Implementation of a virtual environment for development of a spent fuel disposal process

Since the program for the development of a deep geological disposal system for the spent fuel from nuclear power plants was launched in 1997 as a national program in KOREA, a pre-conceptual design of a disposal system for spent fuel in a deep geological host rock formation was carried out and the Korean reference spent fuel vertical disposal system (KRS-VI) is concurrently being developed. In this study, a virtual environment system for developing a spent fuel disposal system and reviewing and analyzing the process for an optimization was implemented. This system consisted of a 3-D graphic simulation module and an analysis module, and was developed in three stages. To develop this system, the design bases like the fuel canisters, the production rate and the functions of the facility, and the detailed processes were reviewed. With the graphic simulation module, the disposal processes were simulated in a virtual work cell according to a process scenario. Also, with the analyses module, the spent fuel disposal processes were preliminarily analyzed. It is necessary to verify this system more specifically and analyze the disposal process in detail. This virtual system can be effectively used for developing a process and the process equipment, as well as optimizing the process for a spent fuel disposal in a deep geological host rock.