Sentences with phrase «spent fuel pools»

After the Obama administration effectively paralyzed the much - delayed Yucca Mountain project in 2009, the NRC studied and determined in 2014 that spent fuel could be safely stored for up to 60 years in spent fuel pools and indefinitely in dry casks — assuming the casks could be replaced once every 100 years and that utilities could implement aging management programs to maintain cask safety.

The current nuclear waste that we have sitting at the bottom of spent fuel pools and in dry cask storage would be more than enough to fuel the first reactors.

For those reactor plants, the tritium builds up in their Spent Fuel Pools during refueling operations.

For more information, see von Hippel and Schoeppner's previous papers, «Reducing the Danger from Fires in Spent Fuel Pools» and «Economic Losses From a Fire in a Dense - Packed U.S. Spent Fuel Pool,» which were published in Science & Global Security in 2016 and 2017 respectively.

Only good fortune and makeshift measures to pump or spray water into all the spent fuel pools averted that disaster, the academy panel notes.

These could include new measures to extend plant protection when outside and backup alternating current power and new instrumentation to monitor conditions in spent fuel pools in emergencies.

They must also extend plants» capabilities to protect reactors and spent fuel pools in an extended blackout of primary and backup electric power.

But those reactors» spent fuel pools are benefiting from a diesel generator that is still working to keep cooling water in place, according to World Nuclear News, though temperatures are beginning to rise in these pools as well.

The Fukushima Daiichi site in total has some 11,000 such fuel rods in the seven spent fuel pools — 500 or more of which in reactor No. 4's spent fuel pool are still quite hot having only been removed from that reactor in December, according to The New York Times.

And that means there may be two direct paths for radioactive particle byproducts of nuclear fission, such as cesium 137 and iodine 131, to escape and spread radiation — cracks in containment as well as the spent fuel pools now open to the air.

In the interim — which could stretch for a century — used fuel rods will remain where they are: at nuclear power plants themselves either in spent fuel pools or in giant concrete casks on pads.

• Structural integrity of the spent fuel pools was unknown for reactor Nos. 1 and 2; • Reactor Nos. 3 and 4 had low water levels; pool temperature was continuing to rise for reactor Nos. 5 and 6.

The spent fuel pools are of significant concern, Marvin Resnikoff, a radioactive waste management consultant, said in a Wednesday press briefing organized by the nonprofit organization Physicians for Social Responsibility.

Highly packed spent fuel pools at the Japanese facility have caught fire, lost coolant, and released unknown quantities of radioactive material, underscoring the need to remove as much fuel from overcrowded pools as possible.

When auxiliary batteries were exhausted, the plant was without power to continue cooling reactor cores and spent fuel pools.

The condition of the spent fuel pools has been a source of rising anxiety and confusion since the crisis began.

Jaczko told the Senate Environment and Natural Resources Committee that measures to protect both U.S. reactor operations and the spent fuel pools have been taken on a case - by - case basis for each U.S. reactor since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

After all, the spent fuel pools that may have been exposed by the power plant explosions contain more than 200 metric tons of used uranium fuel rods that have been cooling for weeks, months or even years — and smoke or steam continues to billow from the exposed spent fuel pool of reactor No. 3.

The evaluations must ensure that backup cooling systems for reactors and spent fuel pools can operate for a long time in «blackout» conditions, where on - site and off - site power is cut off.

The Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks led to new requirements to safeguard spent fuel pools at U.S. reactors, but the overall policy toward the nuclear fuel cycle has been bound up in the fight over the proposed fuel repository at Nevada's Yucca Mountain, which the Obama administration wants to terminate.

Japan's nuclear plant crisis with the radioactivity contamination from spent fuel pools is likely to put an overdue spotlight on stalemated U.S. policies for managing reactor fuel, authors of a Massachusetts Institute of Technology report on the nuclear fuel cycle said yesterday.

Similarly, if the utility could not protect spent fuel pools or casks from being breached during a severe accident, which happened in Japan, the NRC should not license it.

The safety of spent fuel pools, as at the Fort Calhoun plant outside Omaha, has been an issue since the accident at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi plant

In the meantime, highly radioactive waste is being stored on - site in spent fuel pools at each nuclear plant, with 1500 tons of waste are currently stored at Indian Point.

