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Center for Used Fuel Research: Building confidence in storage and transport
Used nuclear fuel storage and transportation have reached a critical juncture.
Dozens of utilities need reliable data on how used nuclear fuel performs in dry storage casks and canisters to extend regulatory licenses at sites across the United States. Likewise, the Department of Energy expects to take ownership of the used nuclear fuel—termed “spent nuclear fuel” in the laws and regulations governing its stewardship—and transfer it to one or more federal staging facilities for management and disposition.
Meanwhile, dozens of reactor companies are testing prototypes of advanced reactors and advanced reactor fuels. Eventually, regulators and industry must also verify the safety and security of storage methods for these advanced fuel types.
To help address these challenges, the DOE established the Center for Used Fuel Research (CUFR) in January 2026 for work related to the long-term storage and transport of used nuclear fuel.
Gee-Yong Park, Heung-Seop Eom, Seung Cheol Jang, Hyun Gook Kang
Nuclear Technology | Volume 183 | Number 1 | July 2013 | Pages 107-118
Technical Paper | Nuclear Plant Operations and Control | doi.org/10.13182/NT13-A16996
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
This paper describes a method of estimating the probability of failure for trip-functioning software of a fully digitalized reactor protection system. The Bayesian inference is used to estimate and update the probability of software failure along the software development life cycle. At the requirements and design phases, the probability of software failure is estimated from qualitative quality information based on a specific verification and validation process. This probability of failure is updated at the implementation/testing phases, based on the test data for trip functions implemented by software.
