Safety and Licensing of Spent Fuel Storage Facilities

Vonna Ordaz, U.S. NRC

Presented at

International Conference on Management of

Spent Fuel from Nuclear Power ReactorsJune 1, 2010

2

NRC Dry Storage Program

• Specific License

• General License

– Dry Cask Certification

• Review Guidance

– Standard Review Plan for Dry Cask Storage

– Standard Review Plan for Dry Storage Facilities

– Interim Staff Guidance Documents

– Regulatory Guides

3

Chemical Interactions

• Point Beach hydrogen ignition event

• Trojan pool turbidity

• First time use of materials and processes

– Thorough engineering evaluation

– Consider testing prior to use

• Share information and think broadly

• NRC developed Materials Review chapter for Standard Review plans

4

Light-Weight Transfer Cask

• Removed most water prior to lid welding

• Higher fuel temperature at start of vacuum drying

• Invalidated design-basis calculation for maximum time allowed for vacuum drying

• Drafting new Interim Staff Guidance document on Health Physics

5

Damaged Fuel Assessment

• Fuel must be retrievable after dry storage

• Visual inspection of fuel proved ineffective

• Fuel stored in non-oxidizing atmosphere

• Testing to determine fuel state

– Spent fuel sipping

– Reactor off-gas release rate test

– Ultrasonic inspection

6

Damaged Fuel AssessmentLessons Learned

• Revision to ISG-2, “Retrievability“

– Added assembly retrievability

– Handling by normal means

– Remain structurally sound

– In secondary canister if assembly cannot be shown to be undamaged

7

ISFSI License Renewals

• 20-year license term with renewals

• Initial two licenses issued in 1986 and third in 1990

• Perform aging management review

• Lessons learned from license renewals

– Developed rulemaking to increase the licenses and certificates to 40 years

– Developed Standard Review Plan for Renewal of Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installation Licenses and Dry Cask Storage System Certificates of Compliance”

8

Revisiting the Paradigm for Storage and Transport

• SRM-COMDEK-09-0001

• Thorough review of spent fuel storage and transport regulatory programs

– Research needed to bolster the technical bases

– Risk-informed and performance-based methods

– Incentives to industry to use state-of-the-art technology

– Harmonizing with international standards

9

Conclusions

• Strive for continuous improvement

• Review methods and guidance are not stagnant

• Changes to guidance come from experiences

• Staff Requirements Memorandum - Revisiting the Paradigm on Spent Fuel Storage and Transport (SRM-COMDEK-09-0001)