Monitored retrievable storage of nuclear waste in the US

A monitored retrievable storage (MRS) facility is a long-term nuclear waste storage system. Monitoring ensures detection of waste package containment failures that could lead to release of radioactive materials. This protects facility personnel as well as the surrounding population and environment. Through basic design and monitoring of the stored material, easy retrievability is assured. This facilitates preparation of the stored material for later shipment to a reprocessing plant or repository. Monitored retrievable storage provides flexibility in the national nuclear waste management system. It can accommodate delays in the startup of the final repository or store spent fuel until questions regarding reprocessing are resolved. It also offers the capability to age spent fuel and HLW to ease the thermal loading on the repository, or conversely, to increase the capacity of a given size repository. The size and handling rate required in an MRS facility are highly dependent on the fuel cycle scenario proposed.