EXECUTION STRATEGY ANALYSIS (ESA) DOE’s ESA tool allows IWM to lay out its transportation activity schedule from planning though facility design, licensing, and construction to transportation and waste acceptance. The tool can perform analyses of schedule and cost risks of DOE’s SNF management activities. The tool models the impact of policy, technical, and cost uncertainties on the IWM system (NWTRB 2019). Through the ESA tool, different components of transporting SNF from commercial reactors have been analyzed. Inter-dependencies of elements of the IWM system can be assessed through system analysis, guiding further research. For example, system analysis can inform when railcars and specific cask types will be needed (Wheeler 2018). The ESA demonstrates that it would take seven years before the first shipment could be accepted at a storage or disposal facility. Under the most compressed timeline, shipments could commence within a period of five to six years. One of the activities with a long lead-time in IWM’s transportation system is the development of the S-2043 compliant railcar. Designs for these railcars would need to be completed four years prior to the first shipment (Feldman 2018). The timeline for transportation activities is highly dependent on what resources are available to the waste management program. The timeline contemplated under the ESA does not account for significant technical, supply chain, or litigation challenges that would result in delays. Activities identified by IWM as critical path elements are: • Adequate appropriations from Congress • National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) process and Record of Decision • Award contracts for cask and rolling stock equipment • Award contracts for transportation services • Determine rail routes • Acceptance queue • Select casks to procure • Determine initial routes to prepare • Identify transportation infrastructure upgrades
Activities that would be ongoing throughout IWM’s development of a fully functioning SNF transportation program include the implementation of a communications plan, state and tribal engagement, and coordination with the NRC, DOT, and other federal agencies (ibid.). In conjunction with the March 2017 Transportation Core Group meeting, DOE-NE held a workshop on the ESA on February 28, 2017. Through the workshop, the department sought to collect feedback from states and Tribes regarding inputs, risks, uncertainties, and missing elements to be included in the model. DOE-NE followed up with a presentation on the ESA framework and findings to stakeholders at the 2018 National Transportation Stakeholders Forum meeting in Omaha, NE.
USED NUCLEAR FUEL — STORAGE, TRANSPORTATION & DISPOSAL ANALYSIS AND RESOURCE DATA SYSTEM (UNF-ST&DARDS)
UNF-ST&DARDS is a comprehensive data and analysis system to support DOE-NE’s IWM activities. This resource allows a unified domestic SNF system database to be readily used with integrated analysis capabilities. The tool is designed and structured to promote safe storage, transport, and disposal of SNF well into the future. UNF-ST&DARDS encompasses the technical data required to perform analyses and support waste management system program planning, design, and operational requirements. The unified database has the capability to perform SNF assembly depletion and decay analyses and SNF cask criticality, dose, containment, and thermal analyses to facilitate the safe, secure, and sustainable management of SNF. It can further perform realistic analyses for as-loaded SNF casks (DOE-NE 2020b). Through UNF-ST&DARDS, DOE-NE can understand current conditions inside casks based on data including radiation history, cask type, and loading patterns. This information can then be used to inform transportation loading activities. The states and Tribes heard an overview of UNF-ST&DARDS at the summer Transportation Core Group meeting in 2017. There was discussion of the model’s capabilities and DOE-NE explained that, by utilizing UNF-ST&DARDS, information on cask contents should be available prior to arriving at an origin site and beginning to load SNF casks (DOE-NE 2017b).
• Route readiness for transport • Transportation system testing
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