Commercial SNF pickup queue under the standard contract and analysis of Hypothetical alternate acceptance strategies

The Standard Contract for Disposal of Spent Nuclear Fuel and/or High-Level Radioactive Waste (Standard Contract) (10 CFR Part 961) establishes the terms and conditions under which the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) will make available nuclear waste disposal services to the owners and generators of spent nuclear fuel (SNF) and high-level radioactive waste (HLW), as provided in section 302 of the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 (NWPA) as amended, and by which DOE will take title to, transport, and dispose of SNF and/or HLW delivered to DOE by those owners or generators who execute the contract. The Standard Contract establishes the process for allocating the federal government's finite waste acceptance capacity among those various owners/generators. This acceptance allocation, also known as the acceptance queue, orders acceptance and transportation priority in accordance with the principle of “oldest fuel first” (OFF). Under the OFF methodology, the oldest SNF, as measured from the date of permanent discharge from the reactor, is given the highest priority in the acceptance queue. While the date of discharge of spent fuel forms the basis of allocations, the owner/generator can send an equivalent Metric Tons of Uranium (MTU) of SNF that the owner/generator owns in its place, as long as it meets the “Standard Fuel” specifications in Appendix E of the Standard Contract. This is a technical paper that does not take into account the contractual limitations under the Standard Contract. This paper also does not specify the party or parties responsible for any costs discussed herein. This paper provides analysis of hypothetical strategies for accepting SNF and no inferences should be drawn from this paper regarding future actions by DOE. To the extent that discussions or recommendations in this paper conflict with the provisions of the Standard Contract, the Standard Contract provisions prevail. As of November 1, 2018, 126,070 SNF assemblies were stored in dry storage at approximately 70 commercial reactor sites. SNF is safely and securely managed at the reactor sites. SNF is expected to eventually be moved either to a consolidated interim storage facility (CISF) or to a geologic repository for permanent disposal. Regardless of its destination, the SNF pickup schedule-which specifies fuel amounts, shipment timing, and locations-must be determined. The OFF methodology was developed during a time when SNF was expected to be received directly from SNF pools, while most reactors were still operating and before independent spent fuel storage installations existed. In the original approach pursuant to the NWPA, reactor sites would ship fuel to a monitored retrievable storage (MRS) facility or a repository. Shipments would be scheduled based on the order in which the fuel was discharged. This study investigates the implications of alternative scheduling options which (1) prioritize shipments from shutdown sites and (2) use alternative queuing strategies. Different strategies in these areas can significantly impact the time when SNF can be cleared from reactor sites. One queue strategy was shown to have substantial schedule advantages over the conventional methodology of accepting SNF from sites in the order of OFF.