SPECIAL REPORT | HOME AND DRY Home and dry
The IAEA has published the results of a decade of work on ageing management of dry spent fuel storage systems
By Sim Sharphouse, Operations Manager, Salko UK
Spent nuclear fuel is being transferred from wet to dry storage facilities at the San Onofre nuclear plant in southern California. Source: San Onofre Generating Station
BY THE END OF 2024, the IAEA estimates that more than 400,000 heavy metal tonnes (ktHM) of spent fuel had been discharged from nuclear power plants. Of this, 106 ktHM is in dry storage, and this option for long-term storage is becoming more common, as compared with wet storage. Most IAEA Member States are still decades away from building permanent stores for spent nuclear fuel, and as a result dry storage systems are likely to be required to operate safely over long periods of time, potentially beyond their original design lifetime. Wet storage has been used for several decades, and the IAEA has said ageing management of these facilities is generally well understood. Utilities opted for dry storage because of its passive safety and many dry stores already have extended licenses for continued operation. The IAEA anticipates that more dry stores will be required for continued use and for periods significantly longer than the 20-40 year original licence period. Now it believes they may be needed for 120 years or more and, as a result, ageing management programmes (AMPs) will be required to verify continued safe operation. This year the IAEA published “Ageing Management
Programmes for Spent Fuel Dry Storage Systems”, the final report of the Coordinated Research Project on Ageing Management Programmes for Spent Fuel Dry Storage Systems. The project aimed to gather national experience in developing and applying methodologies for
the implementation of ageing management programmes specifically for dry storage systems. It was based on research efforts carried out by participating Member States between October 2016 and October 2021. It is intended to support states implementing ageing management plans, with examples from different countries and reference cases.
Breaking down the elements of an AMP With tens of different dry storage designs in use, the IAEA says ageing management programmes should be specifically designed for the storage systems to which they are applied. As some designs are dual purpose casks (DPCs) licensed for both storage and transport, the IAEA Transport Safety Standard Committee (TRANSC) has also started a working group to discuss aging management for transport packages. The IAEA report lists a variety of the different
technologies. It says the first step is to differentiate between casks – which can obtain a type B(U) package approval for transportation – and storage structures, which are not intended to be transported. For casks, there are currently two different types based on
the cask body material: metal, or concrete with a metal liner. In either type, spent fuel is stored either in canisters or as bare fuel in a basket. For storage structures, the differentiator is equipment and complexity. Spent fuel may be simply held in canisters, whether ventilated or not ventilated. Alternatively,
30 | June 2026 |
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