Andrew Newman PhD
Senior Director for Nuclear Fuel Cycle Activities
Key Takeaways: Horonobe Pacific Rim Spent Fuel Management Partnership Working Group Meeting
On October 29, NTI hosted a panel discussion as part of its fall Board meeting. Panelists included Jill Hruby, John Holdren and Renee Wegrzyn, on the subject of “WMDs & Emerging Technologies: Assessing Threats and Opportunities.” On November 13, NTI hosted an event to launch Jill Hruby’s paper “Russia’s New Nuclear Weapon Delivery Systems” and the accompanying paper from Lynn Rusten and Mark Melamed.
- Wakkanai, Japan
In October 2019, members of the Pacific Rim Spent Fuel
Management Partnership met in Wakkanai, Japan for a meeting of the Underground
Research Facility R&D Working Group. This meeting brought together
experts from regional governments, waste management organizations, academic
institutions, and industry to prioritize an extensive list of potential
collaborative technical projects previously identified as mutually beneficial
by the partners.
The working group selected ‘modeling
thermal-hydraulic-mechanical-chemical (THMC)-coupled behavior of bentonite for
use as an engineered barrier in a repository’ for collaborative research over
the next several years, and is working throughout 2020 to develop a detailed
research plan for moving forward with collaborative work.
This meeting was coordinated by NTI’s Developing Spent Fuel
Strategies in consultation with the Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA), and
included a tour of the Horonobe Underground Research Laboratory.
