Solid Radioactive Waste Strategy Report.pdf - UK EPR

EPR UK
N° NESH-G/2008/en/0123
REV. A PAGE 214 / 257
Aircraft crash
Facilities are designed against an aircraft crash.
13.2.5 Building Operations
13.2.5.1 General Considerations
There will be three broad operational periods for the storage facility. The first period will be
when spent fuel is being received and placed into the interim storage pools. This period will
start within 10 years of the reactor start date, since the fuel will need to be stored in the
reactor cooling pool for up to 10 years before it can enter interim storage. This first period will
finish about 10 years after the reactor ceases operations and the last batch of fuel has
completed its initial cooling period. (Note, the reactor is designed for an operational lifetime
of 60 years.). There will then be a period when there are no loading or unloading operations,
although monitoring of storage conditions will continue. This is expected to last 30 or 40
years, depending upon developments in the UK radioactive waste strategy and the
availability of the Geological Disposal Facility. The final period is when the stored fuel
assemblies are retrieved and exported to another facility. After this the facility will be
decommissioned. The facility is therefore expected to have an operational life of around 100
years.
An EPR reactor core has 241 fuel assemblies and it is assumed that the core renewal is
completed every 18 months, with about one third of the fuel assemblies being replaced each
time.
The baseline design assumption for the interim storage facility is that it will serve a single
reactor with an average of 3400 fuel assemblies requiring storage.
13.2.5.2 Operational Data
Operations in the transport container reception, preparation and shipping building are
performed manually by operators, using overhead cranes for transport container handling
and a protective platform for transport container preparation operations before docking.
In the process building, all operations are performed remotely from a centralised control
room, namely:
· Transport container docking/undocking operations;
· Spent fuel unloading operations and subsequent cooling/rinsing;
· Loading of baskets into the transfer device and movement through the transfer
channel.
The mast crane operations in the pool storage building are also fully automated and remotely
controlled from the centralized control room although all systems can be operated manually if
necessary.
It should be noted that optimal operating conditions are maintained by routine maintenance
of pool equipment. The exposure of workers to radiation is minimised by appropriate
ventilation, shielding, minimisation of waste, routine monitoring and maintenance of dose
records.