Stranded Fuel, Orphan Sites, Dead Plants: Transportation Planning Considerations After the BRC Report - 13393

The author explores transportation, packaging and storage questions related to a primary recommendation of the Blue Ribbon Commission on America's Nuclear Future; i.e., that fuel from shutdown plants be removed to consolidated storage as soon as possible to enable final decommissioning and beneficial re-use of those sites. The paper discusses the recommendations of the BRC, the implications and challenges that implementing those recommendations present, and provides recommended solutions for beginning the multi-year planning, coordination, material acquisition, and communications processes that will be needed to move fuel from shutdown plants when a destination site becomes available. Removal of used nuclear fuel from shutdown reactor sites (which are serving no other purpose other than storing SNF and GTCC, at considerable expense) was a central recommendation of the BRC, for a number of reasons. This recommendation was one of the most widely acclaimed that the Commission put forward. However, there are significant challenges (such as availability of fuel canister overpacks, lack of infrastructure, handling constraints and others) that will need to be addressed, apart from the critically important identification of a suitable and workable storage destination site. Resolving these logistical challenges will need to begin even before a destination site is identified, given the long lead-times required for planning and procurement. Based on information available today, it is possible to make informed predictions about what will be needed to modify existing contractual arrangements with utilities, address equipment and infrastructure needs, and begin working with states, tribes and local governments to start initial preparation needs. If DOE, working with industry and other experienced parties, can begin planning and acquisition activities in the near term, overall schedule risk can be reduced and potential cost avoidance achieved. The most immediate benefit will accrue to the operators of the shutdown plants, but beginning to accept fuel as required under the NWPA will reduce the liability to the federal government, and also offer some assurance to other utilities and the public that DOE (or another entity if one is established) is capable of meeting its obligations under the NWPA. The indirect benefits, therefore, will be quite broad. (authors)