DOE-Owned Spent Nuclear Fuel Strategic Plan

2.0 MISSION OF THE SPENT NUCLEAR FUEL PROGRAM

3.0 VISION OF THE FUTURE - YEAR 2006

4.0 SITUATION ANALYSIS
4.1 Program Status
4.1.1 DOE-owned SNF Inventory: Locations and Amounts
4.2 NEPA Activities
4.3 Spent Nuclear Fuel Vulnerabilities
4.4 Key Issues and Activities in Spent Nuclear Fuel Management
4.5 Receipt of Foreign Research Reactor Spent Nuclear Fuel
4.6 Stakeholder Analysis
4.7 Master Logic Site Summary Diagram and Schedule

5.0 OBJECTIVES
OBJECTIVE 1: Achieve Safe, Secure Interim Dry Storage of DOE-owned SNF and, Where Practical, Have it in a Form Ready to be Transported for Geologic Disposal
OBJECTIVE 2: Complete Resolution of Vulnerabilities for DOE-owned SNF
OBJECTIVE 3: In Cooperation With RW, Direct the Preparation of DOE-owned SNF for Geologic Disposal
OBJECTIVE 4: Maintain an Established, Effective Decision-Making Process
Attachment A: DOE-owned SNF Strategic Plan Revision History

LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1. DOE-owned SNF Inventory: Locations and Amounts
Figure 2. SNF NEPA Activities
Figure 3. Projected Progress on SNF Vulnerabilities, 1996-2005
Figure 4. Foreign Research Reactor SNF Acceptance Policy
Figure 5. SNF Program Site Logic Diagram
Figure 6. SNF Program Summary Master Logic Schedule

LIST OF ACRONYMS
DNFSB Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board
DOE Department of Energy
EA Environmental Assessment
EM Office of Environmental Management
EIS Environmental Impact Statement
FRR Foreign Research Reactor
HEU Highly Enriched Uranium
HLW High-Level Waste
INEL Idaho National Engineering Laboratory
MTHM Metric tons of heavy metal
NDA Non-destructive Assay
NEPA National Environmental Policy Act
NRC Nuclear Regulatory Commission
PUREX Plutonium Uranium Recovery Extraction
RCRA Resource Conservation and Recovery Act
ROD Record of Decision
RW Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management
SNF Spent Nuclear Fuel
SRS Savannah River Site
TRIGA Training, Research, Isotopes, General Atomic

1.0 Introduction

The Department of Energy (DOE) is responsible for safely and efficiently managing DOE-owned spent nuclear fuel (SNF) and SNF returned to the United States from foreign research reactors (FRR). The fuel will be treated where necessary, packaged suitable for repository disposal where practicable, and placed in interim dry storage. These actions will remove remaining vulnerabilities, make as much spent fuel as possible ready for ultimate disposition, and substantially reduce the cost of continued storage. The goal is to complete these actions in 10 years.

1.1 Spent Nuclear Fuel

SNF is fuel that has been withdrawn from a nuclear reactor following irradiation, the constituent elements of which have not been separated. The DOE-owned SNF inventory also includes uranium/neptunium target materials, blanket assemblies, and pieces of fuel and debris. The DOE inventory consists of approximately 1210 cubic meters, or 2700 metric tons of heavy metal (MTHM). Currently, most DOE-owned SNF is stored at the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory (INEL) in Idaho, the Hanford Site in Washington state, the Savannah River Site (SRS) in South Carolina, the Fort St. Vrain facility in Colorado, and the West Valley Demonstration Project in New York. See section 4.1.1 for further discussion of DOE-owned SNF.

