Analysis of Korea’s PWR Spent Nuclear Fuel (SNF) Characteristics Evaluated from Existing SNF Inventories (1979–2015) and Projected SNF Inventories (2016–2089)

The Basic Plan for High-Level Radioactive Waste Management (national WM plan) was established and promulgated, taking into consideration national and international trends on policy and technology development. In order to evaluate the safety for a facility in accordance with the national WM plan, it is essential to evaluate the spent nuclear fuel (SNF) source term. The objective of this study was to analyze Korea SNF characteristics; to propose reference SNF; and to evaluate generation amounts, radioactivity, thermal power, and isotopic composition of SNF in compliance with the national WM plan in order to provide basic information for safety research in Korea. The Automatic Multi-batch ORIGEN Runner for Evaluation of Spent fuel program (AMORES) was developed and used to evaluate inventory, radioactivity, and thermal power. Generation amounts, radioactivity, thermal power, and isotopic composition of SNF for milestones in the national WM plan were evaluated using a pressurized water reactor SNF database (DB) through 2015, and future SNF generation was estimated by taking into consideration the distribution of initial enrichment and burnup for each power plant unit. As a result, radioactivity, thermal power, and isotopic composition at each site in 2015, 2052, and 2082 differed significantly depending on the presence of new nuclear power plants. In addition, a reference SNF was proposed through statistical analysis of the SNF DB in order to utilize it for safety analysis based on various scenarios when actual SNF data cannot be available. In order to perform a more realistic safety assessment, radionuclide inventories using reference SNF and time-integrated SNF nuclide inventories using actual data were compared, and then, the best-fit reference SNF for each site and year was suggested.