A radioactive nuclear waste storage system includes a cask comprising a hermetically sealed internal cavity configured for holding the waste such as spent nuclear fuel submerged in an inventory of water. One or more pressure surge capacitors disposed inside the cask include a vacuum cavity evacuated to sub-atmospheric conditions prior to storage of fuel in the cask. At least one rupture disk seals a vacuum chamber inside each capacitor. Each rupture disk is designed and constructed to burst at a predetermined burst pressure level occurring inside the cask external to the capacitor. This allows excess cask pressure occurring during a high pressure excursion resulting from abnormal operating conditions to bleed into capacitor, thereby returning the pressure inside the cask to acceptable levels. In one embodiment, the capacitors are located in peripheral regions of the cask cavity adjacent to the circumferential wall of the cask body.

A modular dry spent fuel canister system in which several different types of inner spent nuclear fuel canisters can be loaded into the same outer cask family. This family typically includes a storage overpack, a transfer cask, a transportation cask and support or auxiliary hardware. The various canisters can be loaded interchangeably into the different types of outer casks. The inner canisters are differentiated not by physical fuel type or dimension, but by the engineering objective or criterion that applies to the spent fuel being stored. One such objective may be for a single canister to store a large number of assemblies economically and safely. A second is a canister designed to greatly reduce the cooling time (or radioactive decay time) that must pass in order to load spent nuclear fuel for off-site storage, so as to meet the decay heat requirements and capabilities of the off-site storage system.

A method of packaging a radioactive waste including the steps of: (a) providing a containment enclosure having (i) an outer polymeric fabric layer and (ii) an inner polymeric fabric layer, wherein the outer and inner polymeric fabric layers are thermally stable to −40° F.; (b) placing a radioactive waste within the inner polymeric fabric layer; and (c) closing an outer closeable flap on the outer polymeric fabric layer.

A container is designed to safely store radioactive debris. The container has an overpack having an elongated body extending between a top end and a bottom end. A basket is situated inside of the overpack. The basket has elongated canisters. Each of the canisters has an elongated body extending between a top end and a bottom end. At least one of the canisters has an insert with a plurality of elongated perforated tubes that contain radioactive debris. The perforations enable gas flow, primarily air, through the side wall to enable evaporation of liquid, primarily water, from the radioactive debris, by increasing the exposed surface area of the debris.

Systems and methods for application of stress corrosion cracking resistant cold spray coatings include a method of forming a partial coating on a canister having a perimeter wall with a surface. The method may include identifying a compromised region on the surface of the wall of the canister, and impacting a substantially linear flow of particles of a powder against an area in the compromised region of the surface in a manner effective to cause the particles of the powder to bond to the surface of the wall to produce a coating on the area of the compromised region. The method may also include moving the substantially linear flow in a direction substantially parallel to the surface of the wall to cause the particles to impact an additional area of the compromised region to cause the particles to bond to the surface of the additional area.

A nuclear fuel storage system includes an outer canister and fuel basket positioned therein. The basket is formed by orthogonally arranged and interlocked slotted plates which collectively define exterior side surfaces of the basket and a grid array of open cells each configured to hold a fuel assembly. At least some slotted plates comprise cantilevered plate extensions protruding laterally beyond the side surfaces of the basket to define various shaped peripheral gaps between the basket and canister. The plate extensions are configured to engage the shell of the canister. Vertically elongated reinforcement members are inserted in the peripheral gaps and fixedly coupled to the basket. Reinforcement members may comprise elongated reinforcement plates and/or tubular shimming members which may be fixedly coupled to the slotted plate extensions. The reinforcement members structurally strengthen the fuel basket. The plate extensions further act as fins to enhance heat dissipation from the basket.

A cask includes a cask body, an outer cylinder, a plurality of fins, and a plurality of neutron shields. The cask body has a tubular shape around a central axis and is capable of housing fuel assemblies. The outer cylinder has a tubular shape surrounding the cask body. The fins are aligned in a circumferential direction in a tubular space formed between the cask body and the outer cylinder, and connect an outer peripheral surface of the cask body and an inner peripheral surface of the outer cylinder to divide the tubular space into a plurality of divided spaces. The neutron shields contain a neutron shielding material with which the divided spaces are filled. Each neutron shield includes a void portion extending in the axial direction along the central axis. Accordingly, it is possible to reduce stress that may be exerted on the outer cylinder or other components by thermal expansion of the neutron shielding material when the fuel assemblies are housed in the cask.

Packaging for the transport and/or storage of radioactive materials includes a lateral packaging body around which an outer radiation protection envelope is disposed, which is made from a plurality of individual annular structures stacked on top of each other. Every structure includes an outer annular wall and a radial heat conductive wall, an outer end of which is secured to the wall, and an inner end of which is in contact with the lateral body. Furthermore, two directly consecutive structures delimit an annular cavity housing at least one radiation protection element, the cavity being closed radially towards the outside by the wall of one or both directly consecutive structures, and axially closed by the radial heat-conducting structure of one and the other of the two structures.

Embodiments of the present invention center around systems and methods for long-term disposal of high-level nuclear waste that is to be placed inside of particular waste-capsules that are in turn to be placed into wellbores that are located in deep-geologic-formations. Mostly or fully intact spent nuclear fuel rod assemblies may be internally packed in the waste-capsules. A given waste-capsule may include a protective-medium around the contained nuclear waste, a corrosion protective layer around the protective-medium, and a neutron absorbing and/or slowdown layer around the corrosion protective layer. The protective-medium may be in the form of a mold or injected into the waste-capsule. The protective-medium may shield against gamma radiation and protect the waste-capsule from degradation. Further, a transporter is described for surface transportion of loaded nuclear waste-capsules so that the loaded nuclear waste-capsules may be safely transported to a drilling-rig site for insertion into the wellbore.

A nuclear waste cask with impact protection includes impact limiters detachably coupled to opposite ends of the cask. Each impact limiter may comprise a deformable energy-absorbing perforated sleeve of cylindrical shape comprising an array of closely-spaced longitudinally elongated perforations. The perforations may comprise longitudinal passages having a circular cross-sectional shape in certain embodiments. The perforated sleeve may have an annular metallic body of monolithic unitary structure in which the perforations are formed and a central opening to receive the ends of the cask therein. When exposed to external impact forces such as created by dropping the cask, the perforations collapse inwards in the impact or crush zone to absorb the energy of fall while preventing or minimizing any forces transmitted to the cask to maintain the integrity of waste containment barrier.