Download or read book Performance Modeling Activities in the Used Fuel Disposition Campaign written by and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page 19 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Features Events and Processes for the Used Fuel Disposition Campaign written by and published by . This book was released on 2010 with total page 8 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Used Fuel Disposition (UFD) Campaign within DOE-NE is evaluating storage and disposal options for a range of waste forms and a range of geologic environments. To assess the potential performance of conceptual repository designs for the combinations of waste form and geologic environment, a master set of Features, Events, and Processes (FEPs) has been developed and evaluated. These FEPs are based on prior lists developed by the Yucca Mountain Project (YMP) and the international repository community. The objective of the UFD FEPs activity is to identify and categorize FEPs that are important to disposal system performance for a variety of disposal alternatives (i.e., combinations of waste forms, disposal concepts, and geologic environments). FEP analysis provides guidance for the identification of (1) important considerations in disposal system design, and (2) gaps in the technical bases. The UFD FEPs also support the development of performance assessment (PA) models to evaluate the long-term performance of waste forms in the engineered and geologic environments of candidate disposal system alternatives. For the UFD FEP development, five waste form groups and seven geologic settings are being considered. A total of 208 FEPs have been identified, categorized by the physical components of the waste disposal system as well as cross-cutting physical phenomena. The combination of 35 waste-form/geologic environments and 208 FEPs is large; however, some FEP evaluations can cut across multiple waste/environment combinations, and other FEPs can be categorized as not-applicable for some waste/environment combinations, making the task of FEP evaluation more tractable. A FEP status tool has been developed to document progress. The tool emphasizes three major areas that can be statused numerically. FEP Applicability documents whether the FEP is pertinent to a waste/environment combination. FEP Completion Status documents the progress of the evaluation for the FEP/waste/environment combination. FEP Importance documents the potential importance for the FEP/waste/environment combination to repository performance.

Download or read book Used Fuel Disposition Research and Development Roadmap FY10 Status written by and published by . This book was released on 2010 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since 1987 the U.S. has focused research and development activities relevant to the disposal of commercial used nuclear fuel and U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) owned spent nuclear fuel and high level waste on the proposed repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. At the same time, the U.S. successfully deployed a deep geologic disposal facility for defense-related transuranic waste in bedded salt at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant. In 2009 the DOE established the Used Fuel Disposition Campaign (UFDC) within the Office of Nuclear Energy. The Mission of the UFDC 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 U.S. national laboratories have participated on these programs and has conducted research and development related to these issues to a limited extent. However, a comprehensive research and development (R & D) program investigating a variety of geologic media has not been a part of the U.S. waste management program since the mid 1980s. Such a comprehensive R & D program is being developed in the UFDC with a goal of meeting the UFDC Grand Challenge to provide a sound technical basis for absolute confidence in the safety and security of long-term storage, transportation, and disposal of used nuclear fuel and wastes from the nuclear energy enterprise. The DOE has decided to no longer pursue the development of a repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. Since a repository site will ultimately have to be selected, sited, characterized, designed, and licensed, other disposal options must now be considered. In addition to the unsaturated volcanic tuff evaluated at Yucca Mountain, several different geologic media are under investigation internationally and preliminary assessments indicate that disposal of used nuclear fuel and high level waste in these media is feasible. Considerable progress has been made in the U.S. and other nations in understanding disposal concepts in different geologic media, but gaps in knowledge still exist. A principal aspect of concern to the UFDC as it considers the broad issues of siting a repository in different geologic media are the marked differences in the regulatory bases for assessing suitability and safety of a repository between the U.S. and other nations. Because the probability based - risked informed nature of the current U.S. regulations for high-level radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel is sufficiently different from other regulations, information gained in previous studies, while useful, likely need to be supplemented to enable more convincing communication with the public, better defense of the numerical models, and stronger safety cases. Thus, it was recognized when the UFDC was established that there were readily identified disposal-related R & D opportunities to address knowledge gaps. An effort to document these research opportunities was a key component of Fiscal Year (FY) 2010 engineered system, natural system, and system-level modeling activities for a range of disposal environments. A principal contribution to identifying these gaps was a workshop held to gather perspectives from experts both within and external to the UFDC regarding R & D opportunities. In the planning for FY2010 it was expected that these activities would culminate with a UFDC research and development roadmap that would identify the knowledge gaps, discuss the R & D needed to fill these gaps, and prioritize the proposed R & D over both the near- and long-term. A number of knowledge gaps and needed R & D were identified and are discussed in this report. However, these preliminary R & D topics have not been evaluated in detail nor have they been prioritized to support future planning efforts. This will be completed in FY11 and the final UFDC Research and Development Roadmap will be completed. This report discusses proposed R & D topics in three areas related to repository siting, design, and performance: natural systems, engineered systems, and overall disposal system. The intent of this report is to consolidate the proposed R & D topics to support subsequent discussions among UFDC and external expertise to identify additional R & D needs and to prioritize these needs, leading to the development for the UFDC Research and Development Roadmap.

