Interim storage of spent fuel in the United States

At nuclear power reactors around the United States, quantities of spent or irradiated nuclear fuel are growing while owner-operator companies await th e approval of a permanent storage facility. Some reactors have run out of s pace in their cooling pools and have had to resort to dry cask storage. The first half of this paper looks at the policy history of interim storage in the United States, discusses the current storage status at individual reac tors, and then reviews the technologies available to deal with it. The seco nd half of the paper considers the different options for dealing with this hazardous material in the interim, before a permanent high-level nuclear wa ste repository is opened, and examines the safety, security, transportation , economic, political, and other issues that bear on the choice of option.