Boundary conditions to water removal from defective spent fuel

In support of industrial implementations of leaking spent fuel preparation for long term dry storage, hot cell tests were performed to study the kinetics of water vapor transport through spent fuel rod segments. Nearquantitative removal of water is achieved by vacuum assisted drying at moderately elevated temperatures. It was also demonstrated that without heating, significant amounts of water may remain inaccessible to vacuum drying. The hot cell tests gave further insight in the water removal rates through spent fuel rods. First results of the industrial implementation of the German Quiver program for leaking spent fuel are also presented. The process uses a heat-assisted vacuum drying process and the observations from the industrial process are compared to the hot cell results.