The Road to a Successful Used Nuclear Fuel Permanent Disposal Solution Runs through Consolidated Interim Storage

BackgroundConsolidated Interim Storage (CIS) is an integral part of a country’s successful Used Nuclear Fuel (UNF) management system, which includes operating reactors, a robust UNF transportation network, and a final geological disposal solution for either UNF or ultimate waste. The examples of Waste Control Specialists’ (WCS) proposed CIS facility in Andrews County, Texas and the Yucca Mountain geological repository in the U.S. are used to show how CIS supports and complements a repository program.DiscussionsInternational experience has shown that development of a permanent geological repository can be a multiyear-long process, especially in the face of public acceptance challenges. While permanent disposal moves forward on a time scale measured in decades, operating nuclear reactors continue to “produce” and discharge UNF every 18 to 24 months. With nowhere to ship the fuel, it continues to accumulate at the reactor sites, either in spent fuel pools or in dry storage systems when pools arefilled to capacity.A CIS facility acts as a “surge volume” for a country’s used fuel management system that allows UNF to be shipped off-site and consolidated into a single location in the near-term for more effective and efficient management. Implementation of CIS can also provide significant economic benefit, especially for so-called “stranded” sites which no longer have operating reactors and which have been completely decommissioned except for UNF sitting in a stand-alone Independent Spent Fuel storage Installation (ISFSI). Once all UNF has been removed and shipped to a CIS facility, owners of “stranded” sites would see immediate savings through the elimination of licensing and operating costs, plus the ability to repurpose sites for more economically productive uses.The specific benefits of a CISF to a repository program include providing an early demonstration of the transportation infrastructure needed to support a repository and providing a robust facility at which Aging Management Programs can be implemented and at which any waste repacking or conditioning required for final disposal can be performed.CIS does not compete with geological disposal and instead provides numerous complementary UNF management benefits to aid the successful implementation of a repository program.