Overview of the prototypical rod consolidation program

Conference · Fri Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1988 · Trans. Am. Nucl. Soc.; (United States)

OSTI ID:5867472

Clark, J H; Maughan, R Y

The prime objective of this project is to develop a spent nuclear fuel rod consolidation system that is capable of consolidating 750 tonne HM/yr during an operating cycle of two shifts per day, 5 days per week. This system is to be remotely operable and maintainable and have a reliability equal to or greater than 75%. The space envelope at a future facility specified for this equipment is 6.1 m (20 ft) wide x 16.8 m (55 ft) long x 10.2 m (33.5 ft) high. To accomplish the annual throughput (750 tonne HM), the consolidation equipment will have to process an average of /approx/3000 fuel assemblies per year, which equates to handling in excess of 450,000 fuel rods per year. Remote handling and processing equipment challenges are identified and discussed in this paper for (a) efficient fuel assembly handling, (b) disassembly of the fuel assemblies, (c) extracting and control of the fuel rods during reconfiguration from the square array in the fuel assembly to a triangular array in a consolidated fuel rod canister, and (d) the accountability of the large number of fuel rods. This paper presents details of the NUS equipment designs and how each of these remote operations is addressed.

• OSTI ID: 5867472
• Report Number(s): CONF-881011-
• Conference Information: Journal Name: Trans. Am. Nucl. Soc.; (United States) Journal Volume: 57
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

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SPENT FUEL ELEMENTS
SPENT FUEL STORAGE
SPENT FUELS
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SUPPORTS
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US ORGANIZATIONS
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