Nuclear services company Holtec International unveiled Tuesday its newest device for dismantling nuclear reactor components, which is already in use at a shuttered New York nuclear power plant, according to a press release.
Holtec’s “innovative segmentation technology,” dubbed HI-CUT in the company’s Tuesday press release, is designed to “improve the efficacy of dismantling radiation-hardened and embrittled reactor internals and pressure vessels” at retired nuclear power plants. The HI-CUT device is designed to be mounted on a gantry crane and can dismantle and manipulate reactor parts stored underwater in cooling pools, Holtec said.
The system was also designed to ensure minimum radiation exposure and “multi-layered protection” for site personnel, as well as “assured control of spread of contamination,” the company said.
A Holtec spokesperson described the HI-CUT technology in an email Tuesday as a system of saws that “segment the reactor efficiently cutting through a variety of metals underwater.”
Holtec has already started using the HI-CUT system at the shuttered Buchanan, N.Y., Indian Point Energy Center, where its performance “exceeded expectations” in breaking apart the facility’s Unit 3 reactor. The device is “critical to the safe and efficient decommissioning” of Indian Point, Tuesday’s press release said.
At Indian Point, decommissioning work is progressing — Holtec has said that the site’s spent fuel inventory will be completely transferred into onsite dry storage by February.
The Camden, N.J., nuclear services company acquired the plant from Entergy Corp. after it shut down for good in April 2021. Holtec has said it could finish dismantling Indian Point by 2027 or so.
Updated 12/28/2022 10:40 a.m. Eastern time with comment from Holtec.