Download or read book Radiolysis Model Formulation for Integration with the Mixed Potential Model written by and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page 32 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The U.S. Department of Energy Office of Nuclear Energy (DOE-NE), Office of Fuel Cycle Technology has established the Used Fuel Disposition Campaign (UFDC) to conduct the research and development activities related to storage, transportation, and disposal of used nuclear fuel (UNF) and high-level radioactive waste. Within the UFDC, the components for a general system model of the degradation and subsequent transport of UNF is being developed to analyze the performance of disposal options [Sassani and others, 2012]. Two model components of the near-field part of the problem are the ANL Mixed Potential Model and the PNNL Radiolysis Model. This report is in response to the desire to integrate the two models as outlined in [Buck, E.C, J.L. Jerden, W.L. Ebert, R.S. Wittman, (2013) ?Coupling the Mixed Potential and Radiolysis Models for Used Fuel Degradation,? FCRD-UFD-2013-000290, M3FT-PN0806058].

Download or read book Used Fuel Disposition Campaign written by and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page 24 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Modeling Coupled Processes in Clay Formations for Radioactive Waste Disposal written by and published by . This book was released on 2010 with total page 62 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As a result of the termination of the Yucca Mountain Project, the United States Department of Energy (DOE) has started to explore various alternative avenues for the disposition of used nuclear fuel and nuclear waste. The overall scope of the investigation includes temporary storage, transportation issues, permanent disposal, various nuclear fuel types, processing alternatives, and resulting waste streams. Although geologic disposal is not the only alternative, it is still the leading candidate for permanent disposal. The realm of geologic disposal also offers a range of geologic environments that may be considered, among those clay shale formations. Figure 1-1 presents the distribution of clay/shale formations within the USA. Clay rock/shale has been considered as potential host rock for geological disposal of high-level nuclear waste throughout the world, because of its low permeability, low diffusion coefficient, high retention capacity for radionuclides, and capability to self-seal fractures induced by tunnel excavation. For example, Callovo-Oxfordian argillites at the Bure site, France (Fouche et al., 2004), Toarcian argillites at the Tournemire site, France (Patriarche et al., 2004), Opalinus clay at the Mont Terri site, Switzerland (Meier et al., 2000), and Boom clay at Mol site, Belgium (Barnichon et al., 2005) have all been under intensive scientific investigations (at both field and laboratory scales) for understanding a variety of rock properties and their relations with flow and transport processes associated with geological disposal of nuclear waste. Clay/shale formations may be generally classified as indurated and plastic clays (Tsang et al., 2005). The latter (including Boom clay) is a softer material without high cohesion; its deformation is dominantly plastic. For both clay rocks, coupled thermal, hydrological, mechanical and chemical (THMC) processes are expected to have a significant impact on the long-term safety of a clay repository. For example, the excavation-damaged zone (EDZ) near repository tunnels can modify local permeability (resulting from induced fractures), potentially leading to less confinement capability (Tsang et al., 2005). Because of clay's swelling and shrinkage behavior (depending on whether the clay is in imbibition or drainage processes), fracture properties in the EDZ are quite dynamic and evolve over time as hydromechanical conditions change. To understand and model the coupled processes and their impact on repository performance is critical for the defensible performance assessment of a clay repository. Within the Natural Barrier System (NBS) group of the Used Fuel Disposition (UFD) Campaign at DOE's Office of Nuclear Energy, LBNL's research activities have focused on understanding and modeling such coupled processes. LBNL provided a report in this April on literature survey of studies on coupled processes in clay repositories and identification of technical issues and knowledge gaps (Tsang et al., 2010). This report will document other LBNL research activities within the natural system work package, including the development of constitutive relationships for elastic deformation of clay rock (Section 2), a THM modeling study (Section 3) and a THC modeling study (Section 4). The purpose of the THM and THC modeling studies is to demonstrate the current modeling capabilities in dealing with coupled processes in a potential clay repository. In Section 5, we discuss potential future R & D work based on the identified knowledge gaps. The linkage between these activities and related FEPs is presented in Section 6.

