Spent Fuel Storage Requirements for Nuclear Utilities and OCRWM

Projected spent fuel generation at U.S. power reactors exceeds estimated aggregate pool storage capacity by approximately 30,000 metric tons of uranium (MTU). Based on the current repository schedule, little of the spent fuel inventory will be disposed of prior to shutdown of existing reactors, and a large additional capacity for surface storage of spent fuel will be required, either at reactors or at a centralized DOE storage site. Allocation of this storage requirement across the utility-DOE interface, and the resulting implications for reactor sites and the performance of the federal waste management system, were studied during the DOE MRS System Study and again subsequent to the reassessment of the repository schedule. Spent fuel logistics and cost results from these analyses will be used in definition of spent fuel storage capacity requirements for the federal system.