Thermal Loading Perspective on U.S. Nuclear Waste Repository Needs

摘要

The Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982, as amended, sets the statutory limit of the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository at 63,000 metric tons initially heavy metal (MTIHM) of commercial spent nuclear fuel (SNF). It also requires that between 2007 and 2010 the Secretary of Energy report to the President on the need for a second U.S. High Level Nuclear Waste (HLW) repository. Given the high economic, social, and political costs associated with the siting of a HLW repository, investigating the expansion of the Yucca Mountain statutory limit to beyond 63,000 MTIHM, rather than siting a second repository, is of significant interest. The factor that limits the amount of SNF that can safely be emplaced per unit area in a geologic repository is not the volume of the SNF, but rather the decay heat of the SNF in conjunction with the thermal loading scenario chosen for the geologic repository. The decay heat emanating from SNF is a function of the fuel burn-up, average power, initial enrichment, and cooling period. The purpose of this research is to investigate the maximum capacity of the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository based on the decay heat emanating from the current and projected U.S. inventory of commercial SNF.