Download or read book Energy and Water Development Appropriations for 2011 Part 7 2010 111 2 Hearings written by and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page 712 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Energy and Water Development Appropriations for 2011 Dept of Energy Nuclear energy Secretary of Energy written by United States. Congress. House. Committee on Appropriations. Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development and published by . This book was released on 2010 with total page 712 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Problem Specification for FY12 Modeling of UNF During Extended Storage written by and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Nuclear Energy Advanced Modeling and Simulation (NEAMS) program of the Advanced Modeling and Simulation Office (AMSO) of the US Department of Energy, Office of Nuclear Energy (DOE/NE) has invested in the initial extension and application of advanced nuclear simulation tools to address relevant needs in evaluating the performance of used nuclear fuel (UNF) during extended periods of dry storage. There are many significant challenges associated with the prediction of the behavior of used fuel during extended periods of dry storage and subsequent transportation. The initial activities are focused on integrating with the Used Fuel Disposition (UFD) Campaign of the DOE/NE and a demonstration that the Advanced Multi-Physics (AMP) Nuclear Fuel Performance code (AMPFuel) for modeling the mechanical state of the cladding after decades of storage. This initial focus will model the long-term storage of the UNF and account for the effect, and generation, of radially and circumferentially oriented hydride precipitates within the cladding and predict the end of storage (EOS) mechanical state (stress, strain) of the cladding. Predicting the EOS state of the cladding is significant because it (1) provides an estimate of the margin to failure of the cladding during nominal storage operation and it (2) establishes the initial state of the fuel for post-storage transportation. Because there are significant uncertainties associated with the storage conditions, hydride precipitate formation, and the beginning of storage (BOS) condition of the UNF, this will also allow for the development of a rigorous capability to evaluate the relative sensitivities of the uncertainties and can help to guide the experimental and analysis efforts of the UFD Campaign. This document is focused on specifying the problem that will be solved with AMPFuel. An associated report, documents the specifics of the constitutive model that will be developed and implemented in AMPFuel to account for the presence and predict the generation of the hydride precipitates. This report satisfies the deliverable for the DOE Office of Nuclear Energy, Advanced Modeling and Simulation Office, milestone M3MS-12OR0605083, 'Definition of Problem Specification, ' which defines the problem to be solved that will satisfy milestone M2MS-12OR0605081, 'Demonstration of the Advanced Multi-Physics (AMP) Nuclear Fuel Performance code for modeling UFD.' This document should provide sufficient detail to model a high burnup pressurized water reactor (PWR) fuel rod to provide an estimate of the end of storage (EOS) mechanical state of the cladding. The fuel rod and irradiation history are based on seven cycles of irradiation in the CP and L H.B. Robinson nuclear reactor, which achieved a discharge burnup of 66.682 MWd/kgU. The fuel has been experimentally examined for storage conditions by Argonne National Laboratory for the NRC. In addition, we have compiled a list of key factors that have been shown to strongly influence the EOS state of the fuel and have identified baseline values and ranges of uncertainties that will be considered. The simulations that will be performed have been described in detail and include the modeling assumptions and boundary conditions.

Download or read book Evaluation of Used Fuel Disposition in Clay bearing Rock written by and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page 409 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The R&D program from the DOE Used Fuel Disposition Campaign (UFDC) has documented key advances in coupled Thermal-Hydrological-Mechanical-Chemical (THMC) modeling of clay to simulate its complex dynamic behavior in response to thermal and hydrochemical feedbacks. These efforts have been harnessed to assess the isolation performance of heat-generating nuclear waste in a deep geological repository in clay/shale/argillaceous rock formations. This report describes the ongoing disposal R&D efforts on the advancement and refinement of coupled THMC process models, hydrothermal experiments on barrier clay interactions, used fuel and canister material degradation, thermodynamic database development, and reactive transport modeling of the near-field under non-isothermal conditions. These play an important role to the evaluation of sacrificial zones as part of the EBS exposure to thermally-driven chemical and transport processes. Thermal inducement of chemical interactions at EBS domains enhances mineral dissolution/precipitation but also generates mineralogical changes that result in mineral H2O uptake/removal (hydration/dehydration reactions). These processes can result in volume changes that can affect the interface / bulk phase porosities and the mechanical (stress) state of the bentonite barrier. Characterization studies on bentonite barrier samples from the FEBEX-DP international activity have provided important insight on clay barrier microstructures (e.g., microcracks) and interactions at EBS interfaces. Enhancements to the used fuel degradation model outlines the need to include the effects of canister corrosion due the strong influence of H2 generation on the source term.

