Feasibility Study for Dry Storage Cask in Barakah Nuclear Power Plant - Engineering Assignment Help

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“A Feasibility Study for Dry Storage Cask in Barakah Nuclear Power Plant”
Regulations (fanr.gov.ae)Dry Spent Fuel Storage Designs: NRC Approved For General Use | NRC.govSearch | IAEADeadline: TBD
AbstractIn 2009, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) established the first safe and sustainable peaceful nuclear energy program in the Middle East after the growth of electricity demand. The program includes constructing four units in the Barakah Area which is about 300 Km west direction of the Abu Dhabi Emirate, with APR1400 nuclear reactor technology. The program also ensured the radioactive waste management plan for the generated waste by these plants. It can harm the workers within the plant's zones, the public, and the environment. These wastes mainly include a high level of radiological and chemical impacts that can cause cancer or death, and a well-planned handling plan is required to minimize these impacts.
Around the world, most nuclear plants are following one of the two options or sometimes both; storing (wet and dry) or the reprocessing of these generated radioactive wastes to precisely control the radiological impacts. For this research, storing the Spent Nuclear Fuel (SNF) in the Dry Storage Cask (DSC) as the final stage will be the primary objective. It will also cover the main requirements for licensing and building it in the UAE as the first facility to be made per the Federal Authority for Nuclear Regulation and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) Requirements.
IntroductionThe best and practical solutions for a safe disposal facility of radioactive waste generated from nuclear power plants are storing them in safe storage areas or reprocessing them. Most of these wastes come from different facilities such as the SNF, decontamination materials and clothes, radioactive waste systems, etc. However, controlling these materials can be diverse based on the severity; the SNF is the most waste that needs to handle very well because of the fertile and fissile materials. The cycle of the fuel starts after using it in operation for a specific time (from 12 to 18 months) depending on the plant's operation plan, then cooled them in the Spent Fuel Pool (SFP) for a period (can be up to 5 to 20 years) to remove the heat and radioactivity as the second stage. Final disposal stage will be either by storing these wastes for long time inside the dry storage casks or by reprocessing them in special facilities.
Presently, the UAE is on commission track for the 1st of the four planned nuclear plants in 2021, and the 1st reactor will begin to discharge SNF in 2022 under the influence of the refuelling schedule. The Barakah Nuclear power plant plans to keep the SNF in a pool filled with water constructed with stainless-steel walls in the interior and concrete from the exterior with storage racks to hold safely to about 20 years of production (Lissenden, 2017). The NRC authorized the plants to store the SNF for a minimum of 5 years in the SFP before transporting it to the final stage for cooling up and decaying the radioactive isotopes. However, the precise characteristics for Barakah nuclear power spent fuel discharge are unknown or there is no clear plan for the radioactive wastes’ disposal plan. According to USA practice, SNF in the United Arab Emirates needs to move to a dry storage system as prior 20 years (Poulson, 2017).
Transferring these wastes may experience some challenges, such as increases the operating cost, increases in doses of radiation to employees during loading practices, increases in accident incidents due to equipment movements, and an increase in time constraints for repetitive dry storage loading practices. These challenges are classified as economic and technical issues (Durham, 2018). Moreover, storing the SNP in the SNF for almost 20 years can affect the pool's capacity and require other expansion!
The Dry Storage Cask (DSC) is a mechanism to store high-level radioactive waste, which mainly includes the spent nuclear fuel. The cask shape is usually a cylinder made of steel and concrete, and it is generally closed by welding or bolting. Various countries have been using dry storage cask for several decades. These dry storage casks are designed not to harm people as it has the shelter made of the concrete outer shell, which helps to save radioactive wastes such as spent nuclear fuel from the earthquakes (US.NRC, 2019).
Taking an example, the USA is one of the experienced countries in having DSC. There are two basic types of dry storage cask, i.e., bare-fuel (metal shielded or thick-walled) and canister-based casks comprising a thin-walled inside a cask or concrete-shielded (storage module). This research assumes a system of canister-based comprising a metallic canister and concrete barrels (concrete overpacked), and the analysis cost will carry out for concrete casks.
Problem StatementThe dry cask storage is a temporary storage solution because it has to be relicensed again and again according to the nuclear regulator’s standards. It is licensed for around twenty years and can be increased to operations for about 300 years. The extended time can impact the acceleration and leads to destabilizing influences because of the effects of the environmental and human errors hazards which could damage the internals of the casks in same time. The issue can be resolved by the anchorage of the dry storage cask. The anchorage varies from country to country, as every country has different expertise and capabilities to develop and Dry storage cask (Parks et al., 2017). The environmental and natural hazards could affect the human life (the workers in the nuclear power plants and the public), the safety of the people and the environment which is essential for the countries so that each state shall provide the required protection by improving the seismic performance of the Dry Storage Cask and by that it will not influence the human life (Maree et al., 2017). Therefore, this study will focus on the issues, different designs and safety regulations of the dry storage cask. Further, the study will also shed light on the usage of the dry storage cask in a different part of the world to evaluate how other countries are designing and managing the dry storage cask in their country. In the UAE, the first nuclear power plant is started operation in April 2021, and first SNF will be discharged after completing the required operation period. By the time, the discharged SNF will be a hazard, and a high level of a safety plan for disposal will be required. The DSC considers one of the best solutions worldwide as it can carry a large amount of these radioactive wastes. This study will also be covering the design of Dry Storage Cask which will include sub criticality, structure and layout, Radiation protection, containment of radioactive material and the heat removal. This study will also be focusing on the use of different engineering soft wares to make the calculation accurate and easy. However, such a facility will need good plans and preparations to construct and monitor it. The UAE so far does not have any existing model or experience to run such a facility. FANR, the regulator on the other side, does not specify any disposal plan for the nuclear power plant's radioactive wastes. It only focused on handling radioactive waste to protect the worker, the public, and the environment from these wastes’ impacts.
