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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.
Amber L. Hames, Alena Paulenova, James L. Willit, Mark A. Williamson
Nuclear Technology | Volume 203 | Number 3 | September 2018 | Pages 272-281
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2018.1448673
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Regions of the LiCl-KCl-UCl3 phase diagram used to represent the molten salt compositions generated during the electrorefining of used nuclear fuel were evaluated by studying the LiCl-UCl3 and KCl-UCl3 binary systems and several ternary mixtures. Phase transition temperatures of several binary and ternary mixtures made with LiCl, KCl, and UCl3 were measured by using differential scanning calorimetry. Inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectroscopy was used to measure the gross compositions of the salt mixtures and X-ray diffraction (XRD) was used to identify the phases formed after they were thermally cycled and had cooled to room temperature. The LiCl-UCl3 system has a eutectic transition at 763 ± 2 K for a mixture with 25 mol % UCl3. The KCl-UCl3 system has two eutectic transitions, one at 827 ± 3 K and another at 805 ± 4 K for mixtures with 19 mol % UCl3 and 57 mol % UCl3, respectively, and the congruently melting compound K2UCl5 was identified to have formed by XRD. The LiCl-UCl3 and KCl-UCl3 binary phase diagrams were developed and combined with the LiCl-KCl phase diagram to produce a portion of the LiCl-KCl-UCl3 phase diagram. The LiCl-KCl-UCl3 system includes two ternary eutectics, one occurring at 681 ± 6 K for the mixture with 33 mol % UCl3, 42.0 mol % LiCl, and 25 mol % KCl, and the other at 619 ± 1 K for the mixture with 8 mol % UCl3, 50.0 mol % LiCl, and 42 mol % KCl. The evaluation of these phase diagrams provides an improved understanding of the LiCl-KCl-UCl3 systems generated during electrorefining.
