Prevention of Damage to Spent Nuclear Fuel during Handling Operations

Abstract

According to regulatory requirements, when carrying out handling operations with spent nuclear fuel (SNF), prevention of damage to the spent fuel assemblies (SFA) and especially fuel elements shall be ensured.
 For this purpose, it is necessary to exclude the risk of SFA falling, SFA uncontrolled displacements, prevent mechanical influences on SFA, at which their damage is possible.
 Special requirements for handling equipment (in particular, cranes) to exclude these dangerous events, the requirements for equipment strength, resistance to external impacts, reliability, equipment design solutions, manufacturing quality are analyzed in this work. The requirements of Ukrainian and U.S. regulatory documents also are considered.
 The implementation of these requirements is considered on the example of handling equipment, in particular, spent nuclear fuel storage facilities.
 This issue is important in view of creation of new SNF storage facilities in Ukraine. These facilities include the storage facility (SFSF) for SNF from water moderated power reactors (WWER): a Сentralized SFSF for storing SNF of Rivne, Khmelnitsky and South-Ukraine Nuclear Power Plants (СSFSF), and SFSF for SNF from high-power channel reactors (RBMK): a dry type SFSF at Chornobyl nuclear power plant (ISF-2). After commissioning of these storage facilities, all spent nuclear fuel from Ukrainian nuclear power plants will be placed for long-term “dry” storage. The safety of handling operations with SNF during its preparation for long-term storage is an important factor.