• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.45 no.1
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• pp.29-40
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• 2013

Two different kinds of nuclear power plants produce a substantial amount of spent fuel annually in Korea. According to the current projection, it is expected that around 60,000 MtU of spent fuel will be produced from 36 PWR and APR reactors and 4 CANDU reactors by the end of 2089. In 2006, KAERI proposed a conceptual design of a geological disposal system (called KRS, Korean Reference disposal System for spent fuel) for PWR and CANDU spent fuel, as a product of a 4-year research project from 2003 to 2006. The major result of the research was that it was feasible to construct a direct disposal system for 20,000 MtU of PWR spent fuels and 16,000 MtU of CANDU spent fuel in the Korean peninsula. Recently, KAERI and MEST launched a project to develop an advanced fuel cycle based on the pyroprocessing of PWR spent fuel to reduce the amount of HLW and reuse the valuable fissile material in PWR spent fuel. Thus, KAERI has developed a geological disposal system for high-level waste from the pyroprocessing of PWR spent fuel since 2007. However, since no decision was made for the CANDU spent fuel, KAERI improved the disposal density of KRS by introducing several improved concepts for the disposal canister. In this paper, the geological disposal systems developed so far are briefly outlined. The amount and characteristics of spent fuel and HLW, 4 kinds of disposal canisters, the characteristics of a buffer with domestic Ca-bentonite, and the results of a thermal design of deposition holes and disposal tunnels are described. The different disposal systems are compared in terms of their disposal density.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.18 no.spc
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• pp.1-19
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• 2020

Based on the current high-level radioactive waste management basic plan and the analysis results of spent nuclear fuel characteristics, such as dimensions and decay heat, an improved geological disposal concept for spent nuclear fuel from domestic nuclear power plants was proposed in this study. To this end, disposal container concepts for spent nuclear fuel from two types of reactors, pressurized water reactor (PWR) and Canada deuterium uranium (CANDU), considering the dimensions and interim storage method, were derived. In addition, considering the cooling time of the spent nuclear fuel at the time of disposal, according to the current basic plan-based scenarios, the amount of decay heat capacity for a disposal container was determined. Furthermore, improved disposal concepts for each disposal container were proposed, and analyses were conducted to determine whether the design requirements for the temperature limit were satisfied. Then, the disposal efficiencies of these disposal concepts were compared with those of the existing disposal concepts. The results indicated that the disposal area was reduced by approximately 20%, and the disposal density was increased by more than 20%.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.303-309
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• 2013

As an alternative of the spent fuel disposal in a geologic repository, a deep borehole disposal concept for disposal at the section of 3 - 5km deep in a borehole has been proposed in several countries. In this paper, the latest reports of Sandia National Laboratories on the borehole disposal researches are analyzed. For implementation of this disposal concept in Korea, a conceptual design of spent fuel disposal canister and a modified deep borehole concept are suggested along with a required disposal area.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.229-236
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• 2009

There are two types of spent fuels generated from nuclear power plants, CANDU type and PWR type. PWR spent fuels which include a lot of reusable material can be considered to be recycled. CANDU spent fuels are considered to directly disposed in deep geological formation, since they have little reusable material. In this study, based on the Korean Reference spent fuel disposal System(KRS) which is to dispose both PWR and CANDU spent fuels, the more effective CANDU spent fuel disposal systems have been developed. To do this, the disposal canister has been modified to hold the storage basket which can load 60 spent fuel bundles. From these modified disposal canisters, the disposal systems to meet the thermal requirement for which the temperature of the buffer materials should not be over $100^{\circ}C$ have been proposed. These new disposals have made it possible to introduce the concept of long tenn storage and retrievabililty and that of the two-layered disposal canister emplacement in one disposal hole. These disposal concepts have been compared and analyzed with the KRS CANDU spent fuel disposal system in terms of disposal effectiveness. New CANDU spent fuel disposal concepts obtained in this study seem to improve thermal effectiveness, U-density, disposal area, excavation volume, and closure material volume up to 30 - 40 %.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.255-258
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• 2022

Three government bodies, that is, the Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIT), Ministry of Trade, Industry, and Energy (MOTIE), and Nuclear Safety and Security (NSSC), jointly established the Institute for Korea Spent Nuclear Fuel (iKSNF) in December 2020 to secure the management technologies for spent nuclear fuel (SNF). The objective of iKSNF is to successfully conduct the long-term research and development program of the 「Development of Core Technologies to Ensure Safety of Spent Nuclear Fuel Storage and Disposal System」. Our program, known as the first multi-ministry program in the nuclear field of Korea, mainly focuses on developing core technologies required for the long-term management of SNF, including those for safe storage and deep geological disposal of SNF. The program comprises three subprograms and seven key projects covering the storage, disposal, and regulatory sectors of SNF management. Our program will last from 2021 through 2029, with a budget of approximately four billion USD sponsored by MSIT, MOTIE, and NSSC.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.287-297
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• 2014

