The impacts of transportation within the United States of spent reactor fuel from domestic and foreign research reactors

The experience related to decommissioning of nuclear facilities in the United States is very substantial and covers power reactors, research reactors, and many facilities in the Department of Energy complex. The focus of this paper however is on the commercial power plants. With 104 operating reactors, the U.S. fleet of civilian reactors is still the largest in the world. Nuclear power industry in the United States has undergone a dramatic upturn after decades of stalemate. One effect of this nuclear renaissance has been that the plans have changed for several reactors that were initially destined for decommissioning. Instead, the focus now is on relicensing of the reactors and on power uprates. In fact, after the peak period between 1987 and 1998, no additional power reactors have been shutdown. On the contrary, power uprates in the past twenty years have added a cumulative capacity equivalent to five new reactors. Almost all the operating reactors plan to have license extensions, thus postponing the eventual decommissioning. Nevertheless, in addition to the 9 reactors where licenses have been terminated following decommissioning, 12 power and early demonstration reactors and 14 test & research reactors are permanently shutdown and are in decommissioning phase. Substantial experience and lessons learned are available from the U.S. projects that are of value to the international decommissioning projects, especially where such projects are in early stages. These lessons cover a wide array of areas from decommissioning plans, technology applications, large component removal, regulatory and public interface, decommissioning funding and costs, clean up criteria, surveys of the decommissioned site, and license termination. Additionally, because of the unavailability of a national spent fuel disposition facility, most decommissioning sites are constructing above ground interim storage facilities for the spent nuclear fuel. The U.S. nuclear power projects are also gearing up for the design and licensing of new reactors. Lessons from the past are useful in the development of such designs so that along with the other factors, the designs are optimized for eventual decommissioning as well. This paper provides an overview of the past reactor decommissioning, lessons learned from the past experience, and status of the current decommissioning activities and issues. It also presents some long term projections for the future of decommissioning in the United States.

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Study and Compare on Classification and Management Requirements of Domestic and Foreign Research Reactors

Volume 3: Nuclear Safety and Security; Codes, Standards, Licensing and Regulatory Issues; Computational Fluid Dynamics and Coupled Codes ◽

10.1115/icone21-15412 ◽

2013 ◽

Author(s):

Haiyang Wang ◽

Chenxiu Song ◽

Quanyuan Gao

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

Nuclear Power ◽

Research Reactor ◽

Safety Management ◽

Reference Value ◽

The United States ◽

Classification Methods ◽

Reactor Safety ◽

Research Reactors ◽

Safety Features

There are 19 in-service civil research reactors in China nowadays, which are quite diverse on reactor type, usage, power levels, operation modes and safety features [1]. The common practice in nuclear energy advanced countries is to do safety classification and classified management of research reactors. In recent years, China has gradually refined and improved the related work. This paper summarizes the existing research reactor graded approach and safety management requirements included in certain regulations, guidelines and technical documents of IAEA, the United States, Japan and China, and specific practice and experience on operational level as well. And then the classification principles, classification elements, classification methods, safety management requirements and other aspects of the countries or government organizations mentioned above are compared from the view of research reactor safety classification. It comes to the conclusion: As far as China’s research reactor graded approach and safety management requirements are concerned, more work are needed. The relevant provisions of research reactor graded approach of IAEA are comprehensive, and have good reference value for China’s legislation system, but the classification method operability is not strong enough, and there are no detailed management and technical guides as the supplement to the graded approach. The relevant provisions of the research reactor graded approach of the United States and Japan are not systemic enough, but the classification methods are clear and operable, which are referable for China’s relevant practice on research reactor safety classification. After the Fukushima nuclear power plant accident, the classified management of the research reactors has achieved quite good results in comprehensive safety inspection of China’s civil research reactors. Finally, some suggestions in respect of the establishment and improvement of China’s research reactor safety classification guidelines and documents, standardization the use of graded approach, and application in the review and supervision of research reactor in China are put forward.

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Reducing the Hazards from Stored Spent Power-Reactor Fuel in the United States

Science & Global Security ◽

10.1080/08929880309006 ◽

2003 ◽

Vol 11 (1) ◽

pp. 1-51 ◽

Cited By ~ 29

Author(s):

Robert Alvarez ◽

Jan Beyea ◽

Klaus Janberg ◽

Jungmin Kang ◽

Ed Lyman ◽

...

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

Power Reactor ◽

The United States ◽

Reactor Fuel

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Party Strength in the United States: Some Corrections

The Journal of Politics ◽

10.1017/s0022381600041591 ◽

1975 ◽

Vol 37 (2) ◽

pp. 641-642 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Paul T. David

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

The United States ◽

Party Strength

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Correlative microscopy in distrubuted (client/server) computing environments: tools for catalyzing the rapid dissemination of information about the cell biology of the human prostate

Proceedings, annual meeting, Electron Microscopy Society of America ◽

10.1017/s0424820100139780 ◽

1995 ◽

Vol 53 ◽

pp. 682-683

Author(s):

A. Hakam ◽

J.T. Gau ◽

M.L. Grove ◽

B.A. Evans ◽

M. Shuman ◽

...

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

Cell Biology ◽

Tissue Bank ◽

The United States ◽

Prostate Adenocarcinoma ◽

Correlative Microscopy ◽

Client Server ◽

Critical Elements ◽

Transplant Organ

Prostate adenocarcinoma is the most common malignant tumor of men in the United States and is the third leading cause of death in men. Despite attempts at early detection, there will be 244,000 new cases and 44,000 deaths from the disease in the United States in 1995. Therapeutic progress against this disease is hindered by an incomplete understanding of prostate epithelial cell biology, the availability of human tissues for in vitro experimentation, slow dissemination of information between prostate cancer research teams and the increasing pressure to “ stretch” research dollars at the same time staff reductions are occurring.To meet these challenges, we have used the correlative microscopy (CM) and client/server (C/S) computing to increase productivity while decreasing costs. Critical elements of our program are as follows:1) Establishing the Western Pennsylvania Genitourinary (GU) Tissue Bank which includes >100 prostates from patients with prostate adenocarcinoma as well as >20 normal prostates from transplant organ donors.

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