U.S.
Holtec International said last week its HI-STAR ATB-1T cask design for nuclear waste transport successfully passed the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s 30-foot “free drop” test.
According to Holtec, the HI-STAR ATB-1T is the first “large, rectangular” cask for high-level waste to pass the test without any breach of containment boundary. The tests require that casks maintain radiation blockage when dropped from 30 feet onto “an essentially unyielding surface.” The NRC and international regulations require that the casks receive “maximum damage” from impact of the drop.
“The ‘free drop’ tests were a particularly daunting challenge because, in contrast to a fuel-bearing transport cask which is cylindrical, HI-STAR ATB-1T has a large rectangular footprint with several corners, facets and edges that render it vulnerable to a crushing impact loading,” Holtec stated.
The HI-STAR ATB-1T cask, weighing about 120 tons with payload, does not have an impact limiter to cushion impact, further separating it from cylindrical fuel transport casks. To minimize crew doses, the HI-STAR ATB-1T cask are also fitted with a connect-disconnect-controlled cask locking system, instead of a conventional bolted lid, according to Holtec.
The tests involved three successive drops with a quarter-scale model of the cask, which was manufactured by the Holtec Manufacturing Division and instrumented by the Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, N.M.
“To the delight of the assembled engineers, the cask, although challenged by the three successive direct collisions that included a top down oblique drop, a center of gravity over corner (CG over corner) drop, and a puncture drop test, met the structural sufficiency criterion and sustained no damage to its containment boundary or dislodging of its closure lid,” the announcement said.
Holtec said it anticipates the HI-STAR ATB-1T becomes “a reliable workhorse for nuclear plants, especially those undergoing decommissioning.”
INTERNATIONAL
Amec Wheeler Foster said Monday it has won a £7 million ($9 million) contract to design and build a new effluent treatment plant at Scotland’s shuttered Dounreay nuclear facility.
Dounreay Site Restoration Ltd. (DSRL), which is leading the decommissioning of the fast reactor research site in Caithness, awarded the contract. The treatment plant will serve as a link for processing and packaging waste from the Dounreay Shaft and Wet Silo. All liquid effluent from the new plant will be managed, processed, and discharged via pipeline to the site’s Low Level Liquid Effluent Treatment Plant, according to Monday’s announcement.
“This is an important project and adds to the work we are already engaged in with DSRL at Dounreay,” Vice President for Decommissioning at Amec Foster Wheeler Clean Energy Europe Andy White said in a statement. “The combination of our nuclear expertise and our experience as a contractor is instrumental in this work to support the clean-up of the site for future generations.”
Amec Wheeler Foster’s work will include: drawing up the concept and detailed design; producing safety and environmental data; manufacturing the modular process plant; off-site testing; delivery to Dounreay; and on-site installation.
“As a major employer in Caithness, we take our responsibility to support the future of our community seriously,” Dounreay Head of Commercial Stephen Adamson said in the statement. “We are particularly pleased to announce this partnership as it is the first contract to be awarded since Dounreay introduced a policy requiring our biggest suppliers to think about how they can help us deliver our socio-economic commitments.”
Three of six 12.4-ton stainless steel doors — which will serve as access points for waste retrievals at the Sellafield nuclear site’s Pile Fuel Cladding Silo – have arrived, the U.K. Nuclear Decommissioning Authority said Monday.
The third door arrived recently, according to the announcement, and all six silo doors are scheduled for installation by December 2016. They are expected to begin accepting waste retrievals at the start of 2020.
The silo houses waste from nuclear weapons production activities dating to the 1940s.
“This is a fantastic achievement for the team,” Pile Fuel Cladding Silo program chief Gary Snow said in the statement. “It is a significant step forward towards our mission to deliver the ‘early retrievals’ approach which is leading to a simpler, quicker, safer and more efficient way of getting the waste out of this legacy facility.”
According to a previous NDA announcement, the doors weigh as much as 150 men and stand 7 meters tall and 4 meters wide. The first door was successfully lifted into a 40-ton, 9-meter wide frame on the side of the building after arriving in early August.
AREVA said Monday it has won a multimillion-dollar contract to design and manufacture 30 used fuel transportation and dry storage casks for Belgian nuclear power reactors Doel 3 and 4 and Tihange 1, 2, and 3.
AREVA signed the contract with Synatom, a subsidiary of French group Engie. The contract is worth “several millions of euros,” according to the press release, and includes an “option of additional casks up to 2030.”
AREVA’s TN 24 casks are designed for the transport and dry storage of spent fuel assemblies, and feature “an innovative container design adapted to the MOX (mixed oxides) fuel loading,” the release says.
“The signing of this contract once again demonstrates the confidence of Engie group in our innovative and competitive solutions,” AREVA Director of Nuclear Logistics Operations Frédéric de Agostini said in a statement. “This contract marks the continuity of our longstanding collaboration which dates back over 30 years.”
