Patent Number: 
Section: claims

1. A method for storing and cooling nuclear waste canisters comprising:providing a manifold storage system comprising a vertical air inlet downcomer, a piping network fluidly coupled to the downcomer, and a plurality of vertically oriented storage shells each fluidly coupled to the piping network, each storage shell forming a cavity configured for holding a nuclear waste canister;positioning a hermetically sealed nuclear waste canister containing high level nuclear waste into each cavity of the storage shells to form an annular gap between each canister and their respective shells, the nuclear waste generating heat;drawing cooling air from the ambient atmosphere into the downcomer;distributing the cooling air from the downcomer through the piping network to the storage shells;introducing the cooling air into the annular gaps of each storage shell;heating the cooling air via the nuclear waste in each storage shell thereby producing heated air; andventing the heated air from the storage shells back to the ambient atmosphere.