237- AREVA Solutions for Transport and Dry Interim Storage of Damaged Fuel

Part of the AREVA Group, TN International offers a complete range of transport and interim storage solutions for radioactive materials throughout the entire nuclear fuel cycle. A world leader in its sector, TN International has supported for 50 years the expansion of the nuclear industry. The damaged spent fuel management is a major challenge for NPP operators in the case of shutdown. The purpose of the paper is to describe solutions proposed by AREVA for transportation and dry interim storage of all type of damaged fuel. 1/ Transportation solutions AREVA’s Business Unit Logistic has already managed many transports in Europe of gas leaking spent fuel and various cask designs are already licensed for that purpose. The paper gives a description of these transports and the associated licensing methodology and also the new approach of the transportation of other damaged fuel. 2/ Dry Interim Storage solutions in US and Europe • The storage of damaged fuel is implemented in the US for many years by AREVA, compliant with the United States safety authority’s requirements. The damaged fuels are stored in designated basket location with top and bottom end caps. • In Europe, following the recent shutdown of power plants in Germany, and the future shutdown of other NPP in Europe, AREVA has launched in 2012 the development of a new storage solution for damaged fuel based on European cask technologies and compliant with high level safety requirements. This solution is developed commonly by AREVA Fuel services Germany and AREVA TN International France. The technology is based on a new welded capsule technology and an associated specific approach of the licensing of the dry interim storage in casks. At the time of this abstract, the qualification process is on-going. The paper describes these storage solutions in US and Europe.