Methodology to group DOE fuels for the purpose of repository technical acceptance

The Department of Energy (DOE EM-37) has approximately 250 different fuels that they would like to eventually dispose of in a deep geological repository with no or minimal conditioning or processing. They are currently evaluating what technical requirements would apply to the acceptance of these fuels and what testing would be needed to establish a position for inclusion of these fuels in a licensing application. The Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management (OCRWM) has spent considerable time, money, and effort trying to establish the licensing basis for the disposal of lightwater reactor (LWR) fuel. To apply that same effort to all 250 DOE fuels would be beyond foreseeable programmatic resources and in some cases logistically unjustifiable. A team of staff familiar with both the LWR and DOE fuels has proposed a methodology to group the fuels in order to optimize the DOE-SNF testing necessary to meet the technical (as opposed to political etc.) requirements placed on the fuels. This paper describes that methodology and the preliminary recommended technical groupings.