Deal will allow Idaho laboratory to receive used fuel from university research reactors
Changes to an agreement on the removal of legacy waste from the US government’s Idaho National Laboratory (INL) will allow critical research to continue that could support the extended storage of spent nuclear fuel at the country’s nuclear power plants.
INL announced that the state of Idaho and the US Department of Energy have agreed to a targeted waiver of the 1995 settlement agreement. That agreement established milestones to remove legacy waste from the INL site while allowing nuclear energy research and development at the lab.
The waiver will allow INL to bring in a high burnup nuclear fuel cask and limited amounts of used fuel from US university research reactors, meaning critical research can continue, INL said.
This research will in turn provide data to support licensing for the extended storage of spent fuel at 54 nuclear power plants in 28 states.
High burnup nuclear fuel casks are designed to safely contain and store spent nuclear fuel that has undergone a higher degree of fission, resulting in increased radioactivity and heat. These casks are crucial for the dry storage and transportation of this type of fuel.
But to ensure continued safe storage, the nuclear industry and the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission require data to confirm the performance of nuclear fuel during long-term storage.
INL said this data is crucial to over 70% of today’s dry storage facilities, allowing them to renew their licences and continue safely storing this nuclear fuel.
“Without this waiver, some universities risk having to shut down their research reactors due to regulatory limits on spent fuel storage,” INL said.
In 1987, US Congress designated Yucca Mountain in Nevada as the only site for construction of a repository for spent nuclear fuel, but in 2009, the Obama administration ended work at the site after deeming the project unworkable.
The US has accumulated about 83,000 tonnes of radioactive nuclear waste, including spent fuel, since the 1950s. It is now stored in steel and concrete enclosures at reactor sites, according to the DOE. Spent fuel is stored in spent fuel pools or dry casks, with at least one-third of the total fuel in dry storage.
