International Status of Dry Storage of Spent Fuels

Spent fuel from the world's nuclear power reactors, or the high-level radioactive wastes from reprocessing of the spent fuels, are planned to be disposed of in national deep geological repositories in the respective countries of origin. The plans for most countries with nuclear power call for spent fuel or high-level waste disposal to start between 2010 and about 2050. Although storage in water pools is the primary method for management of spent nuclear fuels for the first few years after discharge from the reactor, dry storage has been implemented in several countries and is being considered in others. Dry storage is generally planned for an interim period (from 10 to as long as 100 years) until the spent fuel is disposed of or until a final decision is made on reprocessing. Dry storage is also being used to supplement wet storage capacity at some nuclear power stations. This paper summarizes the world-wide status of dry spent fuel storage and information on the expected long-term integrity of the dry-stored spent fuel based on experience, particularly for Zircaloy-clad fuels. The paper also addresses briefly the dry storage of solidified high-level radioactive wastes. This paper is based on work carried out for the US Department of Energy (DOE) by the Pacific Northwest Laboratory.