Future requirements of nuclear data for the handling, reprocessing and disposal of spent nuclear fuel

Abstract
This paper considers the decay heat and radiation source terms from a perspective based upon recent validation results for JEFF-3.1. Currently used fuel and reactor systems have sufficient measurements of irradiated fuel to justify safety cases, however until such measurements are available for novel systems these must be studied based upon the accuracy to which important nuclides can be determined from the basic nuclear data, both the individual nuclide concentrations calculated and their uncertainties must be considered and the subsequent effect on operation parameters and costs estimated. It should be noted that future facilities will need to be designed for both the calculated quantities and, typically, twice the uncertainty on the important operational parameters. Any nuclear data which dominates the uncertainties need to be identified as well as any biases so that improvements can be made to the basic nuclear data. An initial study is described considering only thermal reactors and some conclusions made about how these could be extended for novel systems.