Fuel Pool Cleanup
At periodic intervals, nuclear plants schedule refueling outages to replace a portion of the nuclear fuel. The spent or used fuel still generates heat and radiation and must be handled and stored safely. The fuel assemblies that have been removed from the reactor are stored under water in the Spent Fuel Pool. Good water quality is important to prevent degradation and to help maintain the integrity of the spent fuel assemblies.
A key function of Fuel Pool Cleanup is removal of soluble and insoluble radioactive species. This is important for controlling dose rates on the refuel floor and work areas/platforms during a refueling outage. For BWRs, a RWCU system outage is normally required for system maintenance. Fuel Pool Cleanup is relied upon to remove impurities from the refuleing cavity water.
Spent Fuel Pool ion exchange systems can be either Powdex® precoat systems or deep beds. Graver Water provides Powdex® systems to simultaneously deionize the water and remove particulates to maintain pool clarity. Deep bed systems offer a higher ion exchange capacity, but not the same level of turbidity reduction. Graver Water has system designs for both precoat (Powdex) filters and deep bed ion exchange polishers for this application.
New design enhancements of Graver’s precoat filters, as proven by Organo Corporation in Japan, allow the new fuel pool cleanup systems to treat twice the flow of the original designs.
Ecodex®, the preferred precoat media for fuel pool cleanup, is provided by Graver Water’s sister company, Graver Technologies. For deep beds, a specialty Gravex mix provided by Graver Technologies, containing a high capacity stable cation resin is recommended, since the spent Fuel Pool environment can affect resin properties.
Fuel Pool Cleanup
At periodic intervals, nuclear plants schedule refueling outages to replace a portion of the nuclear fuel. The spent or used fuel still generates heat and radiation and must be handled and stored safely. The fuel assemblies that have been removed from the reactor are stored under water in the Spent Fuel Pool. Good water quality is important to prevent degradation and to help maintain the integrity of the spent fuel assemblies.
A key function of Fuel Pool Cleanup is removal of soluble and insoluble radioactive species. This is important for controlling dose rates on the refuel floor and work areas/platforms during a refueling outage. For BWRs, a RWCU system outage is normally required for system maintenance. Fuel Pool Cleanup is relied upon to remove impurities from the refuleing cavity water.
Spent Fuel Pool ion exchange systems can be either Powdex® precoat systems or deep beds. Graver Water provides Powdex® systems to simultaneously deionize the water and remove particulates to maintain pool clarity. Deep bed systems offer a higher ion exchange capacity, but not the same level of turbidity reduction. Graver Water has system designs for both precoat (Powdex) filters and deep bed ion exchange polishers for this application.
New design enhancements of Graver’s precoat filters, as proven by Organo Corporation in Japan, allow the new fuel pool cleanup systems to treat twice the flow of the original designs.
Ecodex®, the preferred precoat media for fuel pool cleanup, is provided by Graver Water’s sister company, Graver Technologies. For deep beds, a specialty Gravex mix provided by Graver Technologies, containing a high capacity stable cation resin is recommended, since the spent Fuel Pool environment can affect resin properties.
