Opening the International Atomic Energy Agency’s International Conference on the Management of Spent Fuel from Nuclear Power Reactors, IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said: “The moment requires us to be laser focused on all the spent fuel issues that need to be discussed, ranging from repositories to transportation, and all the other topics that will be represented here.”
The conference has been held approximately once every four years since 1987 and this year focuses on national strategies for managing spent fuel, including from advanced technologies such as small modular reactors (SMRs). “The increase that we are going to see in nuclear activity will lead to an increase in the volume of spent fuel that needs to be reprocessed or stored, which means that we need to as a community, as an industry, as regulators, provide the necessary answers,” Grossi noted.
Of the world’s 430 000 tonnes of used fuel, 30% has already been reprocessed for recycling, while the remainder is safely stored in either wet or dry storage systems ahead of eventual disposal in an underground repository or for future recycling. The high level waste resulting from reprocessing is safely stored awaiting eventual disposal in an underground repository too.
Grossi told the conference that used fuel is generated at a rate of approximately 10 000 tonnes a year, and new forms of used fuel from planned innovative reactors may require adjusting current technologies or developing new ones.
Amparo Gonzalez Espartero, the IAEA’s Technical Lead for Spent Fuel Management and Co-Scientific Secretary of the conference, said: “Spent nuclear fuel has been successfully managed for many decades, and while the established practices are safe and effective, it is important for the nuclear power community to be adaptive as the energy landscape evolves.”
He added: “It is vital that all countries with spent fuel management responsibilities, current and future, proactively meet the moment, and this conference represents a great opportunity to share lessons learned and discuss innovative techniques as well as their potential integration in the current programmes.”
The week-long conference will consist of panel sessions on national strategies, innovation including how new technologies can be integrated into current spent fuel management strategies, and stakeholder engagement as well as technical sessions on topics including storage, recycling (current and future technologies), transportation, the impacts of advanced energy systems and integrated management of spent fuel.
