The Savannah River Site declared a potential inadequacy in the safety analysis (PISA) at a site storage facility on Feb. 24 after a lid came off a spent nuclear fuel (SNF) storage can.
Department of Energy SRS Manager Jack Craig said in a March 29 report that the incident occurred in L Area, a facility that accepts and stores spent fuel from foreign and domestic sources.
An inner fuel can, holding the SNF, was removed from a bundle and put on a tray, and the can was rotated to check the fuel identification number. During that process, the fuel can lid came off. That prompted employees to cease work and enter a “limiting condition of operation which stopped all fuel movements in L Area,” according to Craig’s report.
The fuel can was set aside in an authorized storage area within L Area, and normal operations resumed within a few hours. There was no harm to workers or the environment, and no other potential risks resulted from the incident.
In an emailed response to questions, SRS spokesman Monte Volk said the site is still working to determine the cause of the incident. He could not say when that will occur since operations were not significantly impacted.
Volk added that the site is developing a path forward to address the issue, which includes the PISA, a formal process within the overall safety program to ensure risk is reduced and proper safety measures are taken. PISAs are documented when an error in a safety analysis occurs.
If SRS confirms that a safety inadequacy did occur, the site would then take preventive actions, such as reviewing safety regulations to see if modifications are necessary. “Safety at SRS is a rigorous and robust program with many checks and balances and a PISA is one tool to help ensure risk is mitigated at every level,” Volk wrote.
