Review of spent nuclear fuel dry storage demonstration programs in US

US have carried out several notable demonstration programs for the initiation and license extension of dry storage of spent nuclear fuel (SNF). At the very early stage of dry storage, the demonstration programs were focused on the proof of the safety of dry storage systems and a demonstration project named dry cask storage characterization project (DCSCP) was performed for the license extension of low burn-up fuel dry storage. In this paper, the past and current of the demonstration programs of US are analyzed and several recommendations are provided on the demonstration programs for dry storage of spent nuclear fuel in Korea. Since Korea has not started the dry storage of PWR fuel yet, those demonstration programs of US can of great lessons to learn. Korea also needs such demonstration programs for various purpose: 1) to confirm the safe storage conditions of SNF that can guarantee retrievability of SNF after storage 2) to monitor the integrity of spent fuel in case the storage period is extended 3) to verify the performance and quality of the domestic storage systems