Zircalloy Fuel Cladding Integrity During Dry Storage

Pursuant to Ch. 10, Sec. 72.72(h) of the code of Federal Regulations, the licensee of an interim spent fuel storage facility (ISFSI) must protect the spent fuel cladding against degradation and gross rupture. For the case where spent fuel is stored in casks under dry storage conditions, the only parameters that the cask designer has at his disposal to prevent such degradation is an inert internal cask environment and both the initial and decay temperatures of the spent fuel. The latter are governed by the type, quantity, specific power, and age of the spent fuel assemblies and by the passive heat dissipation properties of the storage cask.