DOE, EPRI TO STUDY STORAGE OF HIGH BURN-UP SNF

The Department of Energy yesterday announced a new, five-year $15.8 million research and development project to be led by the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) to “design and demonstrate dry storage cask technology for high burn-up spent nuclear fuels that have been removed from commercial nuclear power plants.” Private industry will contribute at least 20 percent of the total project cost. “The Department is working to address the challenges of the back end of the fuel cycle, including advancing secure and reliable extended storage and dry cask technologies,” Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy Pete Lyons said in a statement.

 

The study will focus on the issues surrounding storage of high burn-up spent nuclear fuel. “Over the last few years, many improvements have been made in fuel technologies which have allowed plant operators to achieve higher burn-up levels, almost doubling the amount of energy captured,” DOE wrote. “The Energy Department has studied the current long-term dry cask systems used to store spent nuclear fuel from commercial nuclear power reactors, and has identified areas for continued research and data collection related to the storage of high burn-up spent fuel.” DOE said this research would fall under the work the president proposed in DOE’s $60 million Fiscal Year 2014 budget request for spent nuclear fuel management, released last week. The request outlines the cost for the DOE’s nuclear waste strategy, released in January, as costing upwards of $5.6 billion over the next 10 years.