Optimizing the Spent Fuel Transportation Cask for Spent Fuel Age and Burnup: A Preliminary Analysis

by D. Dippold, Battelle, United States,
P. Hofmann, Battelle, United States,
A. Plummer, Battelle, United States,
R. Peterson, Battelle, United States,



Document Type: Proceeding Paper

Part of: High Level Radioactive Waste Management 1990

Abstract:

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has been assigned responsibility for managing the nation's spent nuclear fuel (SNF). Because of the large quantity of SNF to be moved, the DOE is planning a new generation of transport casks designed specifically for the characteristics of the SNF to be transported. Two such characteristics are especially important in designing the transportation cask: the SNF burnup and the SNF age at the time of transport. This paper addresses the design issue described above and outlines an approach that can be used to select the SNF age and burnup characteristics for which the transportation cask ought to be designed. The design issue is treated as an optimization problem in which one attempts to minimize the life cycle costs (LCC) associated with a campaign to transport a fixed quantity of SNF, having fixed age and burnup characteristics, subject to certain constraints.

Subject Headings: Fuels | Nuclear power | Aging (material) | Waste treatment | Waste management | Transportation management | Radioactive wastes

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