1.2 Purpose of This Strategic Plan

This SNF Strategic Plan updates the mission, vision, objectives, and strategies for the management of DOE-owned SNF articulated by the SNF Strategic Plan issued in December 1994. The plan describes the remaining issues facing the EM SNF Program, lays out strategies for addressing these issues, and identifies "success criteria" by which program progress is measured. The objectives and strategies in this plan are consistent with the following EM principles described by the Assistant Secretary in his June 1996 initiative to establish a 10-year time horizon for achieving most program objectives:

1. eliminate and manage the most serious risks;
   
2. reduce mortgage and support costs to free up funds for further risk reduction;
3. protect worker health and safety;
   
4. reduce generation of wastes;
   
5. create a collaborative relationship between DOE and its regulators and stakeholders;
   
6. focus technology development on cost and risk reduction; and
   
7. strengthen management and financial control.

2.0 Mission of the Spent Nuclear Fuel Program

Our mission is to safely and efficiently manage DOE-owned spent nuclear fuel and prepare it for disposal.

In completing this mission, the program will protect the environment and the health and safety of workers and the public, while fully complying with applicable Federal, State, Tribal, and local laws, orders, and regulations, and working with stakeholders.

3.0 Vision of the Future - Year 2006

The Department will have made a successful concerted effort to prepare for the ultimate geologic disposition of DOE-owned spent nuclear fuel. As a result, the Department, in close consultation with its stakeholders, will have by the year 2006:

• any needed dry handling facilities and dry storage facilities in place, and the majority of the DOE-owned SNF transferred to dry storage;

• prepared the SNF for disposition in a geologic repository;

• processed in the canyons at Savannah River all the degraded fuel and targets approved for such processing

• resolved or eliminated vulnerabilities identified in Plans of Action to Resolve SNF Vulnerabilities;

• successfully safeguarded highly enriched uranium from foreign research reactors that could be used to manufacture nuclear weapons; and thus

• accomplished its mission.

4.0 Situation Analysis

4.1 Program Status

In 1992, the Secretary of Energy directed the Assistant Secretary for Environmental Management to develop an integrated, long-term SNF management program that would consolidate the management of DOE-owned SNF. This directive resulted from a 1992 DOE decision to phase out reprocessing of DOE SNF to recover strategic materials. The Office of Spent Fuel Management was created and given responsibility for planning and coordinating of activities relating to the management of DOE-owned SNF. INEL was established as the lead laboratory for the National Spent Fuel Program.

The Office of Spent Fuel Management (EM-67) is part of the Office of Nuclear Material and Facility Stabilization (EM-60) and is responsible for establishing the overall guidance and top-level program direction. Line organizations have detailed implementation responsibility. The Office of Environmental Management works closely with the Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management (RW), which is responsible for managing the program for ultimate disposition of civilian SNF, DOE-owned SNF, and high-level waste (HLW).

4.1.1 DOE-owned SNF Inventory: Locations and Amounts

Ninety-two percent (by volume) of DOE-owned SNF is stored in facilities at five locations: the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory (47 percent); Hanford, Washington (19 percent); Savannah River Site, South Carolina (13 percent); Fort St. Vrain in Colorado (12 percent); and West Valley Demonstration Project, New York (1 percent). The remainder is stored at several other facilities, including Oak Ridge, Tennessee; Brookhaven, New York; Los Alamos and Sandia National Laboratories, New Mexico; and at several university reactors (see Figure 1).

Figure 1. DOE-owned SNF Inventory: Locations and Amounts

In addition to the existing inventory of DOE-owned SNF, DOE will accept responsibility for some SNF from foreign research reactors that use enriched uranium of U.S. origin, and from Naval reactors, U.S. research reactors, and other government reactors. This additional SNF to be managed by DOE through 2035 will amount to 76 percent by volume (an increase of 925.8 cubic meters), or less than 3 percent by weight (an increase of 76.2 MTHM), of the inventory that exists today.

The majority of SNF is currently stored in water-filled fuel basins at DOE facilities. Some of these wet storage facilities were constructed as long ago as the 1940s and do not meet current commercial or DOE nuclear storage standards. More recently constructed facilities incorporate preferred wet storage technology such as stainless steel-lined pools and encapsulation of corroded fuel to isolate it from storage water. DOE has employed a variety of dry storage designs. Assessments of dry storage indicate it results in fewer environmental, safety, and health vulnerabilities and has much lower operating costs than current wet storage methods. Consequently, DOE plans to move its SNF currently in wet storage to new dry storage facilities.

