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Transportation of Spent Nuclear Fuel
What We Regulate
Spent nuclear fuel refers to uranium-bearing fuel elements that have
been used at commercial nuclear reactors and that are no longer producing
enough energy to sustain a nuclear reaction. Once the spent fuel is
removed from the reactor the fission process has stopped, but the spent
fuel assemblies still generate significant amounts of radiation and heat.
Because of the residual hazard, spent fuel must be shipped in containers
or casks that shield and contain the radioactivity and dissipate the
heat.
Over the last 30 years, thousands of shipments of commercially
generated spent nuclear fuel have been made throughout the United States
without causing any radiological releases to the environment or harm to
the public.
Most of these shipments occur between different reactors owned by the
same utility to share storage space for spent fuel, or they may be shipped
to a research facility to perform tests on the spent fuel itself. In the
near future, because of a potential high-level waste repository being
built, the number of these shipments by road and rail is expected to
increase.
How We Regulate
The NRC regulates spent fuel transportation through a combination of
safety and security requirements, certification of transportation casks,
inspections, and a system of monitoring to ensure that requirements are
being met. For general information, see the How We Regulate page. For details,
see the following pages under Nuclear Materials
Transportation:
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