Agenda - 11-17-1998 - 5a - Laserfiche WebLink

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Nuclear Wasre Oisposai Crrsrs applies to all nuclear pu~ver plants virtually all of the time; in fact, at all tiaiea except fur those rare occasiun~ when a tuel assembly i5 dropped or the tooling system Eails. ; Atomic Energy of Canada, Limited (AECL) and Ontario Hydro eonduc the first major spent fuel pool storage study during l9Ti-1975. Several spent fud assemblies From nuclear pu~ver plants and experimental reactors were d''i5ass`~Oem. bled and examined. The assemblies included in this study had been sto spent fuel pools between l3 and 27 years. Destructive examinations were formed on specific fuel rods From each spent fuel assembly, while the fuel rods were returned to the spent fuel pools for continued storage. ~. Ten years later, AECL and Ontario Hydro repeated the study to evalua effects after another decade of storage. AECL and Ontario Hydro visually exam fined the spent Euel assemblies. Nu indications of fuel rod cladding d (i.e., pitting, galvanic corrosion, etc.) were observed on any fuel ~~ ~ Neutron radiography techniques were used to took for the presence of~• inside fuel rods. If water vas present inside a fuel rod, then that fuel: cladding was known to be defective. The neutron radiography e.~caminatioas 1955-1959 indicated that no fuel rods had failed since the examinations 1975. '~' During the 1955-1989 study, AECL performed gamma scanning of~ spent fuel rods that had been in pool storage for 21 years. The gamma ~~ results indicated no evidence of leaching or redistribution of fission pn~u Euel rods. Room temperature ring-tensile tests were performed on 30 fuel from 1.4 spent fuel assemblies that had been stored underc.•ater for 13 to 27 The tests were conducted to determine if there had been amp change in ~dd~'i mechanical properties due to storage under water. No significant difference cladding's mechanical properties were identified. AECL and Ontario Hy~.,,~ eluded from the studies that spent fuel assemblies can be safely stored underv ter for at least ~0 vears.=' -` EPRI and Battelle Pacific Northwest Laboratory researched empiri ~ analytical information available through 198 on underwater scent Ebel in this country. This team discovered nu evidence that spent toe! asse~b degrade to any appreciable degree during long periods of underwater sto-~.,nr. The team concluded that substantial technical basis exists to justify all spent fuel to remain in vet storage fur several decades= . =+a Managing the Risks y~ vuclear power plants hive stored spent fuel assemblies fur nearly ~0 etv -~ without am• significant incidents. The primary threat to public health and saf e ,- from spent fuel storage results from loss of spent foe! pool water inventory ~ . consequences from a spent heel pool accident include butte radiation exposure (5x1(7' person-rem) and expense 153.E billion in 1y53 dollars). Lzsser threats ro' X20