19 - Long-term storage of spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste: strategies and implications for package design

Abstract

Storage of radioactive materials must be done in a safe and secure manner. The varied physical characteristics of these materials, coupled with unique chemical and radioactive attributes, require isolation and containment to protect both the environment and human health. Although all radioactive materials used in commercial, medical, and industrial applications require special care in storage, this chapter will focus on the storage of spent fuel from light-water reactors. Spent fuel is particularly hazardous, is hazardous for centuries, and is spotlighted as the point in the commercial nuclear fuel cycle with expected long-term operations with an unclear disposition pathway. This is because no nation in the world has yet to open and operate a spent-fuel repository. The longer that nuclear nations delay in building repositories for spent fuel, the more it continues to be placed in long-term storage awaiting final disposition decisions. Because the industry and nuclear nations have not solved the spent-fuel issue, it serves as an argument for limiting or ceasing expansion of nuclear power.