Safety and Licensing of Spent Fuel Storage Facilities Vonna Ordaz, U.S. NRC Presented at International Conference on Management of Spent Fuel from Nuclear Power Reactors June 1, 2010

2 NRC Dry Storage Program Specific License General License –Dry Cask Certification Review Guidance –Standard Review Plan for Dry Cask Storage –Standard Review Plan for Dry Storage Facilities –Interim Staff Guidance Documents –Regulatory Guides

3 Chemical Interactions Point Beach hydrogen ignition event Trojan pool turbidity First time use of materials and processes –Thorough engineering evaluation –Consider testing prior to use Share information and think broadly NRC developed Materials Review chapter for Standard Review plans

4 Light-Weight Transfer Cask Removed most water prior to lid welding Higher fuel temperature at start of vacuum drying Invalidated design-basis calculation for maximum time allowed for vacuum drying Drafting new Interim Staff Guidance document on Health Physics

5 Damaged Fuel Assessment Fuel must be retrievable after dry storage Visual inspection of fuel proved ineffective Fuel stored in non-oxidizing atmosphere Testing to determine fuel state –Spent fuel sipping –Reactor off-gas release rate test –Ultrasonic inspection

6 Damaged Fuel Assessment Lessons Learned Revision to ISG-2, “Retrievability“ –Added assembly retrievability –Handling by normal means –Remain structurally sound –In secondary canister if assembly cannot be shown to be undamaged

7 ISFSI License Renewals 20-year license term with renewals Initial two licenses issued in 1986 and third in 1990 Perform aging management review Lessons learned from license renewals –Developed rulemaking to increase the licenses and certificates to 40 years –Developed Standard Review Plan for Renewal of Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installation Licenses and Dry Cask Storage System Certificates of Compliance”

8 Revisiting the Paradigm for Storage and Transport SRM-COMDEK Thorough review of spent fuel storage and transport regulatory programs –Research needed to bolster the technical bases –Risk-informed and performance-based methods –Incentives to industry to use state-of-the-art technology –Harmonizing with international standards

9 Conclusions Strive for continuous improvement Review methods and guidance are not stagnant Changes to guidance come from experiences Staff Requirements Memorandum - Revisiting the Paradigm on Spent Fuel Storage and Transport (SRM-COMDEK )