MRS Action Plan Task B report: Analyses of alternative designs and operating approaches for a Monitored Retrievable Storage Facility

The Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act (NWPAA) instituted a number of changes in the DOE commercial nuclear waste management system. After passage of the Act, the DOE initiated a number of systems studies to reevaluate the role of Monitored Retrievable Storage (MRS) within the federal waste management system. This report summarizes the results of a study to determine the schedules and costs of developing those MRS facilities needed under a number of scenarios, with differing functions allocated to the MRS and/or different spent fuel acceptance schedules. Nine cases were defined for the system study, seven of which included an MRS Facility. The study cases or scenarios evaluated varied relative to the specific functions to be performed at the MRS. The scenarios ranged in magnitude from storage and shipment of bare, intact spent fuel to consolidating the spent fuel into repository emplacement containers prior to storage and shipment. Each scenario required specific modifications to be made to the design developed for the MRS proposal to Congress (the Conceptual Design Report). 41 figs., 326 tabs