Spanish R&D in dry storage of spent fuel: Outcomes and outlook

The Spanish R&D efforts in dry interim storage of spent nuclear fuel (SNF) are mainly focused on supporting safety under storage and transportation, including intermediate operations. Major actors involved are research entities, academia, the waste management organization and industry. Experimental and modelling activities are carried out to understand and predict the SNF response under the prevailing conditions. Particularly, thermal, chemical, mechanical and neutronics investigations are performed. The main outcomes achieved as well as the outlook in each research line are related to improvements in the characterization of dry stored SNF, due to its essential importance for the safety assessment of the back-end fuel cycle.

Automated summary

The Spanish R&D efforts in dry interim storage of spent nuclear fuel mainly focus on supporting safety under storage and transportation. Experimental and modelling activities are carried out to understand and predict the fuel response, with major outcomes being improvements in the characterization of dry stored fuel, essential for safety assessment of the back-end fuel cycle.