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The mission of the United States Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management is to complete the safe cleanup of the environmental legacy brought about from five decades of nuclear weapons development and government-sponsored nuclear energy research. Some of the wastes that that must be managed have been identified as good candidates for disposal in a deep borehole in crystalline rock (SNL 2014a). In particular, wastes that can be disposed of in a small package are good candidates for this disposal concept. A canister-based system that can be used for handling these wastes during the disposition process (i.e., storage, transfers, transportation, and disposal) could facilitate the eventual disposal of these wastes. This report provides information for a program plan for developing specifications regarding a canister-based system that facilitates small waste form packaging and disposal and that is integrated with the overall efforts of the DOE’s Office of Nuclear Energy Used Fuel Disposition Campaign's Deep Borehole Field Test. Groundwork for Universal Canister System Development September 2015 ii Wastes to be considered as candidates for the universal canister system include capsules containing cesium and strontium currently stored in pools at the Hanford Site, cesium to be processed using elutable or nonelutable resins at the Hanford Site, and calcine waste from Idaho National Laboratory. The initial emphasis will be on disposal of the cesium and strontium capsules in a deep borehole that has been drilled into crystalline rock. Specifications for a universal canister system are derived from operational, performance, and regulatory requirements for storage, transfers, transportation, and disposal of radioactive waste. Agreements between the Department of Energy and the States of Washington and Idaho, as well as the Deep Borehole Field Test plan provide schedule requirements for development of the universal canister system. Future work includes collaboration with the Hanford Site to move the cesium and strontium capsules into dry storage, collaboration with the Deep Borehole Field Test to develop surface handling and emplacement techniques and to develop the waste package design requirements, developing universal canister system design options and concepts of operations, and developing system analysis tools. Areas in which further research and development are needed include material properties and structural integrity, in-package sorbents and fillers, waste form tolerance to heat and postweld stress relief, waste package impact limiters, sensors, cesium mobility under downhole conditions, and the impact of high pressure and high temperature environment on seals design. September 2015 Groundwork for Universal Canister System Development

Burnup credit methodology is economically advantageous because significantly higher loading capacity may be achieved for spent nuclear fuel (SNF) casks based on this methodology as compared to the loading capacity based on a fresh fuel assumption. However, the criticality safety analysis for establishing the loading curve based on burnup credit becomes increasingly complex as more parameters accounting for spent fuel isotopic compositions are introduced to the safety analysis. The safety analysis requires validation of both depletion and criticality calculation methods. Validation of a neutronic-depletion code consists of quantifying the bias and the uncertainty associated with the bias in predicted SNF compositions caused by cross-section data uncertainty and by approximations in the calculational method. The validation is based on comparison between radiochemical assay (RCA) data and calculated isotopic concentrations for fuel samples representative of SNF inventory. The criticality analysis methodology for commercial SNF disposal allows burnup credit for 14 actinides and 15 fission product isotopes in SNF compositions. The neutronic-depletion method for disposal criticality analysis employing burnup credit is the two-dimensional (2-D) depletion sequence TRITON (Transport Rigor Implemented with Time-dependent Operation for Neutronic depletion)/NEWT (New ESC-based Weighting Transport code) and the 44GROUPNDF5 crosssection library in the Standardized Computer Analysis for Licensingmore » Evaluation (SCALE 5.1) code system. The SCALE 44GROUPNDF5 cross section library is based on the Evaluated Nuclear Data File/B Version V (ENDF/B-V) library. The criticality calculation code for disposal criticality analysis employing burnup credit is General Monte Carlo N-Particle (MCNP) Transport Code. The purpose of this calculation report is to determine the bias on the calculated effective neutron multiplication factor, k{sub eff}, due to the bias and bias uncertainty associated with predicted spent fuel compositions (i.e., determine the penalty in reactivity due to isotopic composition bias and uncertainty) for use in disposal criticality analysis employing burnup credit. The method used in this calculation to propagate the isotopic bias and bias-uncertainty values to k{sub eff} is the Monte Carlo uncertainty sampling method. The development of this report is consistent with 'Test Plan for: Isotopic Validation for Postclosure Criticality of Commercial Spent Nuclear Fuel'. This calculation report has been developed in support of burnup credit activities for the proposed repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, and provides a methodology that can be applied to other criticality safety applications employing burnup credit.« less

The purpose of this calculation report is to document the comparison to measurement of the isotopic concentrations for pressurized water reactor (PWR) spent nuclear fuel determined with the Standardized Computer Analysis for Licensing Evaluation (SCALE) 5.1 (Ref. ) epletion calculation method. Specifically, the depletion computer code and the cross-section library being evaluated are the twodimensional (2-D) transport and depletion module, TRITON/NEWT,2, 3 and the 44GROUPNDF5 (Ref. 4) cross-section library, respectively, in the SCALE .1 code system.

The purpose of this calculation report, Range of Applicability and Bias Determination for Postclosure Criticality of Commercial Spent Nuclear Fuel, is to validate the computational method used to perform postclosure criticality calculations. The validation process applies the criticality analysis methodology approach documented in Section 3.5 of the Disposal Criticality Analysis Methodology Topical Report. The application systems for this validation consist of waste packages containing transport, aging, and disposal canisters (TAD) loaded with commercial spent nuclear fuel (CSNF) of varying assembly types, initial enrichments, and burnup values that are expected from the waste stream and of varying degree of internal component degradation that may occur over the 10,000-year regulatory time period. The criticality computational tool being evaluated is the general-purpose Monte Carlo N-Particle (MCNP) transport code. The nuclear cross-section data distributed with MCNP 5.1.40 and used to model the various physical processes are based primarily on the Evaluated Nuclear Data File/B Version VI (ENDF/B-VI) library. Criticality calculation bias and bias uncertainty and lower bound tolerance limit (LBTL) functions for CSNF waste packages are determined based on the guidance in ANSI/ANS 8.1-1998 (Ref. 4) and ANSI/ANS 8.17-2004 (Ref. 5), as described in Section 3.5.3 of Ref. 1. The development of this reportmore » is consistent with Test Plan for: Range of Applicability and Bias Determination for Postclosure Criticality. This calculation report has been developed in support of licensing activities for the proposed repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, and the results of the calculation may be used in the criticality evaluation for CSNF waste packages based on a conceptual TAD canister.« less

The spent nuclear fuel (SNF) aging system at the proposed Yucca Mountain repository will provide site-specific casks and aging pads for thermal management of commercial SNF with a heat rate in excess of the waste package thermal output limit. An aging pad can accommodate 1,000 MTHM of SNF, containing a total of 100 aging casks with a horizontal module of 20 casks, and 80 vertical site-specific casks arranged in a 2 x 40 array. The proposed aging system will provide five aging areas in two separate locations. The first location will contain a single pad designated as Aging Area 17A (1,000 MTHM capacity). The second location will contain Aging Areas 17B through 17E (20,000 MTHM total capacity), each consisting of five aging pads arranged in a compact rectangular configuration. This paper presents calculated dose rates as a function of distance from Aging Areas 17A and 17B through 17E. In addition, the paper evaluates the effect of design parameter variations on dose rates with focus on spacing between casks and spacing between pads in Aging Areas 17B through 17E.