Methods for Estimating Costs of Transporting Spent Fuel and Defense High-Level Radioactive Waste for the Civilian Radioactive Waste Management Program

The U. S. Department of Energy (DOE), through the Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management, is planning and developing a transportation program for the shipment of spent fuel and defense high-level waste from current storage locations to the site of the ,mined geologic repository. In addition to its responsibility for providing a safe transportation system, the DOE will assure that the transportation program will function with the other system components to create an integrated waste management system. In meeting these objectives, the DOE will use private industry to the maximum extent practicable and in a manner that is cost effective. This paper discusses various methodologies used for estimating costs for the national radioactive waste transportation system. Estimating these transportation costs is a complex effort, as the high-level radioactive waste transportation system, itself, will be complex. Spent fuel and high-level waste will be transported from more than 100 nuclear power plants and defense sites across the continental United States, using multiple transport modes (truck, rail, and barge/rail) and varying sizes and types of casks. Advance notification to corridor states will be given and scheduling will need to be coordinated with utilities, carriers, state and local officials, and the DOE waste acceptance facilities. Additional ly, the waste forms will vary in terms of reactor type, size, weight, age, radioactivity, and temperature.