4.2 NEPA Activities

DOE makes key policy decisions under a process established by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). In June 1995, DOE issued the Record of Decision on the Department of Energy Programmatic Spent Nuclear Fuel Management and Idaho National Engineering Laboratory Environmental Restoration and Waste Management Programs Environmental Impact Statement, which called for the regionalization by fuel type of existing and newly-generated spent nuclear fuel at three Department of Energy sites. This Record of Decision was revised in February 1996 to address SNF shipments to and from the state of Idaho as specified in a U.S. District Court-issued Consent Order on October 17, 1995.

DOE-owned SNF will be regionalized as indicated below:

• Hanford production reactor SNF and fuel not requiring treatment will remain at Hanford; sodium-bonded Fast Flux Test Reactor fuel will be shipped to INEL for treatment.

• Naval fuel will be shipped to INEL for examination and interim storage.

• Non-aluminum clad fuels will be consolidated at INEL. This excludes the fuel that is currently in storage at the Fort St. Vrain, Colorado, facility.

• Aluminum-clad fuels will be consolidated at SRS.

The SNF Program also is affected by activities being carried out by other DOE programs (see Figure 2). RW is responsible for managing programs for the safe disposal of the Nation's civilian SNF including HLW and DOE-owned SNF. RW is conducting site characterization activities and planning environmental reviews with regard to the suitability of the Yucca Mountain, Nevada, site as a geologic repository. RW SNF management decisions will affect EM SNF management decisions in many areas, including waste acceptance criteria, priorities and gross quantities of DOE SNF for disposal, and canister design standardization requirements.

4.3 Spent Nuclear Fuel Vulnerabilities

The November 1993 Spent Fuel Working Group Report on Inventory and Storage of the Department's Spent Nuclear Fuel and Other Reactor Irradiated Nuclear Materials and their Environmental, Safety and Health Vulnerabilities identified 106 environmental, safety, and health vulnerabilities associated with the storage of DOE-owned SNF throughout the complex. The report identified conditions that could lead to the unnecessary exposure of the workers to radiation, or to the release of radioactive materials to the environment at SNF sites and facilities. None of the vulnerabilities were found to pose an immediate threat to workers, the public, or the environment. However, 33 of the identified vulnerabilities at five DOE facilities and three burial grounds required priority management attention to avoid unnecessary increases in worker radiation exposure and cost during cleanup. These included three facilities at Hanford, two facilities at SRS, two facilities at Oak Ridge, and one at INEL.

Figure 2. SNF NEPA Activities

EM responded to the report in February, April, and October 1994 by publishing a comprehensive, three-phased "Plan of Action to Resolve Spent Nuclear Fuel Vulnerabilities" to address and resolve the identified vulnerabilities. To date, DOE has completed approximately 300 of the 500 planned individual corrective actions. As of July 1996, 47 of the 106 vulnerabilities had been resolved, including 15 of the 33 vulnerabilities that required priority management attention. Five facilities have resolved all vulnerabilities: the Brookhaven National Laboratory High Flux Beam Reactor; the PUREX facility and the 308 Building Annex (TRIGA Reactor) at Hanford; and the Homogeneous Reactor Experiment Wells and the Tower Shielding Reactor at Oak Ridge. Figure 3 portrays projected progress on the vulnerabilities through the year 2005.

4.4 Key Issues and Activities in Spent Nuclear Fuel Management

The primary policy issue facing the DOE SNF program is determining how DOE-owned fuel should be managed (characterized, treated, packaged, stored) until disposed of in a geologic repository. Aspects of this issue include:

• Determining how each type of DOE-owned SNF is to be disposed.

