Challenges In Safeguarding On-site Dry Storage Facilities

Year
2020
Author(s)
Katharina Aymanns - Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH
Abstract

In phasing out nuclear energy production, the German nuclear reactors will be successively disconnected from the power grid, the last ones by the end of 2022. It is foreseen that all spent fuel assemblies will be loaded into casks by the end of 2027 and transferred to decentralized on-site spent fuel storage facilities (SFSFs) located close to the nuclear power plants (NPPs). Once the transfer will be completed, all the SFSFs will have a static inventory, which consists of more than 1,000 spent fuel casks in total. The commissioning of a geological repository for high-level waste is planned around 2050. This paper addresses safeguards challenges and possible innovative solutions with regard to Keeping Continuity of Knowledge (CoK) of verified spent fuel. The specific conditions resulting from the operation of such intermediate SFSF for decades in static operation require technical solutions that facilitate the seal verification of spent fuel casks and minimise the radiation exposure of inspectors and operators. Furthermore there is currently no adequate sufficiently sensitive non-destructive re-verification method for spent fuel casks available. A loss of CoK cannot be completely ruled out in view of the unattended cask monitoring during the necessary period of a longer-term intermediate storage. Since with the decommissioning of nuclear power plants the opening of spent fuel casks in the loading basin is not longer possible the availability of a non-destructive method in order to re-verify loaded spent fuel casks is becoming increasingly important. Thus, the investigation and development of potentially suitable technologies for re-verification are required. Paper Safeguarding SFSF_INMM_end_133