Rethinking the Economic factors of Centralized Spent Fuel Storage

Wood, T. W.; Dippold, D. G.; Rod, S. R.; Short, S. M.; Williams, J. W.; ,

Rethinking the Economic factors of Centralized Spent Fuel Storage

by T. W. Wood, Pacific Northwest Lab, Richland, United States,
D. G. Dippold, Pacific Northwest Lab, Richland, United States,
S. R. Rod, Pacific Northwest Lab, Richland, United States,
S. M. Short, Pacific Northwest Lab, Richland, United States,
J. W. Williams, Pacific Northwest Lab, Richland, United States,

Document Type: Proceeding Paper

Part of: High Level Radioactive Waste Management 1991

Abstract:

The economics of centralizing the storage of spent fuel at a single site, as opposed to continued storage at over 100 reactor sites, has been the subject of several recent analyses. Most of these analyses involved calculating the benefits of an MRS facility (in terms of avoided utility costs) with a pre-defined MRS operating scenario (e.g., spent fuel acceptance schedule, storage capacity, and typical storage cycle). While these analyses provided some insight into the economic justification for an MRS facility, even the most favorable scenarios resulted in net costs of hundreds of millions of dollars when evaluated on a discounted cash flow basis. This paper reverses this approach to economic analysis of the MRS by seeking the optimal MRS oprating scenario (in terms of the parameters listed above) implied by the economic incentives arising from the relative costs of at-reactor storage and centralized storage. This approach treats an MRS as a possible storage location that will be used according to its economic value in system operation.

Return to search