• Obtaining Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) technical review and input on the suitability of interim storage and disposition plans for highly enriched uranium (HEU) spent fuel.

• Resolving RCRA concerns relative to disposal of a small number of DOE-owned fuel types (e.g., sodium bonded fuel).

Also of great importance to the program is the need to define characterization requirements for disposal of DOE-owned SNF so as to minimize the cost. Several initiatives, described below, are being pursued to minimize the amount of characterization of DOE-owned SNF

1. Review of existing data at the major sites for DOE-owned SNF to give a better understanding of what is available and which fuels/fuel types might have problems relative to the availability or qualification of data.

2. EM and RW are collaboratively working on grouping the SNF to enable the selection of conservative bounding conditions, thereby avoiding the costly and destructive examination characterization of several fuels. A draft groupings report is to be issued in September 1996.

3. Non-Destructive Assay (NDA) techniques are being evaluated to obtain information on the fuel, such as on the fissile and isotopic content.

4.5 Receipt of Foreign Research Reactor Spent Nuclear Fuel

The Record of Decision on a Nuclear Weapons Nonproliferation Policy Concerning Foreign Research Reactor Spent Nuclear Fuel was issued by the Department of Energy on May 13, 1996. This decision, made in consultation with the Department of State, is to implement a new FRR spent fuel acceptance policy as specified in the Preferred Alternative contained in the Final Environmental Impact Statement on a Proposed Nuclear Weapons Nonproliferation Policy Concerning Foreign Research Reactor Spent Nuclear Fuel (DOE/EIS-218F of February 1996). The purpose of the acceptance policy is to support the broad United States nuclear weapons nonproliferation policy calling for the reduction and eventual elimination of the use of highly enriched (weapons-grade) uranium in civil commerce world wide.

Implementing this policy will involve acceptance of up to approximately 140 cubic meters or 19.8 MTHM of spent fuel and target material from foreign research reactors. The acceptance duration is 13 years from May 13, 1996, and all shipments are contingent on the requirements specified in the Record of Decision. The first shipment will occur as early as September 1996. The aluminum-based SNF and target material (approximately 19 MTHM) will be managed at the SRS and the non-aluminum SNF (approximately 1 MTHM) will be managed at INEL (see Figure 4).

Figure 4. Foreign Research Reactor SNF Acceptance Policy

4.6 Stakeholder Analysis

The Office of Environmental Management is committed to working closely with its stakeholders in planning and implementing its management efforts across the country. One of the Assistant Secretary's seven implementing principles for the program is to "create a collaborative relationship between DOE and its regulators and stakeholders." EM has reached out to regulators and the public at the local, state, and federal levels to engage them in a dialogue regarding program activities and budgeting processes.

A wide range of stakeholder groups and individuals, both inside and outside of DOE, are involved in decisions regarding SNF. These include the general public; Congress; other Federal, State, and local elected officials; environmental groups; Indian tribal governments; national laboratories and research reactor operators; and international parties such as foreign research reactor operators, foreign agencies, and embassy representatives.

Since most program-wide decisions have been completed, emphasis now is on the site-by-site implementation. Stakeholder involvement at the site and individual project levels is being obtained through Site-Specific Advisory Boards and other community forums.

4.7 Master Logic Site Summary Diagram and Schedule

DOE plans to consolidate at three sites a large number of different SNF types currently located at several sites. To manage this consolidation, the SNF Program Site Logic Diagram (Figure 5) and the SNF Program Summary Master Logic Schedule (Figure 6) have been developed. These integral components of the program implementation strategy establish the logic and key milestones for the national program and display the paths leading to the ultimate disposition of DOE-owned SNF. The schedules update the upper-level schedules and summaries in the SNF Program Plan. More detailed site-specific schedules can be obtained from the National Program Office at INEL.

