Home > Nuclear > Spent Nuclear Fuel

Spent Nuclear Fuel                                          

Release Date: October 1, 2004
Next Release: Late 2010**



Spent nuclear fuel data is collected by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) for the Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management (OCRWM). The spent nuclear fuel (SNF) data includes detailed characteristics of SNF generated by commercial U.S. nuclear power plants. From 1983 through 1995 this data was collected annually. Since 1996 this data has been collected every three years. The latest available detailed data covers all SNF discharged from commercial reactors before December 31, 2002, and is maintained in a data base by the EIA. Summary data tables from this data base may be found as indicated below. The detailed data are available on request from Jim Finucane who can be reached at 202-586-1198 or at jim.finucane@eia.doe.gov. Data on SNF discharged from commercial nuclear reactors as of December 31, 2006, is expected to be available in the latter part of 2007.

Table 1. Total U.S. Commercial Spent Nuclear Fuel Discharges, 1968 - 2002

Reactor Type

 Number of Assemblies
Stored at
Reactor
Sites		 Stored at
Away-from-Reactor
Facilities		 Total
Boiling-Water Reactor 90,398 2,957 93,355
Pressurized-Water Reactor 69,800 491 70,291
High-Temperature Gas Cooled Reactor 1,464 744 2,208
Total 161,662 4,192 165,854
  Metric Tonnes of Uranium (MTU)
Boiling-Water Reactor 16,153.6 554.0 16,707.6
Pressurized-Water Reactor 30,099.0 192.6 30,291.6
High-Temperature Gas Cooled Reactor 15.4 8.8 24.2
Total 46,268.0 755.4 47,023.4
   MTU = Metric tonnes of uranium.
   Notes: A number of assemblies discharged prior to 1972, which were reprocessed, are not included in this table (no data is available for assemblies reprocessed before 1972).
   Totals may not equal sum of components because of independent rounding.
   Source: Energy Information Administration, Form RW-859, "Nuclear Fuel Data" (2002).

 

**   Next release will include 2009 data.

More Spent Fuel TablesFormats
Table 2. Nuclear Power Plant Data as of December 31, 2002 html
Table 3. Annual Spent Fuel Discharges and Burnup, 1968 - 2002 html
Prior Year Spent Fuel tablesformat
1998 Spent Fuel Tablespdf