Burnup factor in the licensing of Armenian NPP SFDS

The Armenian NPP Spent Fuel Dry Storage (SFDS) facility of NUHOMS-56 project was constructed for storing the spent fuel assemblies remained in reactor pools after NPP shutdown in 1989. The criticality value was taken as for the fresh fuel assemblies and was required as 0.95. Basic criticality analysis assumptions should demonstrate the nuclear safety during all operations for normal, abnormal and accidental situations, and was based on fresh fuel elements. No credit was taken from burnup, which is conservative since only burned fuel will be stored. The licensing requirements were established by the ANRA with respect to the nuclear safety criticality limits set in IAEA rules and USNRC 10CFR codes. (author)