IAEA Brings Global Experts Together to Improve How Spent Nuclear Fuel Is Managed

Spent fuel assemblies must meet specific safety and technical requirements as they pass through successive stages of management, making reliable information about their characteristics essential.

Decisions about storing, transporting, reprocessing or disposing of spent nuclear fuel depend on knowing what the fuel contains and how it will behave under different conditions. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is bringing specialists together through a new Coordinated Research Project, Spent Fuel Characterization Phase II, to improve the measurements, computer models and information needed for those decisions. Known by the project code T13036, the initiative will cover older fuel designs, fuels currently in use and advanced fuel types.

Understanding fuel before it moves to the next stage

Spent fuel assemblies must meet specific safety and technical requirements as they pass through successive stages of management, making reliable information about their characteristics essential. Researchers will examine how advanced modelling tools and destructive and non-destructive testing can identify, calculate and measure those characteristics, helping operators improve management practices across storage, reprocessing, transportation and disposal. Destructive techniques involve examining material taken from the fuel, and non-destructive methods obtain information without cutting into or consuming the material being assessed.

The research will address radionuclide inventories and their physical, chemical, neutronic and thermomechanical behaviour, including how it interacts with neutrons and responds to heat and mechanical forces. Participants will identify characterization methods suited to the requirements of each management stage and compare experimental techniques developed over several decades with modern approaches, building a clearer understanding of what different methods can establish and where further evidence is needed.

Making measurements and records useful for future decisions

The project will build on methods and techniques examined in the IAEA's earlier Spent Fuel Characterization project, T13018, expanding knowledge exchange around modern modelling, measurements, data management and validation. One central task is to establish what information is needed at different points in the back end of the nuclear fuel cycle, so researchers and fuel managers can connect their investigations with the practical requirements of handling fuel after its use in a reactor.

Participants will share approaches to building characterization databases, deciding what those records should contain and preserving information for future use. Existing datasets will be examined to improve awareness of available evidence, assess their usefulness for checking models and measurement methods, and identify missing information. Understanding uncertainties in those datasets is part of that work, because the confidence attached to a measurement or calculation affects how it can support technical assessments and management decisions.

Sharing expertise and opening applications to research institutes

The initiative will connect IAEA Member States with substantial experience in spent fuel characterization with countries that have more limited expertise and infrastructure, giving participating institutions opportunities to exchange practical knowledge and identify joint research activities. Strengthening knowledge in less experienced countries and increasing the participation of young professionals are explicit priorities, helping develop the expertise needed to manage different fuel types. The findings are expected to be brought together in an IAEA Technical Report for wider use.

Institutes interested in participating must email a Proposal for a Research Contract or Agreement to the IAEA's Research Contracts Administration Section at Research.Contracts@iaea.org no later than 31 January 2027, identifying the project as T13036. Applicants should use the appropriate template available through the Coordinated Research Activities participation portal, with a project kick-off meeting to be announced after the proposals have been assessed.