After used nuclear fuel from commercial light water reactors has cooled in spent fuel pools, it is stored on dry cask storage pads in dual purpose canisters. These canisters are designed for storage and transportation, but they are not licensed for permanent disposal in a geological repository. If the canisters are stored in a repository, then it is expected that they will
eventually breach and be flooded with groundwater and that some fraction of these canisters will achieve criticality
Published: January 31, 2023
Citation
Swinney M.W., S. Bhatt, G.G. Davidson, M. Nole, and K. Banerjee. 2022.Multiphysics Modeling of a Critical Dual-Purpose Canister in a Saturated Geological Repository.Annals of Nuclear Energy 175.PNNL-SA-165122.doi:10.1016/j.anucene.2022.109204