Purpose of StudyThis research will analyse the SNF stream after completing the required cycle (from the reactor) to the final stage inside the DSC of Barakah's nuclear power plants. The primary purpose is to find the best practices and requirements for building such as the facility in the UAE, which will include different factors such as the climatology, geology, and structure types and process. The research will also determine the required management skills and training for the workers based on the FANR and NRC requirements to ensure the proper uses of the DSC.
On the other hand, DSC is licensed for around twenty years and can increase it to 300 years due to the radioactivity decay process of the isotopes. The extended time can impact the acceleration and leads to destabilizing influences because of the effects of the environmental and human error hazards, which could damage the internals of the casks at the same time. The issue will be resolve by the anchorage of the dry storage cask. The anchorage varies from country to country, as every country has different expertise and capabilities to develop and Dry storage cask (Parks et al., 2017). Thus, the design of dry cask storage will further be discussed in this study and ensure that it protects the people and provides safety. There are some regulations in the world to use dry storage cask, which will be covered or highlighted in this study to understand better the rules and laws against the dry storage cask and its license.
Research ObjectivesThe research is aimed to the following objectives:
To find the best design of the DSC for building it for Barakah Spent Fuels and the amount of the discharged nuclear-spent fuels.
Identify the FANR, NRC, and other regulations requirements to control the DSC's main areas such as the radiation, heat transfer, design layout, and others.
Calculations for the future used construction materials, including the uncertainties costs.
Finally, provide the recommendations and conclusions for the DSC.
Literature Review
There is usually removal of fuel from the reactor when it is found not to be capable of sustaining the chain reaction efficiently. It will therefore be termed as used nuclear fuel or just SNF. The storage of the SNF will be stored initially in the pools so as of allow for the provision of shielding and cooling. It will therefore be necessary to have the assemblies removed immediately they have been cooled sufficiently so as to allow for the utility to maintain the capability of the desired full-core offload. The current spent fuel management conception in United Emirates, the spent rods of nuclear need to be kept in above-ground deports in Abu Dhabi nuclear power plant until 2123 or they can be recycled or deposited abroad.
The time for SNF cooling down in pools to be transferred to dry store depends on the system design for storage and characteristics for SNF discharge such as burn up and thermal load discharge spent fuel. The fuel SNF typically cooled for 5 years in a pool according to US NRC before transferred to cask. US NRC also authorized the transfer for 3 years earlier, but the industry custom is 10 years. However, the precise characteristics for Barakah nuclear power spent fuel discharge are evident for example consider the case of the APR1400 which has been operational since the year 2016 in South Korea and according to USA practise, SNF in United of Emirates need to be moved to a system of dry storage as prior 20 years CITATION Pou17 \l 1033 (Poulson, 2017).
As the Spent Fuel pools get close to the capacity, dry storage become the alternative. Also when the utility decommissions or shuts down, particular the commercial nuclear plant, it will be still be responsible for the SNF storage. Considering that there is never central location of the storage, there will be remaining of the fuel on site even after the removal of the related infrastructure like reactors and their operations. This implies that there will be need for the utilities which will be used for the maintenance of the security as well as site monitoring. Determination of the possibility of the stored SNF fir extended period being transported to the respective disposition without the need for repackaging is necessary. This statement points out to the fact that the Nuclear Spent Fuel Management is increasingly becoming a key activity within the strategies laid down by the concerned authorities in the country. Unfortunately, it is evident that release of space in the pools of the plants of nuclear power for continuous operation remains to be a challenge. This study therefore seeks to address this problem through validation and adoption of the concepts of the cask design which complies with the regulations that are applicable.
Research MethodologyThe research will investigate the main requirements of building the dry storage cacks for the SNF discharged from the nuclear power plants in the UAE. The study will carry out three variables: cooling period SNF pool (T-cooling), Discount Rate (d), and Mean fuel discharge rate (FD). Moreover, the cost of building the DCS will be between two scenarios. The first scenario will be to transfer the SNF to the DSC immediately after cooling it in the pool. The second scenario will depend on the maximum usage of the SF pool is the 2nd scenario, where SF is kept in a pool for an extended period until the quantity of stored fuels reaches the carrying capacity of the pool and finally transfers them to the dry storage. Cost sensitivity analysis was carried out and analysed by multiple regression for net present values (NPVs) for the two setups and their changes change, i.e., the differences in NPV between the two scenarios. The NPV and ?NPV which is express as a single equation of three variables.
 

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