Integrated decay heat load method to analyze repository capacity impact of a fuel cycle

Assessing the needs for repository capacity from nuclear waste disposal is essential for fuel cycle development or repository development planning. As the repository capacity is mainly constrained by thermal design limits on the repository rocks, a detailed mountain-scale heat transfer calculation is needed for repository capacity impact analysis. In this paper, a simplified repository capacity impact analysis method is proposed as an alternative to performing repository scale heat transfer analysis. The method is based on the use of integrated decay heat load (IDHL) limits. The derived integrated decay heat loads were found to appropriately represent the drift wall temperature limit (200 °C) and the midway between adjacent drifts temperature limit (96 °C) under the high temperature operating mode as long as the wastes are uniformly loaded into the repository. Results indicated that the long-term integrated decay heat load (IDHLL) and the short-term integrated decay heat load (IDHLS) can be effectively used to represent the repository capacity impact for SNFs and HLWs, respectively. Comparisons indicated good agreement between the proposed IDHL method and the repository heat transfer analysis-based approach.