Transportation and Systems Analysis Collaborations in Support of a Federal Consolidated Interim Storage Facility

TL;DR

This paper discusses the development and application of system analysis tools to evaluate transportation, storage, and disposal options for nuclear waste in the US, supporting informed decision-making for a consolidated interim storage facility.

Contribution

It introduces integrated system analysis tools for comprehensive evaluation of nuclear waste management options, considering transportation, storage, and disposal.

Findings

Development of system analysis tools for nuclear waste management

Assessment of various scenarios for transportation and storage

Support for decision-making on interim storage facility deployment

Abstract

The Integrated Waste Management program under the Office of Nuclear Energy is planning for the future transportation, storage, and eventual disposal of spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste from nuclear power plant and waste custodian sites across the United States. To better enable informed decision-making regarding the back end of the nuclear fuel cycle, the IWM program has been sponsoring the development and application of system analysis tools capable of analyzing various options for managing SNF and HLW. With these tools, integrated waste management system architecture analyses are being conducted to support the future deployment of a comprehensive nuclear waste management system that considers all major back-end aspects of the nuclear fuel cycle i.e., transportation, storage, and disposal. System analyses and assessments typically use these modeling and simulation tools to investigate implications of changes in various assumptions and parameters such as acceptance rates, receipt logic, facility capacities and capabilities, use of standardized canisters, start and stop dates of facilities, etc.