Problems in shipment of spent fuel from nuclear power stations

1975 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
pp. 615-619
Author(s):  
Yu. I. Arkhipovskii ◽  
V. A. Burlakov ◽  
A. N. Kondrat'ev ◽  
E. D. Lyubimov ◽  
A. P. Markovin
2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 172988141983054
Author(s):  
Yang Luo ◽  
Jianguo Tao ◽  
Hao Sun ◽  
Zhuang Hao ◽  
Hao Li ◽  
...  

In this article, a novel localization approach incorporating attitude and heading reference system and underwater altimeters is presented to accurately localize the underwater welding vehicles in spent fuel pools of the nuclear power stations. Different from the conventional underwater localization technologies, the presented localization approach is a more suitable approach in cases of confined structured water areas. Firstly, a multi-regions division localization algorithm is proposed for calculating the coordinate of the underwater welding vehicle through data from sensors. Also, considering the attitude errors of the underwater welding vehicle, the beam angle of the altimeters, and the boundary effects of cross-regions, an optimized multi-regions division localization algorithm is introduced for general applicability of the multi-regions division localization. Then, computer simulations are employed to evaluate the validity and the performance of multi-regions division localization and optimized multi-regions division localization. Finally, the efficiency of the proposed approach is confirmed via system experiments. The experimental results are consistent with simulation results which further indicate that the presented approach holds great potential in effective underwater vehicles localization for confined structured water scenarios.


MRS Bulletin ◽  
1998 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 6-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. Stoll

The following article is based on a talk for Symposium X presented by Wolfgang Stoll, Chief Scientific Advisor and Consultant in Siemens, Germany, at the 1996 MRS Fall Meeting.Since 1941 when Glenn Seaborg first isolated plutonium in milligram quantities, the total amount converted through neutron capture in U-238 has increased worldwide to about 1,200 tons and continues to grow about 70 tons/year. What was fissioned in situ in operating nuclear power stations is roughly equivalent to 5 billion tons of black coal, while the fission energy contained in those 1,200 tons unloaded in spent fuel is equivalent to another 2 billion tons of coal. About 260 of these 1,200 tons are ready to release their energy in about 4 kg-portions each in microseconds which is equivalent to 10,000 tons of coal. Most people believe this release of energy poses a major threat of the worldwide arsenal of weapons of mass destruction (WMD). The about 20-fold overkill stored in worldwide WMD is considered superfluous after the crumbling of the Soviet Union. Options are sought to dispose of this surplus in a safe, speedy, and controllable manner. While for highly enriched uranium (HEU) (the other nuclear weapons material) dilution into low-enriched uranium and utilization in current light water reactors (LWR) poses market adaptation problems only, and while the worldwide consensus on the elimination of chemical and biological WMD is still in an initial phase, the decision of both the United States (US) and the former Soviet Union (FSU) to remove most of the plutonium out of weapons looks as if it was a firm political decision.


Author(s):  
Kenneth D. Kok

The purpose of the development of an international nuclear fuel recycle program is to: • Demonstrate advanced recycling by working to prove the technologies needed to close the fuel cycle, minimize waste, and obtain more energy benefit for each unit of fuel. • Build a global vision by enlisting partners to limit the spread of sensitive nuclear technologies in a way that enables nuclear power to meet global challenges. The program will begin with the establishment of a smaller scale secure fuel cycle facility that would serve as a model for international nuclear fuel reprocessing centers that would eventually be built in several countries world wide. The operating process plants will provide the secure and safe guarded environment for the recycle of spent fuel from nuclear power stations around the world. The demonstration site will provide for developing and testing processes that would lead to the more complete use of the energy available in nuclear fuels and the minimization of long lived nuclear waste.


