Transportation of Spent Nuclear Fuel

Publication Date: May 1998

Publisher: Library of Congress. Congressional Research Service

Author(s):

Research Area: Environment

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Abstract:

The risk of transporting highly radioactive spent fuel from nuclear power plants to a central storage site or permanent underground repository is a major factor in the current nuclear waste debate. With strong support from nuclear utilities and state utility regulators, the House and Senate have passed bills (H.R. 1270 and S. 104) that would designate a central storage site at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, that could begin receiving spent fuel shipments from nuclear plant sites as soon as possible. Environmental groups and other opponents of that plan counter that, partly because of the potential transportation hazard, spent fuel should remain stored at reactor sites until the opening of a permanent underground repository, which also is planned for Yucca Mountain. The Department of Energy (DOE) currently expects to begin operating the planned Yucca Mountain repository by 2010.

Controversy over the transportation of spent fuel and other highly radioactive nuclear waste has focused on the adequacy of Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) standards for shipping casks, the potential consequences of transportation accidents, and the routes that nuclear waste shipments are likely to follow.

NRC requires that spent fuel shipping casks be able to survive a sequential series of tests that are intended to represent severe accident stresses. The tests are a 30-foot drop onto an unyielding flat surface, a shorter drop onto a vertical steel bar, engulfment by fire for 30 minutes, and, finally, immersion in three feet of water. A undamaged sample of the cask design must be able to survive submersion in the equivalent pressure of 50 feet and 200 meters of water.

Studies for NRC and other federal agencies have found that casks meeting NRC's standards would survive nearly all transportation accidents without releasing large amounts of radioactive material. The safety record of more than 1,000 past shipments of spent fuel in the United States is consistent with those findings. Four accidents occurred during those previous U.S. shipments, and none released radioactive material, according to a federal database.

NRC's cask standards and the federal safety studies have been criticized by the State of Nevada and others who contend that severe accidents could release hazardous levels of radioactivity. They argue that NRC's cask tests do not adequately represent a number of credible accident scenarios, and that individual casks may be fatally compromised by manufacturing flaws and by loading and handling errors.

Because nuclear power plants and DOE waste storage sites are located throughout the nation, almost all states are expected to be traversed by nuclear waste shipments. Major east-west highway and rail lines in the central United States are likely to be the most heavily used, but numerous options are available under current regulations. The Department of Transportation (DOT) requires that highway shipments of spent fuel follow the quickest route on the interstate highway system, although states are allowed to designate alternative routes if they follow certain procedures.