For several decades, many countries operating nuclear power plants have been studying the various disposal alternatives to dispose of the spent nuclear fuel or high-level radioactive waste safely. In this paper, as a direct disposal of spent nuclear fuels for deep geological disposal concept, the rod consolidation from spent fuel assembly for the disposal efficiency was considered and analyzed. To do this, a concept of spent fuel rod consolidation was described and the related concepts of disposal canister and disposal system were reviewed. With these concepts, several thermal analyses were carried out to determine whether the most important requirement of the temperature limit for a buffer material was satisfiedin designing an engineered barrier of a deep geological disposal system. Based on the results of thermal analyses, the deposition hole distance, disposal tunnel spacing and heat release area of a disposal canister were reviewed. And the unit disposal areas for each case were calculated and the disposal efficiencies were evaluated. This evaluation showed that the rod consolidation of spent nuclear fuel had no advantages in terms of disposal efficiency. In addition, the cooling time of spent nuclear fuels from nuclear power plant were reviewed. It showed that the disposal efficiency for the consolidated spent fuel rods could be improved in the case that cooling time was 70 years or more. But, the integrity of fuels and other conditions due to the longer term storage before disposal should be analyzed.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.39-50
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• 1997

Reference concepts for the disposal of spent nuclear fuel and the current status of underground rock laboratory were studied. An analysis to simulate the deep disposal of spent nuclear fuel in saturated rock mass was conducted. Main input parameters for numerical study were determined based on the KBS-3 concept. A series of results showed that the temperature distribution around a cavern reached the maximum value at about 10 years after the emplacement of spent fuel. The maximum temperature at the surface of canister was more than about 12$0^{\circ}C$ at about 4 years. This temperature was not much higher than the temperature criteria to meet the performance criteria of an artificial barrier in the KBS-3 concept. The maximum upward displacement due to the heat generation of spent fuel was about 0.9cm at about 10 years after the emplacement of spent fuel. It turned out that the vertical displacement became smaller with the decrease in heat generation of a canister. The quantity of groundwater inflow into a disposal tunnel increased by about 1.6 times at 20 years after the emplacement of spent fuel with the increase of pore pressure around a cavern.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.435-446
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• 2021

This article examines the consequences of a significant spent fuel management decision or event in the United States, South Korea and Taiwan. For the United States, it is the financial impact of the Department of Energy's inability to take possession of spent fuel from commercial nuclear power companies beginning in 1998 as directed by Congress. For South Korea, it is the potential financial and socioeconomic impact of the successful construction, licensing and operation of a low and intermediate level waste disposal facility on the siting of a spent fuel/high level waste repository. For Taiwan, it is the operational impact of the Kuosheng 1 reactor running out of space in its spent fuel pool. From these, it draws six broad lessons other countries new to, or preparing for, nuclear energy production might take from these experiences. These include conservative planning, treating the back-end of the fuel cycle holistically and building trust through a step-by-step approach to waste disposal.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.31 no.6
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• pp.23-38
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• 1999

This study addresses the reference spent fuel and its characteristics for developing a geological repository concept. As a disposal capacity of the reference repository system to be developed, spent fuel inventories were projected based on the basis of the Nuclear Energy Plan of the Long-term National Power Program. The reference spent fuel encompassing a variability in characteristics of all existing and future spent fuels of interest was defined. Key parameters in the reference fuel screening processes were the nuclear and mechanical design parameters and the burnup histories for existing spent fuels as of 1996 and for future spent fuels with the more extended burnup the initial enrichment and its expected turnup. The selected reference fuel was characterized in terms of initial enrichment, bumup, dimension, gross weight and age. Also the isotopic composition and the radiological properties are quantitatively identified. This information provided in this study could be used as input for repository system development and performance assessment and applied in fuel material balance evaluation for the various types of back-end fuel cycle studies.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 1997.10a
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• pp.617-620
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• 1997

In this paper, the thermal stress analysis of spent nuclear fuel disposal canister in a deep repository at 500m underground is done for the underground pressure variation. Since the nuclear fuel disposal usually emits much heat and radiation, its careful treatment is required. And so a long term safe repository at a deep bedrock is used. Under this situation, the canister experiences some mechanical external loads such as hydrostatic pressure of underground water, swelling pressure of bentonite buffer, and the thermal load due to the heat generation of spent nuclear fuel in the basket etc.. Hence, the canister should be designed to designed to withstand these loads. In this paper, the thermal stress analysis is done using the finite element analysis code, NISA.