A Review of multipurpose canister concepts for standardization in the waste management system - 15563
Since the early 1980's, the federal government and individual utilities have put forth considerable effort to develop a canister for spent nuclear fuel (SNF) that could be used as part of a dry storage system, transportation system, and disposal system without having to be reopened. While the terminology for this type of canister has changed over the years, the underlying concept and purpose have not. These efforts and ongoing activities in this area are highlighted, expanding upon several previous works. During development of dry storage systems in the 1980's, there was growing interest in triple-purpose (storage, transportation, and disposal) canister concepts, and preliminary studies were conducted. That interest evolved into a project to develop a multipurpose canister (MPC) in the 1990's. After the de-funding of that project, the concept lived on in a canister system for US DOE-owned fuel from the mid 1990's to the early 2000's. The commercial spent fuel version of the concept resurfaced in the mid-2000's as the transportation aging and disposal (TAD) canister. After the halting of the Yucca Mountain project, the specific implementation of triple-purpose canisters was reevaluated. This re-evaluation resulted in the standardized transportation aging and disposal (STAD) canister conceptual design and evaluation effort. Each of these efforts is reviewed and summarized. (authors)