LACKING SPENT NUCLEAR FUEL CRITICAL BENCHMARKS? - GOTREACTOR CRITICALS?

摘要

With increased interest in the use of burnup credit (BUC) for spent nuclear fuel (SNF)rnstorage, transportation and disposal, the scarcity of SNF critical experiment ’s is a seriousrnobstacle to successful licensing of BUC applications. Historically, laboratory criticalrnexperiments (LCE) have been used for criticality benchmarks. However, for SNFrnapplications, no directly applicable LCEs are available. What is available is an enormousrnsupply of critical measurements used in operations already licensed by the U.S. NuclearrnRegulatory Commission (NRC) (i.e., commercial reactors).rnWhile commercial reactor criticals (CRCs) are not perfect matches to the system ofrninterest, it is important that the fundamental parameters of the benchmarks be similar.rnCurrently, CRCs are the only SNF critical benchmarks available. Their materials,rngeometry, and spectrum compare favorably to those in BUC applications. Reactorrncriticals are the answer to the benchmark obstacle for BUC.