Thermal dimensioning of spent fuel repository

This report contains the temperature dimensioning of the KBS-3V type nuclear fuel repository in Olkiluoto for the BWR, VVER and EPR fuel canisters, which are disposed at vertical position in the horizontal tunnels in a rectangular geometry according to the preliminary Posiva plan. This report concerns only the temperature dimensioning of the repository and does not take into account the possible restrictions caused by the stresses induced in the rock. The maximum temperature on the canister-bentonite interface is limited to the design temperature of +100 deg C. However, due to uncertainties in thermal analysis parameters (like scattering in rock conductivity or in predicted decay power) the allowable calculated maximum canister temperature is set to 90 deg C causing a safety margin of 10 deg C. The allowable temperature is controlled by adjusting the space between adjacent canisters, adjacent tunnels and the pre-cooling time affecting on power of the canisters. The temperature of canister surfaces can be determined by superposing analytic line heat source models much more efficiently than by numerical analysis, if the analytic model is first calibrated by numerical analysis (by control volume method). This was done by comparing the surface temperatures of a single canister calculated numerically and analytically. For the Olkiluoto repository of one panel having 900 canisters of BWR, VVER and EPR spent fuel was analyzed. The analyses were performed with an initial canister power of 1 700 W, 1 370 W and 1 830 W, respectively. These decay heats are obtained when the pre-cooling times of the fuels are 32.9, 29.6 and 50.3 years (the burn-up values 40, 40 and 50 MWd/kgU, respectively). The analyses gave as a result the canister spacing (6.0-10.8 m), when the tunnel spacing was 25 m, 30 m or 40 m. On the edge areas of the panel with constant canister spacing the temperatures of the canisters are lower than in the middle area of the repository. Thus it is possible to pack the canisters denser on the edge areas and to lower constructing costs of the tunnels. Total savings of tunnel length is hundreds of meters in one panel corresponding 0-5 % relative saving depending on the fuel type and tunnel spacing. (orig.)