Comparative Economics for DUCRETE Spent Fuel Storage Cask Handling, Transportation, and Capital Requirements

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Comparative Economics for DUCRETE Spent Fuel Storage Cask Handling, Transportation, and Capital Requirements INEL-95/0166 April 1995 Idaho National Engineering Comparative Economics for DUCRETE Laboratory Spent Fuel Storage Cask Handling, Transportation, and Capital Requirements MB 2 2 1SS3 F. P. Powell OF THiS DOCUMEWT IS Idaho Technologies Company INEL-95/0166 Comparative Economics for DUCRETE Spent Fuel Storage Cask Handling, Transportation, and Capital Requirements F. P. Powell Sierra Nuclear Corporation Roswell, Georgia Published April 1995 Idaho National Engineering Laboratory Environmental and Life Sciences Products Department Lockheed Idaho Technologies Company Idaho Falls, Idaho 83415 Prepared for the U.S. Department of Energy Assistant Secretary for Environmental Management Under DOE Idaho Operations Office Contract DE-AC07-94ID13223 DISCLAIMER Portions of this document may be illegible in electronic image products. Images are produced from the best available original document. DISCLAIMER This report was prepared as an account of work sponsored by an agency of the United States Government. Neither the United States Government nor any agency thereof, nor any of their employees, makes any warranty, express or implied, or assumes any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or use- fulness of any information, apparatus, product, or process disclosed, or represents that its use would not infringe privately owned rights. Reference herein to any spe- cific commercial product, process, or service by trade name, trademark, manufac- turer, or otherwise does not necessarily constitute or imply its endorsement, recom- mendation, or favoring by the United States Government or any agency thereof. The views and opinions of authors expressed herein do not necessarily state or reflect those of the United States Government or any agency thereof. Comparative Economics for DUCRETE Spent Fuel Storage Cask Handling, Transportation, and Capital Requirements INEL-95/0166 Prepared by: F. P. Powell Date Sierra Nuclear Corporation Reviewed and Approved by: WimapiJ. Quapp^^qject Manager Date' Depleted Uranium Recycle Project ABSTRACT This report summarizes the economic differences between a DUCRETE spent nuclear fuel storage cask and a conventional concrete storage cask in the areas of handling, transportation, and capital requirements. The DUCRETE spent fuel cask is under evaluation as a new technology that could substantially reduce the overall costs of spent fuel and depleted uranium disposal. DUCRETE incorporates depleted uranium in a Portland cement mixture and functions as the cask's primary radiation barrier. The cask system design includes insertion of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Multi-Purpose Canister (MPC) inside the DUCRETE cask. The economic comparison is from the time a cask is loaded in a spent fuel pool until it is placed in the repository and includes the utility and overall U.S. system perspectives. vn vm CONTENTS ABSTRACT vii ACRONYMS xi 1. INTRODUCTION 1 1.1 Background 1 1.2 General Assumptions and Methodology 2 2. CASK SYSTEM ECONOMICS 4 2.1 Sierra Nuclear Ventilated Concrete Storage Cask 4 2.1.1 Capital Costs 7 2.1.2 Cask Handling Operations 7 2.1.3 Labor Requirements and Costs 14 2.1.4 Dose Accumulation and Costs 14 2.1.5 Transportation Costs 15 2.2 DUCRETE Ventilated Storage Cask 15 2.2.1 Capital Costs 17 2.2.2 Cask Handling Operations 18 2.2.3 Labor Requirements and Costs 18 2.2.4 Dose Accumulation and Costs ._ 18 2.2.5 Transportation Costs ' 21 2.3 DUCRETE Transportable VSC . .' 21 2.3.1 Capital Costs 21 2.3.2 Cask Handling Operations "". 22 2.3.3 Labor Requirements and Costs 22 2.3.4 Dose Accumulation and Costs '. 22 2.3.5 Transportation Costs : 22 3. CASK COMPARISONS . .' 25 3.1 Utility Perspective 25 3.2 Total System Perspective 25 3.2.1 Cost Components Unique to Total System 30 ix 3.2.2 Case Development 32 4. CONCLUSIONS 41 5. REFERENCES 43 Appendix A—Sierra Nuclear Corporation VSC-24 Loading Cycle Experience and Palisades Occupational Exposure Trend Figures 1. Sierra Nuclear multi-assembly sealed basket 3 2. SNC VSC and MSB • 5 3. MPC transfer cask 6 4. Sequence of the operations in MPC loading through shipment off-site 8 5. DUCRETE ventilated storage cask 16 6. Cross section of DUCRETE VSC (top) and standard VSC (bottom) 17 Tables 1. Handling Operations and Tasks for a SNC VSC 12 2. Handling Operations and Tasks for a DUCRETE VSC 19 3. Handling Operations and Tasks for a DUCRETE TVSC 23 4. Utility Costs for a SNC Ventilated Storage Cask T 26 5. Utility Costs for a DUCRETE YSC -.27 6. Utility Costs for a DUCRETE TVSC 28 7. Utility Cask Comparison Summary 29 8. SNC VSC Total System Costs 33 9. DUCRETE VSC Total System Costs 35 10. DUCRETE TVSC TotalSystem Costs 37 11. Total System Cask Comparisons 39 ACRONYMS DOE U.S. Department of Energy DTC DOE transportation cask DU depleted uranium INEL Idaho National Engineering Laboratory ISFSI independent spent fuel storage installation LLW low level waste MGDS mined