TRANSPORTATION ADVANTAGES FOR USING ENHANCED SPENT NUCLEAR FUEL BURNUP CREDIT ANALYZES TO DEVELOP LOADING CURVES FOR LEGAL WEIGHT TRUCK CASKS IN THE US

摘要

This paper reports on the scoping analysis performed by the Technical Support Team to the DOE-Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management (OCRWM) over the last few years to develop burnup credit loading curves for legal weight truck cask to contain three pressurized water reactor (PWR) spent nuclear fuel (SNF) assemblies, and determine the contribution of the 3-assembly burnup-credit cask to the savings on the number of cask shipments. The paper also reports the total contribution of burnup credit by augmenting the results of the reviews of recent studies with those obtained from a previously conducted study (1) to the savings on the number of cask shipments. The 3-assembly burnup-credit GA-4 cask can ship some of the SNF assemblies (depending on their burnup and initial enrichment [IE]) which could only be shipped, at a capacity of two, by GA-4 cask with no burnup credit. The contribution to reduction in cask shipments, as reported here, is in addition to that resulted in by implementing the 4-assembly burnup-credit GA-4 cask, reported earlier on the subject (1). The results of the newly-performed scoping analysis completed the study focused on the impacts of SNF burnup credit on the shipment capability of the GA-4 cask. On October 30 1998 the Nuclear Regulatory Commission issued a Certificate of Compliance to general Atomics of San Diego California for a legal weight truck shipping cask, GA-4, for carrying spent nuclear fuel from commercial pressurized water reactors (PWR) in the US. (2), based on the unirradiated fresh fuel assumptions.