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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.
Shinsuke Tashiro, Gunzo Uchiyama, Takuya Ohno, Yuki Amano, Ryoichiro Yoshida, Hithoshi Abe
Nuclear Technology | Volume 208 | Number 7 | July 2022 | Pages 1205-1213
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2021.2018272
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A clogging behavior of a high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filter has been investigated for solvent fire accidents to provide valuable data for establishing a risk assessment method for reprocessing facilities in Japan. In this study, the burning rates of 30% tri-butyl phosphate (TBP)/dodecane and dodecane solvents and the differential pressure ΔP change of a high airflow–type HEPA filter applied in ventilation systems of reprocessing facilities in Japan were measured in the solvent burning. It was confirmed that the dodecane in the 30% TBP/dodecane mixed solvent burned mainly at the early stage of the burning of the mixed solvent and that the TBP burned mainly at the late stage of the burning of the mixed solvent. In addition, the burning rate of dodecane in the early stage and the rate of the TBP in the late stage were estimated, respectively. As a result, the former rate was almost the same as the burning rate of burning only the dodecane without TBP. Furthermore, the rapid increase of the ΔP of the HEPA filter was observed at the late stage of burning the mixed solvent. The increase of the release ratio of the airborne particles of unburned solvent (i.e., TBP and/or degradation products of TBP) and inorganic phosphorus (i.e., P2O5) was considered to contribute to the rapid increase. The empirical formulas for representing the relationship between the mass of the loading airborne particles onto the HEPA filter and the ΔP of the HEPA filter, except for the region of the rapid increase of the ΔP, under the mixed-solvent burning could be induced.
