Publications Details
Evaluation of Spent Fuel Disposition in Crystalline Rocks: FY18 Progress Report
The U.S. Department of Energy Office of Spent Fuel Waste Disposition (SFWD) established in fiscal year 2010 (FY10) the Spent Fuel Waste Science & Technology (SFWST) Program (formerly the Used Fuel Disposition Campaign - UFDC) program to conduct the research and development (R&D) activities related to storage, transportation and disposal of used nuclear fuel and high level nuclear waste. The Mission of the SFWST is: To identify alternatives and conduct scientific research and technology development to enable storage, transportation and disposal of used nuclear fuel and wastes generated by existing and future nuclear fuel cycles. The work package of Crystalline Disposal R&D directly supports the following SFWST objectives: Develop a fundamental understanding of disposal system performance in a range of environments for potential wastes that could arise from future nuclear fuel cycle alternatives through theory, simulation, testing, and experimentation. ; Develop a computational modeling capability for the performance of storage and disposal options for a range of fuel cycle alternatives, evolving from generic models to more robust models of performance assessment. The objective of the Crystalline Disposal R&D control account is to advance our understanding of long-term disposal of used fuel in crystalline rocks and to develop necessary experimental and computational capabilities to evaluate various disposal concepts in such media. Significant progress has been made in FY18 in both experimental and modeling arenas in evaluation of used fuel disposal in crystalline rocks, especially in model demonstration using field data. The work covers a wide range of research topics identified in the R&D plan. The major accomplishments are summarized.