ICEM11 Final Program 9.7.11pm_ICEM07 Final Program ... - Events

Abstracts Session 13
4) GENERIC DESIGN ASSESSMENT OF LONG-TERM SPENT FUEL STORAGE
FOR NEW REACTORS IN THE UK (wP-59174)
Christopher Fisher, Nuclear Directorate, Health and Safety Executive;
Dave Watson, Office of Nuclear Regulation; Ian Streatfield, Colette Grundy,
Saffron Price-Walter, Environment Agency, Dave Glazbrook, Office of Nuclear Regulation (UK)
In the UK the HSE and the Environment Agency developed the Generic Design Assessment or GDA process in response to a
request from the UK Government. The process allowed the regulators to jointly assess new nuclear reactor designs, in advance of
any site-specific proposals to build a nuclear power station. The first GDA process will be complete in June 2011.
Two reactor types are being assessed within GDA:
• AREVA and Electricité de France’s (EDF) UK EPR®
• Westinghouse Electric Company’s AP1000®
This paper will present the outcome of the assessment of radioactive waste management and decommissioning (RW&D)
within the GDA process. One of the most interesting aspects is the management of spent fuel as it is assumed that this will be
sent for disposal. Therefore the presentation will specifically consider the management of spent fuel and how this affects the
reulatory decisions.
The presentation and paper will look at four aspects. The first of these is to give a short overview of the GDA process.
This will be followed by a summary of the regulators conclusions at the end of GDA on the acceptability of:
• The types of waste and spent fuel
• The plans for conditioning of…
6) INDUSTRIAL COMPLEMENTARITIES BETWEEN INTERIM STORAGE AND
REVERSIBLE GEOLOGICAL REPOSITORY (wP-59237)
Jean-Michel Hoorelbeke, Andra (France)
The French Act voted in 2006 made the choice of deep geological disposal as the reference option for ILW and HLW long term
management. The CIGEO repository project aims at avoiding or limiting burden to future generations, which could not be achieved
by the extension in time of interim storage. The reversibility as provided by the Act will maintain a liberty of choice for waste management
on a duration which is comparable to new storage facility.
Interim storage is required to accommodate waste as long as the repository is not available. The commissioning of the repository
in 2025 will not suppress needs for interim storage. The paper describes the complementarities between existing and future
interim storage facilities and the repository project: repository operational issues and planning, HLW thermal decay, support for the
reversibility, etc. It shows opportunities to prepare a global optimization of waste management including the utilization at best of
storage capacities and the planning of waste emplacement in the repository in such a way to facilitate operational conditions and
to limit cost. Preliminary simulations of storage-disposal scenarios are presented.
Thanks to an optimal use of the waste management system, provision can be made for a progressive increase of…
7) RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN SPENT FUEL MANAGEMENT IN NORWAY (wP-59260)
Peter Bennett, Barbara Oberlander, Erlend Larsen, Institutt for Energiteknikk (Norway
Spent Nuclear Fuel (SNF) in Norway has arisen from irradiation of fuel in the NORA, Jeep I and Jeep II reactors at Kjeller,
and in the Heavy Boiling Water Reactor (HBWR) in Halden. In total there is some 16 tonnes of SNF, with 12 tonnes of aluminium-clad
fuel, of which 10 tonnes is metallic uranium fuel and the remainder oxide (UO2). The portion of this fuel that is similar to
commercial fuel (UO2 clad in Zircaloy) may be suitable for direct disposal on the Swedish model or in other repository designs.
However, metallic uranium and/or fuels clad in aluminium are chemically reactive and there would be risks associated with direct
disposal.
Two committees were established by the Government of Norway in January 2009 to make recommendations for the interim
storage and final disposal of spent fuel in Norway. The Technical Committee on Storage and Disposal of Metallic Uranium Fuel
and Al-clad Fuels was formed with the mandate to recommend treatment (i.e. conditioning) options for metallic uranium fuel and
aluminium-clad fuel to render them stable for long term storage and disposal. This committee, whose members were drawn from
the nuclear industry, reported in January 2010, and recommended commercial reprocessing as the
8) ADVANCED SURVEILLANCE TECHNOLOGIES FOR USED FUEL
LONG-TERM STORAGE AND TRANSPORTATION (wP-59032)
Hanchung Tsai, Yung Liu, Mark Nutt, Argonne National Laboratory; James Shuler, US Department of Energy (USA)
Dry cask storage systems are being used by utilities in the United States to handle the ever-increasing number of discharged
fuel assemblies from nuclear power plants. Most of the newer systems incorporate multiple-purpose (storage, transport, and disposal)
or dual-purpose (storage and transport) canister technologies. With the prospect of very long-term storage (>120 years) and
deferred transport looming, condition- and performance-based aging management of structures and components in the dry cask
storage systems becomes an even more challenging task. From the standpoint of used fuels, one of the greatest concerns is embrittlement-related
cladding rupture of a large number of used fuel rods during long-term storage and transportation.
Radio frequency identification (RFID) is an automated and remote-sensing technology ideally suited to monitor sensitive assets
on a continuous, long-term basis. One such system, called ARG-US, has been developed by Argonne National Laboratory for the
U.S. Department of Energy Packaging Certification Program, Office of Packaging and Transportation, and deployed at several DOE
sites to track and monitor drums containing nuclear and radioactive materials. While the sensor suite currently in the ARG-US RFID
tags (seal, temperature, humidity, shock and radiation) is adequate in monitoring the exterior conditions of the used fuel casks,
advanced surveillance technology
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