Performance Assessment of Storage Systems for Extended Durations (PASSED)
Project Type
Coordinated Research ProjectProject Code
CRP
Approved Date
08/12/2021Project Status
Active - OngoingStart Date
14/06/2022Expected End Date
01/09/2026Participating Countries
Argentina, Germany, Spain, France, Hungary, Indonesia, Republic of Korea, Norway, Russian Federation, Ukraine, United States of America, South AfricaDescription
The duration of spent fuel storage (either wet or dry) prior to disposition has been steadily increasing over decades: in the 1980s up to 50 years were foreseen, whereas today 100+ years are discussed. Some countries are envisaging and preparing for periods of up to 300 years. In many countries, research programmes are underway to develop the scientific basis for an elongation of currently licensed storage durations. The IAEA is supporting its Member States by facilitating collaboration and eliciting information exchange to provide maximum value from these national efforts. Dissemination of high quality research information and critical peer reviewing, by leading experts in the field, of the results obtained aim at enhancing Member States' capabilities for their decision making in the back end of the fuel cycle.
Objectives
To sustain and improve IAEA Member States’ technical knowledge base on the long term behaviour of spent fuel storage systems, inspections possibilities and monitoring technologies, through the sharing and disseminating of technical information, the reporting on topical researches carried-out in participating Member States and the documentation of on-going storage systems’ performance.
Specific Objectives
To document spent fuel storage system performance experiences (under wet and dry storage).
To collect and exchange relevant operational experiences on spent fuel storage system inspections.
To collate experiences from on-going programmes and any new/novel techniques for monitoring of storage systems.
To exploit areas of synergy among research projects of the participating Member States to gain agreed approaches to research and result assessment.
To facilitate the transfer of knowledge by documenting the technical basis for spent fuel storage system performance assessment focussing on critical components and materials.
To enable predictions of spent fuel storage system behaviour over long periods of time and suitable inspection intervals.