He received support from some of New York's top Congressional delegates, who introduced legislation requiring an in - depth review of Indian Point's vital safety and mechanical systems, spent fuel pools, and radiological emergency evacuation plans.

No containment structures exist over the spent fuel pools; the pools are vulnerable to a loss - of - coolant scenario; mock attack drills reveal accessibility to and vulnerability of spent fuel buildings; and two of the spent fuel pools at Indian Point have been leaking radioactive materials.

The Indian Point nuclear power plant has a long history of accidental radioactive leaks and spills: spent fuel pools at the plant housing toxic nuclear waste have been leaking since the 1990s; corroded buried pipes have sprung radioactive leaks; tanks have spilled hundreds of gallons radioactively contaminated water; and malfunctioning valves and pumps have leaked radionuclide - laden water.

Since at least August 2005, radioactive contaminants such as tritium and strontium - 90 have been leaking from Indian Point's spent fuel pools into the groundwater and the Hudson River.

There is currently no approved national repository to begin removing it from temporary spent fuel pools located on - site at Indian Point and other U.S. nuclear power plants across the country.

His call was backed by New York's Congressional delegates including Representatives John Hall (D - NY), Maurice Hinchey (D - NY), Eliot Engel (D - NY), Nita Lowey (D - NY), and Senator Charles Schumer (D - NY) and then - Senator Hillary Clinton (D - NY), who introduced legislation in February 2007 that would require an in - depth review of Indian Point's vital safety and mechanical systems, spent fuel pools, and radiological emergency evacuation plans.

The spent fuel pool is dry and there appears to be a zirconium fire in the spent fuel pool of Unit 4.»

The spent fuel pool is in — excuse me — the spent fuel is in the spent fuel pool.

One big hurdle was cleared in December 2014, when crews removed the last of 1535 fuel rods stored in the Unit 4 spent fuel pool.

Later Thursday, a spokesman for Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, Yoshitaka Nagayama, said, «Because we have been unable to go the scene, we can not confirm whether there is water left or not in the spent fuel pool at Reactor No. 4.»

Officials said hydrogen released from the spent fuel pool at No. 4 may have caused a fire there.

As of midday Thursday, the country's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency spokesperson Yoshitaka Nagayama, noted that «because we have been unable to go to the scene, we can not confirm whether there is water left or not in the spent fuel pool at reactor No. 4,» The New York Times reported.

And whether or not the 50 tons of water dumped on reactor No. 3 was enough to temporarily cool the spent fuel pool, the efforts will need to continue to avoid a significant release of radiation.

Steam continues to rise in the spent fuel pool at reactor No. 3, indicating that at least some water is reaching the hot rods.

Separating the well and the spent fuel pool is a gate through which fuel assemblies are transferred.

The entire reactor core — all 548 assemblies — was in the spent fuel pool, and was hotter than fuel in the other pools.

The gate allowed water from the reactor well to leak into the spent fuel pool, partially refilling it.

Later that day, however, concerns abated after a helicopter overflight captured video of sunlight glinting off water in the spent fuel pool.

As we speak, one of the most serious problems happening in Fukushima Daiichi is the spent fuel pool - fire at the fourth reactor.

Until transporting, they are kept in a spent fuel pool, where their power drops to below 40 watts.

It is a light water reactor with the reactor, steam generator, and spent fuel pool located inside the containment.

The NuScale Power ModulesTM reactor pool and the spent fuel pool are located at or below nominal plant grade level, while the hoisting and handling equipment is located above grade.

This milestone was achieved with the loading of the 13th MAGNASTOR system at the Kewaunee Power Station in Wisconsin, where MAGNASTOR systems are relied upon to accelerate defueling of the Kewaunee spent fuel pool as an important element of the plant decommissioning strategy.

After removal from the reactor core, spent fuel assemblies are placed in dedicated spent fuel storage racks in the below ground spent fuel pool, which contains four times more water volume for cooling per fuel assembly than current designs.

The NuScale spent fuel pool provides storage for up to 10 years of spent fuel storage, plus temporary storage for new fuel assemblies.

The NuScale spent fuel pool is a below - grade, stainless steel lined concrete pool adjacent to the reactor pool.