geologic disposal system MPC • multi-purpose canister MRS monitored retrievable storage MSB multi-assembly sealed basket MTC MPC transfer cask OCRWM Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management OP overpack SNC Sierra Nuclear Corporation TOP transportation overpack TVSC transportable spent fuel storage cask VSC ventilated storage cask XI xu Comparative Economics for DUCRETE Spent Fuel Storage Cask Handling, Transportation, and Capital Requirements 1. INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background Spent nuclear fuel storage requirements are projected to exceed most U.S. utilities' spent fuel pool capacities, so some form of interim storage or permanent disposal is needed. In 1982, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) was directed by Congress to provide a permanent disposal facility (Nuclear Waste Policy Act). In 1987, Congress passed the Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act, which authorized DOE to provide an interim storage facility preceding the availability of a final repository. The DOE Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management (OCRWM) developed two conceptual facilities as a result of this legislation. The first facility scheduled for construction and use is the monitored retrievable storage (MRS) facility for the interim storage of spent fuel; the second is the mined geologic disposal system (MGDS), which will function as a permanent repository. While these facilities are scheduled for operation in 1998 and 2010, respectively, there is now debate on whether or not the MRS will ever be built. There is also serious question'concerning the ability to meet the announced schedule of the MGDS. As a result, U.S. utilities are proceeding with their own plans for spent fuel interim storage. The most likely avenue is the construction and operation of Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installations (TSFSI) at the reactor sites. The primary vehicle forinterim storage of spent fuel is dry storage casks. This technology involves two basic types of shielding materials, concrete and metal compounds. A new cask technology under development is based on DUCRETE, which uses depleted uranium oxide as the aggregate in a Portland cement mixture. The result is an ultra high density concrete that serves as the primary shielding barrier instead of concrete or metal. Depleted uranium (DU) used in spent fuel shielding and other applications (armor piercing shells, etc.) has consumed only a very small portion of the DU inventory. Depleted uranium is a low- level waste (LLW) that will have to be disposed of in a LLW facility unless an alternative use is 1 found. Currently, the DOE has about 400,000 metric tons of depleted uranium, and disposal cost estimates range from $4.00 to $15.00/kg. Using depleted uranium in a DUCRETE cask that is eventually placed in the MGDS will avoid the need'to dispose of-the depleted uranium as LLW. The current design for the DUCRETE cask uses about 40 metric tons of depleted uranium per cask. Placing all of the U.S. spent fuel (about 86,000 metric tons) in DUCRETE casks would require about 9,500 casks and use most of the current DOE depleted uranium inventory. 1.2 General Assumptions and Methodology The general assumptions and methodology used in this report are discussed in the following paragraphs. In the more detailed sections of this report, additional assumptions are identified for individual casks, specific handling operations, case development, etc. Under the DOE OCRWM, a safe, environmentally sound, standardized approach for the handling, storage, transportation, and disposal of spent nuclear fuel was to be designed. To facilitate this, the Multi-Purpose Canister (MPC) was developed to handle the vast majority of spent fuel. The MPC is a metal canister that will be loaded in a spent fuel pool and then welded closed. Subsequent movement of the spent fuel will be accomplished via the MPC as opposed to handling individual assemblies. In this report, MPC interim storage is assumed to occur at the reactor site (ISFSI) in a storage cask. For final disposal, the MPC will be shipped to the MGDS with final disposition in either a DUCRETE cask or a stainless steel disposal overpack. The Sierra Nuclear Corporation (SNC) Multi-assembly Sealed Basket (MSB), a good example of the MPC concept, is shown in Figure 1. This report assumes the use of an MPC in all cask types under discussion and a capacity of 9.1 MTU per cask. The MPC includes a stainless steel fuel basket with fixed neutron poisons as well as the shield and structural lids. Cask handling operations are defined as beginning with loading of the MPC in a reactor spent fuel pool and ending with final disposition at the repository. The intermediate step of interim storage is assumed to occur at an ISFSI. Depending upon the type of dry storage cask system selected, different costs will be incurred. This report focuses on the differences in cost for three types of cask systems: 1) a conventional concrete storage cask; 2) a DUCRETE storage cask; and 3) a DUCRETE storage cask that is transportable.
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