The US program for management of spent nuclear fuel

The basic policy for management of spent nuclear fuel (SNF) and high- level waste (HLW) in the United States is storage, followed by disposal in a geologic repository. In 1980, following preparation of an environmental impact statement on commercial radioactive waste, the Department of Energy (DOE) made a formal record of decision to adopt geologic disposal as the method for disposal of SNF and HLW. Subsequently, Congress passed two acts of legislation which established the basic direction followed since that time. These were: The Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 (NWPA-1982) and The Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act of 1987 (NWPAA-1987). These acts assign the responsibility for management of SNF and HLW to DOE, with the costs of these activities to be borne by the owners/generators of the waste. Without reprocessing, inventories of SNF have continued to build in the storage pools at reactor sites, forcing many utilities to take actions to increase the storage capacities of their sites. The most prevalent action taken by the utilities has been to re-rack their storage pools with higher capacity storage racks. A few utilities have tried fuel assembly consolidation as a means of increasing the capacity of their pools, and a few more have installed dry storage devices of various types on their sites to permit storage outside of their reactor pools. This document discusses the current status and possible option for spent fuel storage. 13 refs., 5 figs., 1 tab