scholarly journals Operations and Maintenance Concept Plan for the Immobilized High Level Waste (IHLW) Interim Storage Facility

2000 ◽  
Author(s):  
L.F. JANIN
Keyword(s):  
High Level Waste ◽  
Storage Facility ◽  
Operations And Maintenance ◽  
High Level ◽  
Interim Storage

High-Level-Waste and Spent Fuel Storage in Switzerland

2001 ◽  
Author(s):  
Udo Sach ◽  
Goswin Schreck ◽  
Max Ritter ◽  
Jean-Pierre Wenger
Keyword(s):  
Power Plant ◽  
Nuclear Power Plant ◽  
Nuclear Power ◽  
Radioactive Wastes ◽  
High Level Waste ◽  
Storage Facility ◽  
High Level ◽  
Interim Storage ◽  
Fuel Elements ◽  
And Storage

Abstract At present, Switzerland has no final repository for radioactive wastes. Very early, the Swiss nuclear power plant operators were aware of the necessity to expand interim storage capacity for spent fuel elements and operational wastes. Already in 1991, Nordostschweizerische Kraftwerke AG (NOK) therefore started building a reactor-site interim storage facility (ZWIBEZ) at its Beznau power plant site. Moreover, as early as in 1990, “ZWILAG Zwischenlager Würenlingen AG”, a company established by the nuclear power plant operators had initiated the licensing procedure for a central interim storage facility in Switzerland. This central interim storage facility is designed for the storage of all categories of radioactive wastes and includes a conditioning facility for low-level and medium-level waste. Eleven years later, in July 2001, the first transport and storage cask loaded with irradiated fuel elements was stored in this facility. For both of the stores the concept of dry interim storage in suitable storage casks in a storage hall was chosen for the storage of irradiated fuel elements and vitrified high-level wastes from reprocessing. Cooling is established through natural circulation. Leaktightness of the casks is continuously monitored by means of a cask monitoring system. The other wastes arising from nuclear power plant operation and reprocessing are stored in a ventilated storage hall which provides shielding and — depending on the radioactive inventory — protection against external impact. The conditioned radioactive wastes, packaged in drums, are placed into open storage containers with identical base and having the same sling points as ISO containers. These containers are stacked up in free-standing stacks up to a height of 16 m. The storage concept varies, depending on the radioactive inventory; for the ZWIBEZ reactor-site interim store, a storage hall for low-level waste has been built without partition walls, whereas the store for the medium and high-level waste in the central interim store ZWILAG has been designed with partition walls dividing the hall into several storage shafts which are closed by shielding slabs. By including a hot cell into the ZWILAG facility, the purpose of this facility has been expanded beyond interim storage of radioactive waste to cover also the visual inspection of fuel elements and vitrified waste canisters as well as the reloading of fuel elements and canisters from smaller transport casks into combined transport and storage casks. Furthermore, the hot cell enables inspection and/or repair work to be performed in the cask lid area of loaded transport and storage casks, the replacement of the lid seals of storage casks and the conditioning of medium-level waste.

Interim Storage Technology of Spent Fuel and High-Level Waste in Germany

2007 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. Geiser ◽  
J. Schro¨der
Keyword(s):  
Normal Operation ◽  
High Level Waste ◽  
Spent Fuel ◽  
Horizontal Orientation ◽  
Long Term Storage ◽  
Fuel Storage ◽  
Safety Features ◽  
High Level ◽  
Interim Storage ◽  
Aircraft Crash

