Senior Design success at competition

A Senior Design project consisted of creating shipment schedules and transportation plans to move used nuclear fuel assemblies (UNFA) from multiple shutdown sites across the United States (at most 12) to a central repository site located in west Texas
(Waste Control Specialists, WCS), sponsored by AREVA. The 12 decommissioned sites evaluated include: Maine Yankee, Yankee Rowe, Connecticut Yankee, Humboldt Bay, Big Rock Point, Rancho Seco, Trojan, La Crosse, Zion, Crystal River and San Onofre. Evaluation at the competition was based on a paper and presentation about the project.

The project consisted of developing the optimum routes using rail transportation from these facilities to the repository based on the following criteria: shortest route, avoidance of certain states and/or cities, minimum population density, etc. shipping costs labor, and required resources. Transportation routes were gathered from a GIS tool called Transportation Routing Analysis Geographic Information System (TRAGIS), which is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and operated and maintained by Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). The analysis included shipment from one site at a time as well as from multiple sites simultaneously.

The project team consisted of Richard Alaimo, Justin Ervin, Kevin Wong, William Cole and Hanna Tannous.