Spent Fuel Management: Daily Challenges and Long-term Planning A Summary of the 29th INMM Spent Fuel Seminar

In mid-January 2014 nearly 120 nuclear industry experts convenedin Washington, DC, USA, for the 29th Spent Fuel Seminarsponsored by the Institute of Nuclear Materials Management(INMM) and the U.S. Nuclear Infrastructure Council (NIC).An impressive range of perspectives were presented — the“long-term” view included those representing mid- and longtermplanning, and research and development (R&D) work thatis important to ensure the necessary work is being done nowso facilities that will be needed in the coming decades have thesupporting data, analyses, planning, and public input necessaryto succeed. Other topics presented included policy and legalissues, cask vendor activities, decommissioning, and specificcountry and utility activities.The short-term perspective includes work that utilities aredoing every day in this one component of the fuel cycle to ensurethat nuclear reactors continue to generate reliable electricityand make enough money doing it to keep those reactorsoperating until the end of their licensed life, and that the spentfuel is stored safely beyond the licensed life. As with the longtermperspective, these activities also require years of detailedplanning to be successful, but planning for managing spentfuel at a utility or reactor level has a definite end point whenplanning meets operations to keep reactors operating. On thislevel, the planning absolutely cannot be delayed for decades.