Abstract: Single highway transportation system cannot meet the requirement of spent fuel transportation of the coastal nuclear power plant in China as the development of nuclear power. The multimodal transportation system including maritime transportation is the future direction of spent fuel transportation. In this paper, the technical conditions of typical spent fuel trans-shipment ports abroad are investigated, and the issues of our spent fuel shipping are analyzed. The results show that the typical foreign spent fuel trans-shipment ports are equipped with fixed lifting equipment that meets the requirements, and the ports are under closed management during the operation of ship in the ports, and the dose of exposure of the ports operators is monitored and controlled. As we have no experience of spent fuel shipping, let alone the relevant technical specifications of trans-shipment ports, this paper puts forward the experience of spent fuel shipping in foreign countries such as France, Britain and Japan. This paper also puts forward some suggestions on the existing problems of spent fuel shipping in China.

Key words: spent fuel, multimodal transportation system, trans-shipment ports