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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.
Hanna Koskinen, Jari Laarni, Marja Liinasuo, Leena Salo
Nuclear Technology | Volume 209 | Number 3 | March 2023 | Pages 332-345
Technical Paper—Human-Machine Interface Technologies | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2022.2087840
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The Systems Usability Case (SUC) approach enables a requirement-based human factors (HF) evaluation of complex technical systems that may cover the entire verification and validation process. SUC is based on the Safety Case approach and on the Systems Usability (SU) construct. One of the main aims of establishing a Safety Case is to bring the arguments and evidence for safety to the front in such a way that the reasoning supports the work of a regulator or licensing organization. In the end, the approach enables evaluating the SU of a system and making a reasonable solid argument about the acceptance of the system for use. The question is how the conclusions are reached through a reasoning process in which the arguments are made about the evidence [i.e., identified human engineering discrepancies (HEDs)] to approve or reject the claim concerning the quality of the system. The paper presents an application of SUC to real data from an integrated system validation of the modernized control room (CR) of the Loviisa nuclear power plant. The results of the validation are discussed from the point of view of how the SUC approach enables forming a statement about the acceptance of the CR. Moreover, practical examples are given to demonstrate the identified HF issues and how they were handled in the validation process. The paper provides a general framework for handling of HEDs and for their resolution that can be used in the consolidation of validation test results in a real-world validation project.