Yes, saving and then re-using spent fuel is a good idea. Holtec has a good solution. But it's a lot easier to reprocess spent fuel once the gamma radiation from fission products decays to low levels. Here's a link to an article explaining this. https://hargraves.substack.com/p/benign-nuclear-for-a-prosperous-temperate
For now, there's MUCH MORE U238 available in the tailings of the uranium left over from removing U235 for today's LWRs. And it's not (very) radioactive and it's easily handled. That's the Natrium strategy. We need experience with fast reactors that use ample U238.
Thanks, Robert. FWIW most of the US used fuel is well beyond 10yrs DSC storage and is well less than 0.5% of it's original CI content coming out of the reactor. With the dose rate for a 10-foot used fuel bundle still registering around 50 rem/hour at 100 feet, I'm convinced that an updated, lessons-learned design from our reprocessing canyons at Savannah River and Hanford could be constructed in within a decade. If we have to parse the French designs, then so be it.
The problem I have with Holtec is their CISF "solution" to store 100,000 MTHM in the middle of four salt playas at a facility with no hot cell, because CISCC is actually a real thing. Both Holtec and ISP have sited their facilities atop the Salado formation, which holds an abundance of surface deposits of the most effective agent to attack and destroy SST.
Yes, saving and then re-using spent fuel is a good idea. Holtec has a good solution. But it's a lot easier to reprocess spent fuel once the gamma radiation from fission products decays to low levels. Here's a link to an article explaining this. https://hargraves.substack.com/p/benign-nuclear-for-a-prosperous-temperate
For now, there's MUCH MORE U238 available in the tailings of the uranium left over from removing U235 for today's LWRs. And it's not (very) radioactive and it's easily handled. That's the Natrium strategy. We need experience with fast reactors that use ample U238.
Thanks, Robert. FWIW most of the US used fuel is well beyond 10yrs DSC storage and is well less than 0.5% of it's original CI content coming out of the reactor. With the dose rate for a 10-foot used fuel bundle still registering around 50 rem/hour at 100 feet, I'm convinced that an updated, lessons-learned design from our reprocessing canyons at Savannah River and Hanford could be constructed in within a decade. If we have to parse the French designs, then so be it.
The problem I have with Holtec is their CISF "solution" to store 100,000 MTHM in the middle of four salt playas at a facility with no hot cell, because CISCC is actually a real thing. Both Holtec and ISP have sited their facilities atop the Salado formation, which holds an abundance of surface deposits of the most effective agent to attack and destroy SST.