For planning purposes, DOE assumes its SNF will be placed in the geologic repository. The period of time during which DOE must manage its SNF depends upon the activities of RW in characterizing, licensing, and constructing a geologic repository for ultimate disposition of HLW and SNF. The current planning basis is that DOE-owned SNF and vitrified HLW would be placed in the repository beginning in 2015 (5 years after the repository is to become operational), and that transfers to the repository would be completed by the year 2035. However, legislative initiatives and/or budget reductions might result in a revision of the planning basis. This planning basis will be updated in future revisions of this document to reflect available schedule information.

Figure 5 SNF Program Site Logic Diagram - (35K file)
Figure 5 SNF Program Site Logic Diagram - (61K file)

Figure 6 SNF Program Summary Master Logic Schedule - (23K file)
Figure 6 SNF Program Summary Master Logic Schedule - (44K file)

5.0 Objectives

The overall intent of the SNF management program is to achieve an efficient transition from existing storage to fuel disposal. Accordingly, EM has established four program objectives, the attainment of which will constitute the successful implementation of the SNF program. The program objectives are:

OBJECTIVE 1: Achieve Safe, Secure Interim Dry Storage of DOE-owned SNF, and, Where Practical, Have it in a Form Ready to be Transported for Geologic Disposal

Issues:

Some DOE-owned spent fuel is unstable and some of DOE's storage facilities are obsolete or aging. These conditions increase the costs of storage and make it difficult to ready fuel for transport to the geologic repository.

STRATEGY 1.1: Meet requirements for the design, siting, construction, and operation of interim storage facilities

Success Criteria:

• Demonstrate safety equivalency with NRC and national consensus standards for new storage facilities and equipment through independent reviews.

• Minimize schedule delays and budgetary impacts for the development of new interim dry storage using innovative approaches; e.g., through privatization or modular, time-phased procurement approaches.

• Complete appropriate and timely NEPA reviews to support specific decisions for siting, construction, and operation of conditioning and interim storage facilities.

Success Criteria:

• Have SNF prepared to meet interim storage requirements, and packaged and ready for secure transport.

• Undertake initiatives to minimize the cost and time required to characterize DOE-owned SNF.

• Maintain the necessary quality criteria demonstrating placement of fuel in an interim storage facility that complies with all applicable laws, rules, and regulations.

• Implement and supplement, as appropriate, the recommendations of the Research Reactor Task Team Working Group Report.

• Implement and supplement, as appropriate, the recommendations of the INEL Task Team Working Group Report.

• Evaluate co-disposal of highly-enriched SNF with high-level waste in the Defense High-Level Waste packages to achieve cost savings.

Success Criteria:

• Determine and implement requirements to transport SNF to interim storage facilities and minimize the number of shipments, and coordinate cask availability, necessary routes, licensing requirements, approvals and permits, public participation, notification process, protective measures, emergency management, and personnel to perform transport.

• Proceed with shipments of SNF to interim storage facilities.

• Implement a consolidated DOE program for the preparation of safety documentation and certification of transportation packages. Maintain the necessary quality criteria demonstrating that packaging and transportation of fuel complies with all applicable laws, rules, and regulations.

Success Criteria:

• Complete stabilization by chemical separation of the fuel and target material approved for this treatment.

OBJECTIVE 2: Complete Resolution of Vulnerabilities for DOE-owned SNF

Issues:

Environmental, safety, and health vulnerabilities identified by the 1993 SNF Working Group Report still exist in a number of facilities and need to be resolved.

STRATEGY 2.1: Continue implementation of action plans to resolve vulnerabilities

Success Criteria:

• Continue implementation of the corrective action plans and complete activities to resolve vulnerabilities by the dates specified in the action plans.

• Coordinate the Vulnerability Action Plan Tracking System with the EM Nuclear Material Stabilization Task Group tracking and reporting system.

Success Criteria:

• Manage storage facilities and fuel inventories to preclude additional vulnerabilities.

• Comply with conditions identified in agreements with tribal, state, and federal agencies and foreign and domestic entities.

• Continue to consolidate SNF and retire outdated facilities as appropriate.

