DUAL/MULTI PURPOSE CANISTERS AND THE REPROCESSING OPTION

The DOE's multipurpose canister (MPC) concept is a versatile concept. that has been created in order to help DOE perform its legal duty of taking over the spent fuel from nuclear power plants. Although this program has been brought to a stop by the US Congress, it set a powerful trend among utilities in favor of dual purpose canistered systems for transport and storage of spent fuel in the USA. Simultaneously, several vendors do market canister based systems akin to the MPC. The present paper reviews the basis of the concept then shows how it may well be expanded to more options, in the USA and internationally, than strictly direct disposal in the USA by DOE.