The Department of Energy needs to consolidate its agency-sponsored research on high-burnup spent nuclear fuel storage, the federal government’s nuclear waste panel said in a new report published this week.
Although DOE funds “a variety of organizations” and their research on the viability of storing and transporting high-burnup fuel (HBF), there’s not currently a single compendium of all findings, the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board (NWTRB) said in its evaluation of DOE’s HBF program Monday.
The board’s recommendations “if implemented, will improve DOE’s program and its ability to provide data that will enhance the understanding of high burnup [spent nuclear fuel],” according to a press release published alongside the report.
High-burnup fuel refers to nuclear fuel rods that have higher concentrations of uranium atoms, allowing them to power a reactor for longer and produce more electricity. Spent HBF is also hotter and more radioactive than lower-burnup spent fuel, presenting a different set of challenges for storage and transportation. High-burnup fuel makes up around 25% of the nation’s spent fuel inventory, Monday’s NWTRB report said.
DOE should also continue to review non-agency research, such as the Electric Power Research Institute’s Extended Storage Collaboration Program and international spent fuel research, NWTRB said.
Meanwhile, there’s still no federally-licensed site to store any type of spent fuel from power plants. That issue took one small step towards a temporary solution last week when Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff recommended that one of two proposed commercial interim storage facilities for spent fuel receive a federal license.
If NRC grants the license, it will be the closest the U.S. has ever been to some sort of spent fuel solution since the Barack Obama administration pulled funding to license the Yucca Mountain geologic repository in Nye County, Nev., in 2011.
