Spent-Fuel Test-Climax: a progress report

Both operational and technical objectives are being pursued at the Spent-Fuel Test-Climax (SFT-C). The principal operational objective is to demonstrate the safe and reliable packaging, handling, and storage of spent nuclear reactor fuel in a deep geologic media and to retrieve the fuel afterward. Packaging of the spent fuel at the Engine Maintenance, Assembly and Disassembly (EMAD) facility, initial emplacement 420m below surface in the Climax granitic stock, and three subsequent exchanges of fuel canisters between EMAD and the SFT-C has demonstrated that application of straightforward engineering practices provides a safe and highly reliable system with no significant radiation exposure to the operating personnel. The primary technical objectives of the test are simulation of the thermal effects occurring in a panel of a large repository and comparison of the relative effects on the granitic host rock of heat alone versus heat in combination with ionizing radiation. Other technical objectives direct project activities toward instrument evaluation, ventilation effects, thermal and thermomechanical response of a jointed rock mass, and computer model validation. Recent findings from field measurements and laboratory studies are briefly discussed for: performance of data acquisition system and instrumentation; near-and intermediate-field temperature measurements; ventilation and dewpoint measurements; acoustic emission monitoring of fractures in granites; radiation-dose-to-granite measurements