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The Mission of the Robotics and Remote Systems Division is to promote the development and application of immersive simulation, robotics, and remote systems for hazardous environments for the purpose of reducing hazardous exposure to individuals, reducing environmental hazards and reducing the cost of performing work.
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ANS Student Conference 2025
April 3–5, 2025
Albuquerque, NM|The University of New Mexico
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Norway’s Halden reactor takes first step toward decommissioning
The government of Norway has granted the transfer of the Halden research reactor from the Institute for Energy Technology (IFE) to the state agency Norwegian Nuclear Decommissioning (NND). The 25-MWt Halden boiling water reactor operated from 1958 to 2018 and was used in the research of nuclear fuel, reactor internals, plant procedures and monitoring, and human factors.
J. J. Jarrell, R. A. Joseph III, R. M. Cumberland, G. M. Petersen (ORNL), E. A. Kalinina (SNL)
Proceedings | 16th International High-Level Radioactive Waste Management Conference (IHLRWM 2017) | Charlotte, NC, April 9-13, 2017 | Pages 639-646
The potential development and deployment of a standardized canister system represents an opportunity for an integrated approach to address the storage, transportation, and disposal issues in an integrated waste management system (IWMS). However, this deployment has the potential for significant system-wide impacts regardless of timing and method of implementation. This paper describes an evaluation that investigates using standardized, triple-purpose (storage, transportation, and disposal) canisters within the IWMS. Specifically, this evaluation documents a quantitative comparison of the impacts of implementing standardized canisters against the status quo of continuing to load existing canisters that could be challenging to dispose of in a number of different geologic repository concepts being considered by the US Department of Energy. This evaluation focuses on spent nuclear fuel that (1) would be loaded into standardized canister systems at reactors or (2) would be transported to an interim storage facility in reusable, bolted-lid transportation casks and subsequently loaded into standardized canister systems. Specifically, the evaluation builds on previous work to gain a better understanding of (1) the impacts of leaving spent fuel pools open for extended periods of time to facilitate access to the fuel and (2) how updated concepts of packaging for disposal and associated costs impact the system-wide evaluation.
For all standardized canister scenarios analyzed, the following observations can be drawn from this evaluation:
(1) Beginning to load standardized canisters either before or when a repository concept is selected would reduce the total life cycle cost of the system by between 1% and 7% when compared with the current “business as usual” approach of continuing to load large, dual-purpose canisters (DPCs), assuming that disposal of DPCs is determined to be unfeasible.