The TN 84: A Dual-Purpose Cask for VVER-440 Nuclear Power Plants

As the previous arrangements between the former USSR and some East-European countries are no longer valid, the return of their spent fuel to reprocessing is hampered by political and economic obstacles, and several Eastern Europe NPP operators must develop new back end strategies. As many other utilities in the world. they are facing a dilemma: either selecting the way of reprocessing/recycling, which indeed is already an industrial reality, or studying hurial in a geologic disposal, which is certainly a questionable method and anyhow a faraway project. As a result, most of these countries have been adopting a \"wait and see\" policy. in providing additional means of interim storage for the spent fuel discharged in excess of reactor pool capacity in order to keep the possibility to select later on the most appropriate back end strategy. To meet the needs ofVVER 440 nuclear power plants, Transnucleaire has designed the TN 84 transport/storage cask. The TN 84 is based on the forged steel technology as numerous other TN casks which have been proved for almost two decades as trouble free means to transport and/or store spent fuel assemblies (SF As) on an industrial scale. This technology is particularly appropriate to store the spent fuel under totally safe conditions for a very long duration. e.g. fifty years or even more.