Fort St. Vrain decommissioning experience
- Public Service Company of Colorado, Denver, CO (United States)
- Colorado Public Service Co., Platteville, CO (United States)
Nuclear plant decommissioning represents a significant expenditure of time and resources for nuclear utilities. Public Service Company of Colorado (PSC) is in the process of completing the decommissioning of the Fort St. Vrain (FSV) Nuclear Station, the first large-scale commercial nuclear plant to be decommissioned under the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission`s (NRC`s) 1988 decommissioning rule. PSC`s experience has included dispositioning spent fuel, choosing a decommissioning alternative, and actively decommissioning the plant from dismantlement and decontamination through final survey. When the plant was prematurely shut down in August 1989, PSC`s initial task was to find a storage location for FSV`s spent fuel. PSC had a contract with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to ship FSV spent fuel to the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory (INEL), and all previously removed spent fuel had been shipped there. However, Idaho legally blocked further FSV spent-fuel shipments to INEL, and PSC decided to license and build an on-site, passively cooled independent spent-fuel storage installation (ISFSI). By June 1992, all FSV spent fuel was transferred from the reactor building to the ISFSI. PSC has been able to use low-level radioactive waste (LLWR) disposal facilities in the Northwest Compact, and disposal costs are within estimates. Industrial and radiological safety have been emphasized throughout the project, and performance in these areas has been outstanding. PSC has obtained NRC Aprilproval of a final survey plan that allows for many of the plant`s components and systems to remain in place, and final survey activities are nearing completion. PSC is in the process of repowering the facility with natural gas-fired combustion turbines and heat recovery boilers. The first combustion turbine was placed in service Ap 30, 1996.
- OSTI ID:
- 426590
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-961103--
- Journal Information:
- Transactions of the American Nuclear Society, Journal Name: Transactions of the American Nuclear Society Vol. 75; ISSN TANSAO; ISSN 0003-018X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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