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November 9, 2005
Thomas Hill, NSNFP
DOE Spent Nuclear Fuel Licensing Path Forward
PacTec Review of Transportation Strategy for DOE Fuel
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Background
• Significant discussion on the licensing approach for transportation of DOE SNF
• Industry peer-review of existing analyses and documentation
• Understand industry practices
• PacTec subcontracted to provide review and help guide DOE efforts
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Outline
• Scope of review
• PacTec review summary
• Analysis methodology
• Division of responsibilities
• Path forward
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Scope of Review
• Review DOE SNF grouping strategy and evaluate adequacy for use by transportation cask vendors
• Review design, documentation and testing of DOE canisters and baskets
• Evaluate use of new gadolinium neutron absorber for structural and criticality control
• Propose a path forward
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PacTec Review Summary
• “Transportation should be built around these well-defined and tested canisters”
• “Canister is the interface between DOE and cask vendors”
• “The fuel should be grouped into common types”
• “Significant analyses required”
• Step wise licensing “Amending each license”
• “Meet early with the regulator [NRC] and present overall situation and strategy”
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Design, Documentation and Testing DOE Canister and Basket• Canisters are fully welded pressure vessels to ASME Boiler
and Pressure Vessel Code (full penetration closure weld)
• Canister basket design details inadequate for transportation analyses
• Testing provides strong case for NRC to accept as containment boundary – Needs to address transportation conditions
• Moderator exclusion supported by design, evaluations, testing, and fabrication program
• Canister provides the interface between DOE and cask vendors – responsibilities defined by this interface
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Grouping Strategy/Evaluate Adequacy
• Reasonable approach for 250 fuel types – specific groupings may change from groupings used for repository analyses to include basket configurations
• Needs to consider shipping facilities, transportation, and storage/disposition requirements
• Need to identify bounding parameters for each grouping
• Develop step-by-step approach approved by NRC
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Step wise approach to fuel grouping
• License based on
– Well defined fuel group and basket configuration
– Consistent properties
• Once NRC approves a group amend C of C to include other types of fuel
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Significant Analyses Required
• Criticality is a very complex analysis
• To understand the bounding nature of the various parameters, significant analyses will have to be performed
• Grouping and bounding approach has been developed in to a concise methodology
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Analysis MethodologyTransportation
Canister
CanisterIntegrity
CanisterDry
Fuel Geometry/Fuel DamageUnimportant
Keff<<0.95
Canister \Flooded
BasketStructure
FuelCondition
CriticalityAnalysis
CaskC of C
Unlikely
CaskC of C
Fuel IntactPoison
CaskC of C
Fuel DegradedPoison
BasketTemplate
Criticality Analysis
CaskC of C
ShippingAssumptions
Intact
Intact Intact
Breached Degraded
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Gadolinium Neutron Absorber for Structural and Criticality Control• New material with no documented history
– Produced in mill runs
– Fabrication, welding
– As a neutron absorber
• No ASME code rules governing internal basket structure
• NRC acceptability needs to be worked ASAP
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Division of Responsibilities
• Canister provides interface boundary
• DOE-EM responsible for
– Canister design
– Canister internals
– Fuel loading
– Analyses of loaded canisters
– Data packages for transportation vendors
• DOE-RW (Transportation cask vendors) responsible for
– Cask and internals design
– Analyses of multiple canister within cask
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Path Forward
• Prepare plan for developing topical report on DOE canister for NRC
• Meet with NRC immediately to discuss major issues
– Methodology for satisfying transportation criticality
– Moderator exclusion for canisters
– Selective flooding
– Method of determining bounding criticality cases for groupings
– Gadolinium poison
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Path Forward (continued)
• Interface with cask vendors for review of methodology
– Moderator exclusion simplifies interface
• Review plan with DOE-RW second week of December
• Review plan and methodology with NRC week of INMM meeting, January 2006