US cracks alloy code to shrink nuclear fuel disposal time by 20 years

The Savannah River Site (SRS) has developed a redesigned carrier for spent nuclear fuel that significantly accelerates the processing time for permanent disposal. The innovation addresses a bottleneck at the site’s H Canyon chemical separations facility, where original carriers used to transport a special type of spent nuclear fuel failed to dissolve completely in nitric acid, delaying the dissolution process. By collaborating with an external vendor, engineers replaced the aluminum alloy used in the carrier’s bail (handle) with a thinner, more readily dissolvable alloy, enabling the carrier to dissolve fully alongside the fuel. This improvement is expected to reduce the overall processing time by more than 20 years and save over $4 billion. This advancement supports the “Accelerated Basin De-inventory” mission, which focuses on processing spent nuclear fuel from the High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The fuel, characterized by a unique cylindrical core, is dissolved at SRS before being vitrified for long-term storage. The new