Estimating worker collective doses from a revised approach to managing commercial used nuclear fuel

The following conclusions are suggested by our modeling of an OTC including an FWMS that includes the facilities and meets the three milestones in the DOE's Strategy for the Management and Disposal of Used Nuclear Fuel and High-Level Radioactive Waste: % Worker collective dose is added due to additional handling of UNF. Because increased handling is required during the operation of the Pilot and Large ISFs, compared with currently ongoing operations of the OTC the FWMS increases the total worker collective dose associated with the OTC. • The FWMS is estimated to increase the annual worker collective dose from the existing OTC [14] by a maximum of approximately 3 percent, which occurs when UNF is being transferred from reactor sites to ISFs and then also when UNF is prepared for emplacement at a future repository. This level of exposure is equivalent to the annual exposure incurred at four operating light water reactors, based on data collected by the NRC [32]. • The capacities at each of the ISFs, as presently planned by the DOE, are insufficient to maintain steady-state FWMS operations, and a 15-year period of inactivity of transferring UNF is estimated before the repository opens in year 2048, if UNF is transferred at the DOE-estimated rate [25]. • The collective exposure estimates and associated individual worker doses are within levels currently experienced in the industry and therefore should not present a challenge to maintaining worker doses within regulatory limits and ALARA.