Dry-cask storage: How Germany led the way

Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists

Volumn 65, Issue 5, 2009, Pages 24-32

  Janberg, Klaus ^a   Von Hippel, Frank ^a  

^a NONE

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Indexed keywords

EID: 69549096499     PISSN: 00963402     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.2968/065005003     Document Type: Article

References (3)

1. Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management, Analysis of the Total System Life Cycle Cost of the Civilian Radioactive Waste Management Program, Fiscal Year 2007 , July 2008. Available at www.ocrwm.doe.gov/uploads/files/TSLCC-2007-8-05-08. pdf .
2. In preparation for the license extension for the Surry dry-cask storage facility, one CASTOR filld with spent fuel was transported in 1999 to the Idaho National Laboratory. At the lab, the cask was opened, and its interior was inspected. No degradation of the spent fuel was found. See W. C. Bare and L. D. Torgerson, Dry Cask Storage Characterization Project-Phase 1: CASTOR V/21 Cask Opening and Examination , Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory, August 2001. Available at www.inl.gov/technicalpublications/Documents/3310832.pdf .
3. The internationally agreed surface dose-rate limit for transport casks is 200 millirems per hour--roughly one ten-thousandth the dose rate from unshielded fuel. One kilogram of uranium in fuel typically releases about 50 megawatt-days of heat. Assuming a conversion efficiency of about one-third to electric energy that corresponds to 400,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity. The names for these casks come from Greek mythology. Castor and Pollux were twins fathered by Zeus. While Castor was mortal because his mother was mortal, Pollux was immortal because his mother was a goddess--hence the names for the German interim (CASTOR) and final (Pollux) disposal canisters.