Low-Cost Concepts for Dry Transfer of Spent Fuel and Waste Between Storage and Transportation Casks

摘要

The federal government may provide interim storage for spent fuel from commercial nuclear power reactors that have used up their available storage capacity. One of the leading candidate concepts for this interim storage is to place spent fuel in large metal shielding casks. The Federal Interim Storage (FIS) site may not have the capability to transfer spent fuel from transportation casks to storage casks and vice versa. Thus, there may be an incentive to construct a relatively inexpensive but reliable intercask transfer system for use at an FIS site. This report documents the results of a preliminary study of preconceptual design and analysis of four intercask transfer concepts. The four concepts are: (1) a large shielded cylindrical turntable that contains an integral fuel handling machine (turntable concept); (2) a shielded fuel handling machine under which shipping and storage casks are moved horizontally (shuttle concept); (3) a small hot cell containing equipment for transferring fuel between shipping and storage casks (that enter and leave the cell on carts) in a bifurcated trench (trench concept); and (4) a large hot cell, shielded by an earthen berm, that houses equipment for handling fuel between casks that enter and leave the cell on a single cart (igloo concept). Information derived for each of the concepts is operating, capital and relocation costs; implementation and relocation time requirements; and overall characteristics. 1 reference, 4 figures, 2 tables. (ERA citation 09:035201)