.
9.3.1.1 Spent Fuel Unloading Technologies
Spent fuel removed from a reactor must be cooled for an initial period before it can be placed
into interim storage. For the UK EPR, fuel assemblies removed from the reactor are cooled
underwater in the spent fuel pool for up to 10 years before they are prepared for interim storage.
On arrival at the interim storage facility spent fuel can be removed underwater or within a dry
unloading cell. Both technologies have been used successfully to receive spent fuel assemblies
at AREVA’s La Hague Plant in France.