Overview of the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Nuclear Energy's Nuclear Fuel Storage and Transportation Planning Project
The U.S. Department Energy, Office of Nuclear Energy (DOE-NE) is laying the groundwork for implementing interim storage, including associated transportation, per the Administration's Strategy for the Management and Disposal of Used Nuclear Fuel and High- Level Radioactive Waste, and to develop a foundation for a new nuclear waste management organization. The organization within DOE-NE that is responsible for this planning is the Office of Nuclear Fuels Storage and Transportation (NFST). The technical work to support this planning effort is being conducted by DOE's national laboratories. DOE's overarching goal is to develop options for decision-makers on the design of an integrated waste management system. The goal is to develop an integrated plan to (1) implement interim storage; (2) improve the overall integration of storage as a planned part of the waste management system; (3) prepare for the large-scale transportation of SNF and high-level waste (HLW), with an initial focus on removing SNF from the shutdown reactor sites; and (4) develop the foundational information, resources, and capabilities needed to support future implementation decisions and actions. Near-term objectives are to (1) develop and maintain an integrated plan to accomplish the Administration's Strategy goals, (2) improve integration of storage as a planned part of the waste management system, (including evaluating standardization of dry cask storage systems), (3) develop and evaluate design options for an integrated waste management system, (4) develop and apply systems analyses to provide quantitative estimates of system impacts of utility actions' impacts on the system and inform future decisions, (5) prepare for the large-scale transportation of SNF and HLW, (with an initial focus on removing SNF from the shutdown reactor sites), and (6) establish and maintain a unified, integrated SNF database and analysis system to characterize the input to the waste management system. (authors)