Research reactor spent fuel status

In recent years the problems of spent fuel from research reactors have received increasing attention as concerns about ageing fuel storage facilities, their life extension and the ultimate disposal of spent fuel loom larger. The overall scope of these problems can be gauged by examination of the databases compiled and maintained by the IAEA. Data compiled in the research reactor spent fuel database are used to assess the status of research reactor spent fuel worldwide. Fuel assemblies, their types, enrichment, origin of enrichment and geological distribution among the industrialised and developing countries of the world are discussed. Some projections of spent fuel inventories to the year 2006 are presented and discussed. Fuel management practices in wet and dry storage facilities and the concerns of reactor operators about long-term storage of their spent fuel are presented and some of the activities carried out by the International Atomic Energy Agency to address the issues associated with research reactor spent fuel are outlined. It is clear that more exposure of the problems and concerns and more international co-operation will be necessary to resolve the outstanding issues. It is also clear that take-back programmes of foreign research reactor fuels, if and when they are implemented, will not continue indefinitely. At some stage in the not too distant future (in 2006 for foreign research reactors with US-origin fuel), research reactor operators will be faced with having to find their own solutions regarding the permanent disposal of their spent fuel. For countries with no nuclear power programme, the construction of geological repositories for the relatively small amounts of spent fuel from one or two research reactors is obviously not practicable. For such countries, access to a regional interim storage facility and eventually a regional or international repository for research reactor fuel would be an ideal solution. The time is ripe for serious discussion of regional or international solutions and to begin planning for the day when neither take-back programmes nor the reprocessing option might be available. (author)