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Nuclear Criticality Safety
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September 8–11, 2025
Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
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Take steps on SNF and HLW disposal
Matt Bowen
With a new administration and Congress, it is time once again to ponder what will happen—if anything—on U.S. spent nuclear fuel and high-level waste management policy over the next few years. One element of the forthcoming discussion seems clear: The executive and legislative branches are eager to talk about recycling commercial SNF. Whatever the merits of doing so, it does not obviate the need for one or more facilities for disposal of remaining long-lived radionuclides. For that reason, making progress on U.S. disposal capabilities remains urgent, lest the associated radionuclide inventories simply be left for future generations to deal with.
In March, Rick Perry, who was secretary of energy during President Trump’s first administration, observed that during his tenure at the Department of Energy it became clear to him that any plan to move SNF “required some practical consent of the receiving state and local community.”1
Tsung-Kuang Yeh, Digby D. Macdonald
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 123 | Number 2 | June 1996 | Pages 305-316
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE96-A24192
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The DAMAGE-PREDICTOR computer code, which has the capability of simultaneously estimating the concentrations of radiolysis species, the electrochemical corrosion potential (ECP), and the crack growth rate (CGR) of a reference crack in sensitized Type 304 stainless steel, is used to evaluate the responses of the Dresden-2 and Duane Arnold boiling water reactors (BWRs) to hydrogen water chemistry (HWC) at different power levels. The HWC simulations for these two BWRs are carried out for feedwater hydrogen concentration ([H2]fw) ranging from 0.0 to 2.0 parts per million and for power levels at 100, 90, 80, and 70%. Variations in the oxygen, hydrogen peroxide, and hydrogen concentrations; ECP; and CGR for four specific areas (the side of the core shroud head, the base of the core shroud, the recirculation system outlet, and the bottom of the lower plenum) as a function of the feedwater hydrogen concentration and power level are analyzed. It is found that lower power levels alleviate the amount of hydrogen injected into the feedwater that is required to protect the reactor components from intergranular stress corrosion cracking. HWC is particularly effective in protecting the base of the core shroud and the recirculation system outlet but is only moderately effective in protecting the bottom of the lower plenum. On the other hand, the ECP and the CGR at the side of the core shroud head seem to be indifferent to both the operating power level and the feedwater hydrogen concentration.