System Evaluation Model for Selecting Spent Nuclear Fuel Storage Concepts

摘要

President Reagan has challenged the nuclear community to develop a safe and economical system to handle spent fuel assemblies from commercial nuclear power generating stations and high level radioactive wastes from fuel reprocessing facilities. This paper will illustrate a management system approach used to identify and evaluate monitored, retrievable fuel storage concepts that fulfill ten key criteria for meeting the functional requirements and system objectives of the National Nuclear Waste Management Program. These selection criteria include: health and safety, schedule, costs, socio-economic factors and environmental factors. An MRS (Monitored Retrievable Storage) System is designed to safety store spent fuel assemblies and high level waste in a dry, passively cooled environment for an indefinite period of time up to 100 years. Forth-five feasible MRS design concepts utilizing 20 basic storage methods were initially screened and reduced to 15 concepts with 7 methods. A system evaluation model was developed to evaluate the ability of each of the remaining 15 alternative concepts to meet the selection criteria. This model allows the ranking of each system according to MRS needs and life-cycle costs. The methodology used to establish the selection criteria, develop a weight of importance for each criterion and assess the relative merit of each MRS system will be described. The impact of cost relative to technical criteria will be discussed along with experience in obtaining relative merit data and its application in the model. This system evaluation model is universally applicable when many concepts in various stages of design and cost development need to be evaluated. It provides a structured approach which allows the evaluators to make a rational, well-founded selection. (ERA citation 07:045880)