Publications

Used fuel extended storage security and safeguards by design roadmap

Durbin, S.G.; Lindgren, Eric R.; Jones, Robert B.; Ketusky, Edward K.; England, Jeffery L.; Scaglione, John S.; Scherer, Carolynn S.; Sprinkle, James S.; Miller, Michael M.; Rauch, Eric R.; Dunn, Timothy D.

In the United States, spent nuclear fuel (SNF) is safely and securely stored in spent fuel pools and dry storage casks. The available capacity in spent fuel pools across the nuclear fleet has nearly reached a steady state value. The excess SNF continues to be loaded in dry storage casks. Fuel is expected to remain in dry storage for periods beyond the initial dry cask certification period of 20 years. Recent licensing renewals have approved an additional 40 years. This report identifies the current requirements and evaluation techniques associated with the safeguards and security of SNF dry cask storage. A set of knowledge gaps is identified in the current approaches. Finally, this roadmap identifies known knowledge gaps and provides a research path to deliver the tools and models needed to close the gaps and allow the optimization of the security and safeguards approaches for an interim spent fuel facility over the lifetime of the storage site.