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The Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management (OCRWM) of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) sponsors the Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management Graduate Fellowship Program to help DOE and OCRWM meet their expected personnel needs for ongoing research and development programs in the management of spent nuclear fuel (SNF) and high-level radioactive waste (HLW). Current and planned uses of commercial fission reactors for energy generation require that educated, highly qualified engineers and scientists with advanced degrees in disciplines related to the management of SNF and HLW.

OCRWM offers graduate students the opportunity to participate in fellowships in fields related to the management of spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive wastes. Application is usually made before or during the first year of graduate school.

The OCRWM graduate fellowship program is administered for DOE by Oak Ridge Institute of Science and Education (ORISE). To view program requirements and the link to the OCRWM Graduate Fellowship Program application, visit the web site.

The specific objective of the program is to support graduate study in disciplines related to the sciences and technologies associated with the safe transport, storage and disposal of spent nuclear fuel.

The Idaho National Laboratory (INL) is one of the DOE participating laboratories with two primary areas for students to be involved during the summer, design and engineering, and licensing support.

Idaho National Laboratory Project Descriptions

The Idaho National Laboratory has a long history of supporting the advancement of nuclear programs including the repository, a critical element for the resurgence of nuclear power. The Idaho National Laboratory has supported the Yucca Mountain Repository Project since 2003 in two primary areas, design and engineering, and licensing support.

Design and Engineering

Within design and engineering, INL's primary task continues to be the design, construction, and full scale testing of a prototype of the waste package closure system. A full scale demonstration scheduled for October 2008 is expected to satisfy the NRC's requirement for adequate design detail of the system. Waste packages will be filled with sealed canisters of commercial spent nuclear fuel and then disposed of in the repository. The waste package closure system includes all operations required to seal the waste package, backfill the inner vessel with helium, and evaluate the integrity of the welds. Listed below are the high-level system components that require development to close the waste package:

• Material handling in the closure area
• Welding the lids to the waste package
• Nondestructive examination of the waste package closure welds
• Leak testing the inner vessel of the waste package
• Evaluation and backfill of the inner vessel with helium
• Mitigating the residual surface stresses in the outer lid welds.

Licensing Support

INL performs four major tasks for licensing support.

• INL performs software engineering activities to support the verification, reconstitution, and qualification activities for software associated with the modeling several aspects of the total system performance.
• The Total System Performance Assessment model includes a variety of computer models and codes that will be used in the Yucca Mountain license application to show how the repository performs. INL's role in the development of the Total System Performance Assessment model includes developing an appendix to map where credible features, events, and processes are implemented in the model. Staff also conducts verification runs for the engineered barrier system, drift seepage, and transport modules in both the saturated and unsaturated zones of the repository. These runs provide assurance that the computations from the model to support the Yucca Mountain license are correct.
• INL conducts corrosion testing of neutron absorbing alloys for use in the repository waste packages and the transportable, ageable, and disposal canisters. The purpose of this testing is to identify the least corrosive alloys for use in fabrication of the spent nuclear fuel storage racks, storage canisters, and internal structural baskets for the YMP waste package, and the TAD canisters.
• INL geoscientists are conducting reviews of water infiltration models for final verification and use in the license application.