Preliminary design and analysis for selected problems in deep borehole disposal of spent nuclear fuel

Multiple reports by the Used Fuel Disposition Campaign centered at Sandia National Laboratories, Dr. Michael Driscoll and collaborators at MIT, and Dr. Fergus Gibb and collaborators at the University of Sheffield have generated interest in deep boreholes as a nuclear waste disposal option for all or part of the U.S. high-level waste inventory. Many design elements of deep borehole disposal have not yet been solidified, and there has not yet been a systematic analysis of the logistics necessary to implement deep boreholes for the storage of commercial spent nuclear fuel. This thesis contains preliminary analysis on a variety of unanswered or incomplete elements of the deep borehole approach, including emplacement method, disposal region design, canister loading method, transportation and logistics scheduling and cost, and risk analysis for borehole-specific issues. Additionally, the thesis presents an analytical heat transport model which can be used to validate more detailed numerical solutions. The logistics analysis, performed using the TSL-CALVIN fuel cycle logistics simulator, demonstrates that a deep borehole repository can be cost-competitive with a more traditional mined repository approach, but that the differences between mined repositories and a deep borehole repository are large enough that other system-level cost estimates performed for the Yucca Mountain repository might not transfer to a deep borehole repository