A Risk-Informed Approach in Safety Assessment of the Back-End Nuclear Fuel Cycle: Example Reviews/Summaries

An approach in the assessment of nuclear energy safety is summarized based on the author’s previous related research and safety decision made using physics-based risk-informed probabilistic approach. The system considered includes primarily spent nuclear fuel (SNF) and high-level nuclear waste (HLW) glass in metallic containment systems during the transportation, storage and disposal of SNF and HLW. Materials behavior with time and varying temperatures were investigated in-depth. Appropriate abstractions of the materials behavior were made to be used for the safety associated with sub-system or total system of transportation, storage and disposal. The abstractions were probabilistically represented. This summary is presented, to extend the author’s previous work potentially for more advanced technologies.