| Spent Fuel Management of Nuclear Power Plant has always been the focal point for pubic attention as far as nuclear power is concerned. How to properly store and dispose the spent fuel produced during plant operation is of paramount importance to the sustainable development of nuclear power. Presently, there has no as-built permanent spent fuel storage facility or permanent deep geological depository site in the world. Most of the spent fuel has been stored on site under wet or dry condition in the nuclear power plant.The nuclear power plant of Third Qinshan Nuclear Power Plant (hereafter"TQNPP") is a CANDU-6 Design NPP (Pressurized Heavy Water Reactor) from Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. (hereafter"AECL"). The CANDU design features the characteristic of on-power refueling. As per the design, it discharges 16 spent fuel bundles during 100% Full Power Operation per unit on a daily basis, which is to say that a single unit produce 4964 spent fuel bundles assuming an average capacity factor of 85%, with two units totally producing around 10,000 spent fuel bundles per year. For the 40 year long lifetime of the plant, it will produce around 400,000 spent fuel bundles. Currently, the spent fuel bundles of the plant is stored in the on site spent fuel bay with a single spent fuel bay capacity of 37,728 spent fuel bundles. When assuming the average capacity factor of 85%, the storage capacity of a single spent fuel bay is the spent fuel bundles produced along the period of around 7.6 years. However, with the increasing of capacity factor, this period will decrease accordingly. Unit#1 of TQNPP has been in commercial operation since Dec. 31st, 2002, and Unit#2 since Jul. 24th, 2003. Therefore, a sound solution to the spent fuel interim storage is of high priority for the long-term sustained operation of TQNPP.During this study, extensive research has been carried out on the type of spent fuel interim storage technologies to be adopted for TQNPP. In consideration the factors of spent fuel interim storage technology's maturity, easy to construction, expandability and economy, MACSTOR400 (Modular Air Cooled Storage 400) designed by AECL has been selected after a wide research on the prevailing spent fuel interim storage technologies available in the market while geared with the reactor type of TQNPP.Once the spent fuel interim storage technologies is selected, a preliminary study on the feasibility of construction MACSTOR400 within the site of TQNPP is conducted, with parameter inputs specific to the site of TQNPP. It mainly includes feasibility study on site conditions, geological condition, hydrology, meteorology, pubic transportation and environment.As for the key component of spent fuel interim storage facility feasibility study, the effective removal of decay heat from the spent fuel bundle by MACSTOR400 facility to meet spent fuel surface temperature limit has been studied to verify that requirement specified by relevant national standards and international norms and practices has been met. Preliminary numerical simulation is conducted for MACSTOR400 facility with site-specific parameters. With the numerical simulation, it has been verified that the spent fuel bundle surface temperature is within the limit of 340°C under any circumstances with effective decay heat removal of MACSTOR400 facility, and no foreseeable threat is conceived for the surrounding environment.With the above wide research, analysis and verification, it has come to the conclusion that it is feasible to construct spent fuel interim storage facility MACSTOR400 within the site of TQNPP.Spent fuel interim dry storage facility construction is first of its kind in China, the analysis produced during this study will provide valuable input to the construction of spent fuel interim dry storage facility within the site of TQNPP and for the future construction of other spent fuel storage facilities in China.
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