The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority

Our Radioactive Waste Management Directorate (RWMD) has produced a feasibility study exploring options for storage, transport and disposal of spent fuel from potential new nuclear power stations. This work was commissioned by the Nuclear Industry Association (NIA) working together with prospective new nuclear power station operators. 

The work undertaken in these studies has identified that there are a number of feasible alternative options for the management of spent fuel from new nuclear power stations. 

In the area of storage and packaging it has been established that there are a number of feasible potential centralised storage and packaging options and that both wet and dry technology is potentially suitable for the long term management of new nuclear power station spent fuel. 

In the area of alternative cask types it has been established that the use of Multi-Purpose Containers (MPC), which could be used for storage, transport and disposal could reduce the handling of spent fuel assemblies and avoid concerns about handling aged spent fuel, but the implications of such a management approach for the spent fuel may warrant further investigation. 

In the area of alternative disposal concept options it has been established that there are a number of feasible opportunities to better optimise the illustrative disposal concept examples currently examined, when spent fuel arising from new nuclear power stations is included in the disposal inventory. One of these relates to the cooling period, where RWMD has previously identified that for high burn-up SF (65 GW/tU) a cooling period of the order of 100 years is required to comply with the current bentonite buffer temperature limit of 100oC. This cooling period has been revisited and it has been identified, for example that with judicious mixing of long-cooled and short-cooled SF the duration of storage after the end of power station operation could be reduced to the order of 50 years before disposal. 

It is envisaged that the information and understanding gained from these studies will inform future decision making. 

The studies have necessarily been pitched at a high level and further work is needed to develop the options further before they could be used with confidence to inform deliberations on a potential revised planning basis for the new nuclear power station programme. 

 Geological Disposal: Feasibility studies exploring options for storage, transport and disposal of spent fuel from potential new nuclear power stations (2Mb)