Research Progress on Thermal Hydraulic Characteristics of Spent Fuel Pools: A Review

Nuclear power plants (NPPs) produce large amounts of spent fuel while generating electricity. After the spent fuel is taken out of the reactor core, it still has a high decay heat and needs to be cooled for years or even decades before it can be reprocessed or buried deeply. Due to the long storage period of spent fuel, storage safety evaluation is a concern. In this regard, cooling systems are critical for the safe storage of spent fuel. Here, the research progress of cooling methods for spent fuel pools (SFPs) is reviewed, and the structural characteristics, application limitations and heat transfer performance of active and passive cooling technologies under accident conditions are discussed in detail. Moreover, future developments of SFPs are discussed, and the results of this review confirm that there is a great deal of research scope to improve the cooling performance and safety of spent fuel. This paper aims to provide a reference guide for engineers and will be highly beneficial to researchers engaged in spent fuel storage.