The objectives of this paper are: (1) to conduct the thermal analyses of the disposal cell using COMSOL Multiphysics; (2) to determine whether the design of the disposal cell satisfies the thermal design requirement; and (3) to evaluate the effect of design modifications on the temperature of the disposal cell. Specifically, the analysis incorporated a heterogeneous model of 236 fuel rod heat sources of spent nuclear fuel (SNF) to improve the reality of the modeling. In the reference case, the design, featuring 8 m between deposition holes and 30 m between deposition tunnels for 40 years of the SNF cooling time, did not meet the design requirement. For the first modified case, the designs with 9 m and 10 m between the deposition holes for the cooling time of 40 years and five spacings for 50 and 60 years were found to meet the requirement. For the second modified case, the designs with 35 m and 40 m between the deposition tunnels for 40 years, 25 m to 40 m for 50 years and five spacings for 60 years also met the requirement. This study contributes to the advancement of the thermal analysis technique of a disposal cell.

The recycling cell formation problem means that disposal products are classified into recycling product families using group technology in their end-of-life phase. Disposal products have the uncertainties of product condition usage influences. Recycling cells are formed considering design, process and usage attributes. In this paper, a new approach for the design of cellular recycling system is proposed, which deals with the recycling cell formation and assignment of identical products concurrently. Fuzzy ART neural networks are applied to describe the condition of disposal product with the membership functions and to make recycling cell formation. The approach leads to cluster materials, components, and subassemblies for reuse or recycling and can evaluate the value at each cell of disposal products. Disposal refrigerators are shown as an example.

The recycling cell formation problem means that disposal products are classified into recycling part families using group technology in their end of life phase. Disposal products have the uncertainties of product status by usage influences. Recycling cells are formed considering design, process and usage attributes. In this paper, a novel approach to the design of cellular recycling system is proposed, which deals with the recycling cell formation and assignment of identical products concurrently. Fuzzy clustering algorithm and Fuzzy-ART neural network are applied to describe the states of disposal product with the membership functions and to make recycling cell formation. This approach leads to recycling and reuse of the materials, components, and subassemblies and can evaluate the value at each cell of disposal products. Application examples are illustrated by disposal refrigerators, compared fuzzy clustering with Fuzzy-ART neural network performance in cell formation.