Selecting the design basis fuel for the multi-purpose canister

In 1993, the U. S. Department of Energy (DOE) instructed the Civilian Radioactive Waste Management System (CRWMS) Management and Operating (M ampersand O) contractor to perform a conceptual design of a multi-purpose canister (MPC) for possible inclusion in the CRWMS. This MPC would be designed for use in the transportation, storage, and disposal regimes, and would help reduce the number of individual spent fuel handlings performed over the life of the CRWMS. For the purposes of this conceptual design, a design basis fuel was desired which would serve as a design reference and establish the minimum acceptable fuel characteristics for the MPC. The critical parameters of the design basis fuel were the fuel assembly dimensions, weight, burnup, initial enrichment, and age. The values selected for these parameters for the conceptual design specified a fuel inventory sufficient for nearly 20 years of CRWMS operations at the currently projected waste acceptance rates