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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.
Kai Yao, Chengwen Liu, Xiangchen Meng, Xu Yang, Yidong Wan, Ping Liu
Nuclear Technology | Volume 212 | Number 9 | September 2026 | Pages 2285-2296
Research Article | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2025.2509401
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Performance shaping factors (PSFs) are regarded as the causes and contributing factors that affect human errors in nuclear power plants. In order to improve the accuracy of human reliability assessment results, it is necessary to conduct research on the interrelationships among PSFs. This study determined PSFs affecting human errors based on operators’ cognitive process and inductive analysis. Then the decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) and Pearson correlation analysis methods were employed to analyze the relative importance and correlation of PSFs in human reliability.
The analysis results showed that there are mainly 10 PSFs affecting human errors in the digital main control room of nuclear power plants. Moreover, according to the causal logical relationships of PSFs, a causality relationship model of human reliability was constructed. This model took into account the causal relationships of PSFs, and it established the relationships between PSFs and human reliability, which was helpful for improving the accuracy of the quantitative assessment of human reliability.
