OVERVIEW ON THE BURNUP CREDIT ACTIVITIES AT THE IAEA

Spent fuel management is a necessary and costly activity for all operators of nuclear power plants regardless of the strategy selected for the back-end of the nuclear fuel cycle. As of today, more than 145,000 tHM of the accumulated 230,000 tHM spent fuel from power reactors are stored world-wide in reactor pools and wet and dry away from reactor (AFR) storage facilities. Generally, there is a desire to reduce the cost of nuclear power production. One approved possibility to achieve a reduction in fuel cycle costs is to implement burnup credit in spent fuel management systems. In fact, in many countries, burnup credit is already applied to transportation systems, dry and wet storage facilities, and components of reprocessing plants. For disposal, spent fuel burnup credit is considered to be a necessity for any viable scheme. Benefits for transport systems are derived for existing casks using higher fuel enrichments, or to increase capacities of new casks, which will maintain or decrease the number of transports. Because of the worldwide interest and broad applicability of burnup credit for spent fuel management, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has taken an active interest in the subject. The IAEA role has been one of an observer and disseminator of appropriate information. The ongoing IAEA program on burnup credit began in 1997. A Technical Committee Meeting (TCM) on the evaluation and review of the implementation of burnup credit in spent fuel management systems was held in July 2000 in Vienna with 35 experts from 17 countries and 2 international organizations. The purpose of this TCM was to survey the progress and status of international activities related to the use of burnup credit for spent fuel applications. The scope of the meeting included the use of burnup credit for storage, transportation, reprocessing, and disposal of spent light water reactor (LWR) fuels. The LWR fuel types considered included boiling water reactor (BWR) fuel, pressurized water reactor (PWR) fuel, Mixed Oxide (MOX) fuel, VVER and RBMK fuel. The main agenda items for the TCM were: 1. International Activities 2. Country Reports 3. Technical and Regulatory Topics 4. Group Discussions Eleven country reports provided information on planned and current burnup credit activities, and updates of progress made in the reporting countries since 1997. Countries with larger nuclear power generation capabilities and interest in using burnup credit reported new research and development initiatives and advances in seeking regulatory acceptance of burnup credit. Countries with smaller nuclear power programmes noted the challenges of obtaining the data needed to implement burnup credit initiatives.