• Maintain physical protection and material control of all SNF.

OBJECTIVE 3: In Cooperation with RW, Direct the Preparation of DOE-owned SNF for Geologic Disposal

Issues:

DOE-owned spent nuclear fuel has characteristics significantly different from civilian nuclear fuel. These characteristics need to be considered in developing the disposal requirements.

STRATEGY 3.1: In cooperation with RW, determine requirements for disposal of DOE-owned SNF

Success Criteria:

• Establish what DOE-owned SNF can be directly disposed of in a geologic repository.

• Undertake initiatives to minimize the cost and time required to characterize DOE-owned SNF.

Success Criteria:

• Comply with disposal requirements.

• Select appropriate technologies to meet the requirements (conditioning, etc.).

• Complete requirements to transport SNF to a disposal facility, including determining the transport routes; obtaining approvals, licenses and permits; soliciting public participation; completing the notification process, and arranging for cask availability, emergency management, and personnel to perform transport.

• Support the completion of appropriate NEPA reviews to support decisions for selection, siting, construction, and operation of conditioning technologies for disposal.

• Develop and maintain the necessary quality criteria, demonstrating that fuel complies with all disposal requirements.

• Develop and maintain the necessary quality criteria demonstrating that packaging and handling of fuel complies with all disposal requirements for transportation.

• Proceed with shipments of SNF to a disposal facility.

OBJECTIVE 4: Maintain an Established, Effective Decision-Making Process

Issue:

The Office of Spent Fuel Management has established a decision-making system, and is now faced with the challenge of maintaining and adapting it to changing program circumstances.

STRATEGY 4.1: Maintain SNF Program roles and responsibilities

Success Criteria:

• Maintain and expand established working relationships between EM and the DOE Offices of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management, Defense Programs, Nuclear Energy, and Energy Research regarding the management of SNF.

• Implement the responsibility assignment matrix and work breakdown structure given in the SNF Program Plan.

Success Criteria:

• Implement issued NEPA documents that fully evaluate all reasonable SNF management options on a programmatic and site-specific level.

• Continue to establish requirements and ensure an integrated, complex-wide SNF Program.

• Continue to utilize technical working groups, management coordination groups, and executive committees that meet on a schedule designed to reflect a team approach to making timely decisions.

Success Criteria:

• Implement and supplement, as appropriate, the Programmatic SNF Environmental Impact Statement Record of Decision.

• Maintain, implement, and supplement, as appropriate, SNF Program planning documentation, including the Strategic Plan, Program Plan, Interim Storage Plan, and Technology Integration Plan.

• Maintain and update as a key planning tool the Master Logic Schedule that depicts the sequence of key SNF Program activities.

• Maintain, implement, and supplement, as appropriate, the quality assurance program that describes the plans and actions essential to assure that quality is achieved in compliance with established requirements.

• Continue to maintain and enhance the complex-wide SNF database that contains information on the quantity, condition, type, location, origin, and enrichment of all fuel within the DOE-owned inventory, and SNF storage facilities.

Success Criteria:

• Provide effective liaison with key stakeholders, maintaining a timely, credible, and proactive dialogue, explaining achievements and displaying program progress, and, as occurring, management actions planned to alleviate problems.

• Meet EM correspondence, congressional testimony, and Congressional Question & Answer (internal) deadlines with high-quality products.

Success Criteria:

• Maintain and implement the complex-wide Programmatic SNF Environmental Impact Statement of April 1995 and Record of Decision of June 1995, which was modified in February 1996. Prepare site-specific and other NEPA reviews derived from this Programmatic SNF EIS as appropriate.

• Continue to meet DOE NEPA commitments from issuance of the Foreign Research Reactor Environmental Impact Statement of February 1996 and Record of Decision of May 1996.

• Implement approach consistent with DOE policy for new interim SNF storage facilities. Demonstrate approach by completion of the TMI-2 dry storage NRC facility licensing.

Attachment A