Technical concept for a test of geologic storage of spent reactor fuel in the climax granite, Nevada Test Site

We plan to emplace spent fuel assemblies from an operating commercial nuclear reactor in the Climax granite at the US Department of Energy`s Nevada Test Site. In this generic test, 11 canisters of spent fuel will be emplaced with 6 electrical simulator canisters in a storage drift 420 m below in surface and their effects compared. Two adjacent drifts will contain electrical heaters, operated to simulate the temperature-stress-displacement fields of a large repository. We describe the test objectives, the technical issues, the site, the preoperational measurement program, thermal and mechanical response calculations, the characteristics of the spent fuel, the field instrumentation and data-acquisition systems, and the system for handling the spent fuel.