Spent fuel is stored at nuclear plants, for now
Spent fuel from any nuclear plant would have to be temporarily stored at the plant even after the federal government decides on a permanent repository for the highly radioactive material.
“That’s just a given,” said Craig Nesbit with Exelon Nuclear. “You can’t take it out of the reactor and just ship it off. That’s just not possible.”
When the fuel becomes spent, he said, it is removed and put into pools of water to cool for five years. Once the cooling pools fill up, the oldest fuel is removed and put into storage canisters lined up on large concrete pads outside the reactor building awaiting transportation to the permanent disposal site.
