Recently, the deep geological disposal system isolating a spent nuclear fuel (SNF) is considered a disposal method of high-level radioactive waste for the safety of humans or the natural environment. The one of important requirements for maintaining the thermal stability of these systems is that the temperature of the buffer does not exceed 100°C even though the decay heat is emitted from highlevel radioactive wastes loaded in the disposal container. In 2007, a deep geological disposal system based on the Swedish disposal concept was developed for the SNF in Korea. To respond to the development process, the thermal stability of the deep geological disposal system developed for the disposal of domestic pressurized light water reactor (PWR) SNFs with discharged burn-up of 55 GWD/MTU was evaluated in 2019. The thing is that the recent fuel activity is pursuing to operate further high burn-up fuel conditions, and it leads to emergency core cooling system (ECCS) revision for extending the license for up to 60 or more than 60 GWD/MTU in the world. In this regard, this study evaluates numerically the thermal stability of the deep geological disposal system for the high burn-up PWR SNF having large decay heat compared to previous conditions for two different length disposal containers classified according to the length of PWR SNFs discharged from domestic nuclear power plants. A finite element analysis using a computational program was used to evaluate the thermal design requirements. Results show that both types of disposal containers would increase the temperature which reduces or fails to meet the safety margin of the disposal system. This study suggests that the design of the previous disposal system is needed to be further developed for the high burn-up PWR SNF which would be used in future nuclear power plant systems.

• Gisu Lee(Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH))
• Myeonggi Cha(Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH))
• Namhyeong Kim(Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH))
• HangJin Jo(Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH)) Corresponding author