Author(s):  
Carlo Bertoncini

Magnox reactors were the first generation of nuclear power stations built in the UK; ten sites in total, of which, nine had wet fuel routes with cooling ponds. Five ponds are currently in a decommissioning phase; this paper will focus primarily on Hunterston-A (HNA) Site and the central programme of work which governs its management. During its operation, the Cartridge Cooling Pond at HNA was used to receive the spent fuel discharged from the Site’s two reactors, it was then stored for cooling purposes prior to dispatch off site. The current decommissioning phase focusses on draining the 6500m3 pond. Due to the Site’s limited caesium removal facilities, a stand-alone effluent treatment plant was constructed to improve abatement and reduce the pond activity from 200 to 0.7 Bq/ml (β). This was necessary due to increased environmental standards introduced since the site had ceased generation ten years previously. Early characterisation and experience from other sites concluded that if the pond were to be drained without any treatment to the walls, doses to the Operators, during subsequent decommissioning works, would routinely be in excess of 1mSv.hr−1(γ). An opportunity was realised within the Ponds Programme that if the surface layer of the pond walls were to be removed during drain-down, ambient dose rates would be reduced by a factor of 10; this would allow for more cost-effective decommissioning options in the future. Ultra-high pressure water jetting was tested and proved to yield a ∼95% total-activity reduction on treated surfaces. Challenges were overcome in providing safe and secure access to Decommissioning Operators to perform this operation by means of floating platforms on the surface of the pond. As strategies to clear facilities to exemption levels are becoming both cost prohibitive and not reasonably practicable, work is now underway in the Programme to determine the optimum condition for entry into long-term quiescent storage, prior to final demolition. This paper will discuss the strategy and techniques which led to Magnox Ltd ponds to be of national and international interest to the nuclear community.


1983 ◽  
Vol 54 (4) ◽  
pp. 309-314 ◽  
Author(s):  
V. M. Dubrovskii ◽  
V. I. Zemlyanukhin ◽  
A. N. Kondrat'ev ◽  
Yu. A. Kosarev ◽  
L. N. Lazarev ◽  
...  

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kazuhiro Akimoto

This paper analyzes and reviews various seismic damage at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station (F1) caused by the Great East Japan Earthquake (the Earthquake) on March 11 in 2011. Moreover, descriptions of various F1 accident reports on on-site seismic damage are comparatively analyzed. At first, impacts of the Earthquake and tsunami as well as damage at four influenced Nuclear Power Stations (NPSs), including F1, are comparatively analyzed. Although no safety-related equipment were seismically damaged at F1, there occurred various on-site seismic damage which should be learned at NPSs worldwide in preparation for next possible beyond-design-basis disasters. Particularly damaged were the main administration building as well as various on-site high-voltage equipment to receive off-site electric power. Owing largely to this on-site damage F1 lost the off-site power, eventually leading the entire NPS to station black-out. Other on-site seismic damage includes loss of an emergency data transmission system, roads, coolant water tanks, leakage of radio-contaminated water from spent fuel pools (SFP), presumably the Unit-1/2 exhaust stack among others.


MRS Bulletin ◽  
1994 ◽  
Vol 19 (12) ◽  
pp. 24-27 ◽  
Author(s):  
L.H. Johnson ◽  
L.O. Werme

The geologic disposal of spent nuclear fuel is currently under consideration in many countries. Most of this fuel is in the form of assemblies of zirconium-alloy-clad rods containing enriched (1–4% 235U) or natural (0.71% 235U) uranium oxide pellets. Approximately 135,000 Mg are presently in temporary storage facilities throughout the world in nations with commercial nuclear power stations.Safe geologic disposal of nuclear waste could be achieved using a combination of a natural barrier (the host rock of the repository) and engineered barriers, which would include a low-solubility waste form, long-lived containers, and clay- and cement-based barriers surrounding the waste containers and sealing the excavations.A requirement in evaluating the safety of disposal of nuclear waste is a knowledge of the kinetics and mechanism of dissolution of the waste form in groundwater and the solubility of the waste form constituents. In the case of spent nuclear fuel, this means developing an understanding of fuel microstructure, its impact on release of contained fission products, and the dissolution behavior of spent fuel and of UO2, the principal constituent of the fuel.


Atomic Energy ◽  
1997 ◽  
Vol 83 (6) ◽  
pp. 904-909 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yu. V. Glagolenko ◽  
E. G. Dzekun ◽  
G. M. Medvedev ◽  
S. I. Povnyi ◽  
V. P. Ufimtsev ◽  
...  

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