Theses and Dissertations Collection

Approximately every 18 months, the fuel in a nuclear reactor is replaced, given that most of the fissionable material is depleted. The removed spent fuel is placed in pools of water inside the power plant for 10 to 20 years, for the purpose of allowing radioactive decay to occur and the heat load to lessen, after which they are transferred into dry cask storage. Although dry cask storage is a robust technology, only a small fraction of the used fuel is stored in them.

This research is based on a proprietary pipe–casting technology for a cold plate cast by Sakae Casting. Sakae’s Cold Plate has the design advantages of eliminating gaps between the aluminum plate and pipes, affordability, ease of use, and overall fabrication cost. The vision for this technology is to enhance the safety of used fuel management by reducing and preventing further accidents with this sophisticated cooling device, while potentially lowering maintenance costs and optimizing the dwindling storage space. With the right cask materials, the cask can potentially provide sufficient shielding, and maintain subcritical safety.

This research explores the thermal behavior of this innovative cask for cooling used fuel without the need for large pools. It involves the experimental and numerical study of a 1/3 scaled model of a used 17 x 17 light water reactor fuel assembly and the subsequent numerical analysis for an actual size assembly.