In order to use nuclear energy stably, high level radioactive waste including spent nuclear fuel that is inevitably discharged from nuclear power plants after electricity generation must be managed safely and isolated from the human living area for a long period of time. In consideration of the accumulated amount of spent nuclear fuel anticipated according to the national policy for HLW management, the area required for the deep geological repository facility is expected to be very large. Therefore, it is essential to conduct various studies to optimize the area required for the disposal of spent nuclear fuel in cases where the nationally available land is extremely limited, such as in Korea. In this study, as part of such research, the strategies and the requirements for the preliminary design of a high efficiency repository concept of spent nuclear fuel were established. For PWR spent nuclear fuel, seven assemblies of spent nuclear fuel can be accommodated in a disposal canister, and high burnup of spent nuclear fuel was taken into consideration, and the source terms such as the amount and time of discharge and disposal were based on the 2nd national basic plan. By evaluating the characteristics, the amount of decay heat that can be accommodated in the disposal canister was optimized through the combination of seven assemblies of spent nuclear fuel. The cooling period of the radiation source for the safety assessment of the repository system was set at 55 years, and the operation of the repository would start from 2070 and then the disposal schedule would be conducted according to the disposal scenario based on the national basic plan. With these disposal strategies described above, the main requirements for setting up the conceptual design of the high efficiency repository system to be carried out in this study were described below. • A combination of seven spent nuclear fuels with high heat and spent nuclear fuels with low heat was loaded into a disposal canister, and the thermal limit per disposal canister was 1,600 W. • In order to maintain the long-term performance of the repository, the maximum temperature design limit in the buffer material was set to 130°C. • In the deep disposal environment, the safety factor [yield strength/maximum stress] required to maintain the structural stability of the disposal canister should be maintained at 2.0 or higher so that integrity of the canister can be maintained even under long-term hydrostatic pressure and buffer swelling pressure in the deep disposal environment. • The repository should have a maximum exposure dose of 10 mSv/yr or less, which is the legal limit in case of a single event such as an earthquake, and the risk level considering natural phenomena and human intrusion, which is less than the legal limit of 10-6/yr. These strategies and requirements can be used to develop the high-efficiency geological disposal concept for spent nuclear fuels as an alternative disposal concept.

As Korea has relatively small land area and large population density compared to other countries considering the DGD concept such as Finland and Sweden, improvements of disposal efficiency in the viewpoint of the disposal area might be needed for the current disposal system to alleviate the difficulties of site selection for the HLW repository. In this research, we conduct a numerical investigation of the disposal efficiency enhancement for a high-level radioactive waste (HLW) repository through three design factors: decay heat optimization, increased thermal limit of buffer, and double-layer concept. In the optimized decay heat model, seven SNFs with the maximum and minimum decay heat depending on actual burn-up and cooling time are iteratively combined in a canister. Thermal limit of buffer is assumed as 100°C and 130°C for reference and high-efficiency repository concepts, respectively. By implementing an optimized decay heat model and a single-layer concept with a thermal limit of buffer set at 100°C, the disposal efficiency increases to 2.3 times of the improved Korean Reference disposal System (KRS+). Additionally, incorporating either an increased thermal limit of buffer to 130°C or a double-layer concept leads to a further 50% improvement in disposal efficiency. By integrating all three design factors, the disposal efficiency can be enhanced up to five times that of the KRS+ repository. Our analysis of rock mass stability reveals that increasing the thermal limit of buffer can generate rock spalling failure in a wider area. However, when accounting for the effect of confining stress by swelling of buffer and backfill using the Mohr-Coulomb failure criteria, the rock mass failure only occurred at the corner between the disposal tunnel and deposition hole when the thermal limit of buffer was increased and a single-layer concept was applied. The results given in this study can provide various options for designing the high-efficiency repository in accordance with the target disposal area and quality of the rock mass in the potential repository site.

우리나라에서 발생하는 사용후핵연료를 CANDU형과 PWR형 2종류로 구분한다. PWR형 사용후핵연료의 경우 적절한 공정을 거쳐 원료물질로 다시 사용할 수 있는 물질을 많이 포함하고 있어 재활용 공정을 고려할 수 있다. CANDU형 사용후핵연료는 천연 우라늄을 원료물질로 사용하고 있어 재활용 가능성이 거의 없으므로 직접 처분을 고려하고 있다. 본 논문에서는 PWR형과 CANDU형 사용후핵연료 모두를 직접 처분하는 개념 으로 개발한 한국형 사용후핵연료 처분시스템을 바탕으로 CANDU형 사용후핵연료 처분 시스템을 향상시키 는 방안을 도출하고자 하였다. 이를 위하여, 현재 원자력발전소에서 사용하고 있는 사용후핵연료 60 다발 (Bundle) 용량의 저장바스켓을 포장·활용하는 방안으로 처분용기 개념을 개선하였다. 이들 개선한 처분용 기를 기반으로 하여 사용후핵연료의 심지층 처분시스템에 있어서 주요한 제한요건인 폐기물로부터 발생된 열로 인하여 완충재의 온도가 100 ℃를 넘지 않도록 하는 요건을 만족시키면서 효율을 향상시킨 처분시스템 개념을 제시하였다. 제시한 처분 시스템 개념들은 장기저장 및 회수성이 용이한 방안을 도입한 개념과 개선 한 처분용기를 1개 처분공에 2단으로 처분하는 것으로서 이들 개념을 기존 한국형 처분시스템과 효율성 측면 에서 비교?분석하였다. 본 연구를 통하여 얻은 CANDU 사용후핵연료 처분개념은 단위면적당 열효율, Udensity, 처분면적, 굴착량, 완충재 및 폐쇄 물질량을 30∼40 % 까지 효율을 향상시킬 수 있었다.