Technical Options and Cost Estimates for Spent Nuclear Fuel Management at the Barakah Nuclear Power Plants

Abstract

In the planning and management of the interim storage of spent nuclear fuel, the technical and economic parameters that are involved have a significant role in increasing the efficiency of the storage system. Optimal parameters will reduce the total economic costs for countries embarking on nuclear energy, such as the UAE. This study evaluated the design performance and economic feasibility of various structures and schedules, to determine an optimal combination of parameters for the management of spent nuclear fuel. With the introduction of various storage technology arrangements and expected costs per unit for the storage system design, we evaluated eight major scenarios, each with a cost analysis based on technological and economic issues. We executed a number of calculations based on the use of these storage technologies, and considered their investment costs. These calculations, which were aligned with the net present value approach and conducted using MS Project and MATLAB software programs, considered the capacities of the spent fuel pools and the amount of spent nuclear fuel (SNF) that will be transferred to dry storage facilities. As soon as they sufficiently cool, the spent nuclear fuel is to be stored in a pool storage facility. The results show that applying a centralized dry storage (CDS) system strategy is not an economically feasible solution, compared with using a permanent disposal facility (PDF) (unless the variable investment cost is reduced or changed). The optimal strategy involves operating a spent fuel pool island (SFPI) storage after the first 20 years of the start of the permanent shutdown of the reactor. After 20 years, the spent fuel is then transferred to a PDF. This strategy also results in a 20.9% to 26.1% reduction in the total cost compared with those of the other strategies. The total cost of the proposed strategy is approximately 4,307 million USD. The duration of the fuel storage and the investment cost, particularly the variable investment cost, directly affect the choice of facility storage.