Proliferation Resistance Assessment of Various Methods of Spent Nuclear Fuel Storage and Disposal

Previous proliferation resistance and proliferation risk assessments have considered nuclear material through the whole fuel cycle and not specifically focused on spent fuel storage. This project evaluates the proliferation resistance of the three main types of spent fuel storage: spent fuel pool, dry cask storage, and geological repository. The assessment methodology utilizes various intrinsic and extrinsic proliferation resistance attributes for each spent fuel storage type. These attributes are used to calculate a total proliferation resistance (PR) value. The PR values range from 0.00 to 1.00, with a greater number meaning that the facility is more proliferation resistant. Given current data, the spent fuel pool is the most proliferation resistant method for storing spent fuel. The extrinsic attributes, mainly involving safeguards measures, affect the total PR value the most. As a result, several recommendations have been made to improve the proliferation resistance of spent fuel storage.