The challenge of managing spent nuclear fuel is a complex task that requires careful planning and execution over several decades. This process involves the storage, transportation, and long-term disposal of high-level waste produced by nuclear reactors.
Spent nuclear fuel generates heat due to radioactive decay after a fission reaction stops. The decay heat from existing spent nuclear fuel assemblies is a key factor in characterizing high-level nuclear waste, impacting the safety and economics of its handling, storage, and long-term disposal.
All nuclear power reactors have spent fuel storage pools to cool spent fuel during its initial decay heat cooling period after being discharged. These pools are essential for managing the immediate thermal output from the fuel assemblies.
The SFC work package in Eurad investigates properties of spent nuclear fuel in the back-end of the nuclear fuel cycle, including decay heat, nuclide inventory, fuel integrity, and related uncertainties. This research is crucial for understanding the long-term behavior of waste materials.
A study quantifies reactor-specific decay heat trends and nuclide contributions to provide a technical basis for developing spent fuel management strategies and safety evaluations for the storage, transportation, and long-term waste disposal of advanced reactor fuels. This information helps ensure that nuclear waste is managed safely over time.
Finland is building the world's first final repository for spent nuclear fuel using a method developed by SKB. It will receive its first spent fuel in the middle of the 2020s. This project represents a significant milestone in the management of high-level waste from nuclear power plants.