The idea of using casks for interim storage of spent fuel arose at GNS after a very controversial political discussion in 1978, when total passive safety features (including aircraft crash conditions) were required for an above ground spent fuel storage facility. In the meantime, GNS has loaded more than 1000 casks at 25 different storage sites in Germany. GNS cask technology is used in 13 countries. Spent fuel assemblies of PWR, BWR, VVER, RBMK, MTR and THTR as well as vitrified high level waste containers are stored in full metal casks of the CASTOR® type. Also MOX fuel of PWR and BWR has been stored. More than two decades of storage have shown that the basic requirements (safe confinement, criticality safety, sufficient shielding and appropriate heat transfer) have been fulfilled in any case — during normal operation and in case of severe accidents, including aircraft crash. There is no indication of problems arising in the future. Of course, the experience of more than 20 years has resulted in improvements of the cask design. The CASTOR® casks have been thoroughly investigated by many experiments. There have been approx. 50 full and half scale drop tests and a significant number of fire tests, simulations of aircraft crash, investigations with anti tank weapons, and an explosion of a railway tank with liquid gas neighbouring a loaded CASTOR® cask. According to customer and site specific demands, different types of storage facilities are realized in Germany. Firstly, there are facilities for long-term storage, such as large ventilated central storage buildings away from reactor or ventilated storage buildings at the reactor site, ventilated underground tunnels or concrete platforms outside a building. Secondly, there are facilities for temporary storage, where casks have been positioned in horizontal orientation under a ventilated shielding cover outside a building.

scholarly journals Transporting and Storing High-Level Nuclear Waste in the U.S.—Insights from a Mathematical Model

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (12) ◽  
pp. 2437 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sebastian Wegel ◽  
Victoria Czempinski ◽  
Pao-Yu Oei ◽  
Ben Wealer
Keyword(s):  
Nuclear Waste ◽  
The United States ◽  
Nuclear Industry ◽  
High Level Waste ◽  
Geological Repository ◽  
High Level Nuclear Waste ◽  
High Level ◽  
Interim Storage ◽  
Storage Facilities

The nuclear industry in the United States of America has accumulated about 70,000 metric tons of high-level nuclear waste over the past decades; at present, this waste is temporarily stored close to the nuclear power plants. The industry and the Department of Energy are now facing two related challenges: (i) will a permanent geological repository, e.g., Yucca Mountain, become available in the future, and if yes, when?; (ii) should the high-level waste be transported to interim storage facilities in the meantime, which may be safer and more cost economic? This paper presents a mathematical transportation model that evaluates the economic challenges and costs associated with different scenarios regarding the opening of a long-term geological repository. The model results suggest that any further delay in opening a long-term storage increases cost and consolidated interim storage facilities should be built now. We show that Yucca Mountain’s capacity is insufficient and additional storage is necessary. A sensitivity analysis for the reprocessing of high-level waste finds this uneconomic in all cases. This paper thus emphasizes the urgency of dealing with the high-level nuclear waste and informs the debate between the nuclear industry and policymakers on the basis of objective data and quantitative analysis.

TN™ 81: A Challenging Design

2003 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yves Chanzy ◽  
Camille Otton
Keyword(s):  
Spent Nuclear Fuel ◽  
High Heat ◽  
High Level Waste ◽  
Heat Output ◽  
Dual Purpose ◽  
Stable Glass ◽  
Environmentally Sound ◽  
High Level ◽  
Interim Storage ◽  
And Storage

With increasing burn-up, reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel yields higher quantities of radionuclides, with a powerful source term and high heat output. Improvement in the vitrification process and environmentally sound thinking have been drivers to reduce the number of transports of vitrified residues (High Level Waste) to interim storage facilities in their owner’s country: this results in higher concentrations of nuclides in the stable glass matrix. The challenge was to create, with almost the same allowable mass and dimensions, a transport/storage casks able to transport glass canisters with this new specifications. Improving the environmental performance of the glass canisters would be of no avail without the corresponding means of transport and storage. This is why COGEMA LOGISTICS introduced the TN™ 81 concept; a dual purpose cask able to handle the most demanding canisters from reprocessing: 56 kW instead of 41 kW, and to shield with efficiency greater gamma and neutron sources, which regulations have been made more stringent regarding the neutron quality factor. The paper will comment the choices made, the drop test campaigns run specifically, and report on the loading of the first TN 81 for KernKraftwerk Go¨sgen (KKG), Switzerland.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document