Thermal-hydraulic estimation of the spent fuel storage cask and enhancement of its heat removal characteristics

Many systems have been devised for interim storage of the spent nuclear fuel. A dry storage facility is regarded as one of the best one among the various storage systems because of its merit in the safety and the economy. CRIEPI has conducted studies to realize some kind of dry storage facilities. Higher heat generation of the spent fuel is expected in the near future because of production of the high burnup spent fuel and MOX spent fuel, where more efficient heat removal is necessary for a spent fuel storage facility. Reflecting such circumstances, heat removal experiments for the metal cask and the concrete cask have been carried out to improve their heat removal efficiency. (author)