Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology

In this research, a detailed analysis of the decay heat contributions of both actinides and non-actinides (fission fragments) from spent nuclear fuel (SNF) was made after 50 GWd·tHMM⁻¹ burnup of fresh uranium fuel with 4.5% enrichment lasted for 1,350 days. The calculations were made for a long storage period of 300 years divided into four sections 1, 10, 100, and 300 years so that we could study the decay heat and physical disposal ratios of radioactive waste in medium- and long-term storage periods. Fresh fuel burnup calculations were made using the code MCNP, while isotopic content and then decay heat were calculated using the built-in stiff equation solver in the MATLAB code. It is noted that only around 12 isotopes contribute more than 90% of the decay heat at all times. It is also noted that the contribution of actinides persists and is the dominant ether despite decreasing decay heat, while the effect of fission products decreases at a very rapid rate after about 40 years of storage.

Keywords

SNF, Decay heat, Actinides, Fission fragments, Burnup, Stiff equations