Download or read book Energy and Water Development Appropriations for 2016 written by United States. Congress. House. Committee on Appropriations. Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page 1740 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Advances in Geologic Disposal System Modeling and Application to Crystalline Rock written by and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page 172 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Used Fuel Disposition Campaign (UFDC) of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Nuclear Energy (NE), Office of Fuel Cycle Technology (OFCT) is conducting research and development (R&D) on geologic disposal of used nuclear fuel (UNF) and high level nuclear waste (HLW). Two of the high priorities for UFDC disposal R&D are design concept development and disposal system modeling (DOE 2011, Table 6). These priorities are directly addressed in the UFDC Generic Disposal Systems Analysis (GDSA) work package, which is charged with developing a disposal system modeling and analysis capability for evaluating disposal system performance for nuclear waste in geologic media (e.g., salt, granite, clay, and deep borehole disposal). This report describes specific GDSA activities in fiscal year 2016 (FY 2016) toward the development of the enhanced disposal system modeling and analysis capability for geologic disposal of nuclear waste. The GDSA framework employs the PFLOTRAN thermal-hydrologic-chemical multi-physics code (Hammond et al. 2011a; Lichtner and Hammond 2012) and the Dakota uncertainty sampling and propagation code (Adams et al. 2012; Adams et al. 2013). Each code is designed for massively-parallel processing in a high-performance computing (HPC) environment. Multi-physics representations in PFLOTRAN are used to simulate various coupled processes including heat flow, fluid flow, waste dissolution, radionuclide release, radionuclide decay and ingrowth, precipitation and dissolution of secondary phases, and radionuclide transport through engineered barriers and natural geologic barriers to the biosphere. Dakota is used to generate sets of representative realizations and to analyze parameter sensitivity.

Download or read book Geologic Repository for Disposal of Spent Nuclear Fuel and High level Radioactive Waste at Yucca Mountain written by and published by . This book was released on 1999 with total page 928 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Transportation of Used Fuel written by and published by . This book was released on 1992 with total page 2 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book DR Argillite Disposal R D at LBNL written by and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Within the Natural Barrier System (NBS) group of the Used Fuel Disposition (UFD) Campaign at the Department of Energy's (DOE) Office of Nuclear Energy LBNL's research activities have focused on understanding and modeling EDZ evolution and the associated coupled processes and impacts of high temperature on parameters and processes relevant to performance of a clay repository to establish the technical base for the maximum allowable temperature. This report documents results from some of these activities. These activities address key Features, Events, and Processes (FEPs), which have been ranked in importance from medium to high, as listed in Table 7 of the Used Fuel Disposition Campaign Disposal Research and Development Roadmap (FCR & D-USED-2011-000065 REV0) (Nutt, 2011). Specifically, they address FEP 2.2.01, Excavation Disturbed Zone, for clay/shale, by investigating how coupled processes affect EDZ evolution; FEP 2.2.05, Flow and Transport Pathways; and FEP 2.2.08, Hydrologic Processes, and FEP 2.2.07, Mechanical Processes, and FEP 2.2.09, Chemical Process--Transport, by studying near-field coupled THMC processes in clay/shale repositories. The activities documented in this report also address a number of research topics identified in Research & Development (R & D) Plan for Used Fuel Disposition Campaign (UFDC) Natural System Evaluation and Tool Development (Wang 2011), including Topics S3, Disposal system modeling - Natural System; P1, Development of discrete fracture network (DFN) model; P14, Technical basis for thermal loading limits; and P15 Modeling of disturbed rock zone (DRZ) evolution (clay repository).

Download or read book Energy and Water Development Appropriations for 2015 Department of Energy Environmental Management FY 2015 budget applied energy funding FY 2015 budget science FY 2015 budget written by United States. Congress. House. Committee on Appropriations. Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page 1564 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Energy and Water Development Appropriations for 2017 written by United States. Congress. House. Committee on Appropriations. Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page 1716 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: