Advanced Nuclear Power - AREVA

Yankee Rowe Decommissioning
and Demolition Nearly Complete
By the end of 2004, decommissioning
and demolition of the Yankee
Rowe nuclear power station, a 175
MW PWR in Western Massachusetts,
owned by the Yankee Atomic Electric
Company (YAEC) will be completed.
This plant was the third nuclear
power plant built in the US and the
first built in New England.
Framatome ANP’s ties to Yankee Rowe
extend back to plant operation
through the Yankee Nuclear Services
Division that was purchased by Duke
Power’s Engineering & Services
(DE&S) division in 1997 and became
part of Framatome ANP in 2003.
When the plant shut down, Yankee
Rowe made a commitment to the
community to not only safely
decommission the plant and prepare
the site for future use, but also to keep
the community informed about those
activities. This safety-conscious and
cooperative attitude played a major
role in the successful completion
of decommissioning activities to date.
In June 2003, Yankee Rowe achieved
one million work hours without a
lost-time accident.
Decommissioning Work
Framatome ANP managed the initial
decommissioning for YAEC until
August 2000, when the decision
was made to transfer Yankee Rowe’s
spent fuel to dry storage. The company
designed and helped manage the
construction of the Yankee Rowe
independent spent fuel storage
installation (ISFSI) which began almost
immediately. While this was going on,
Framatome ANP provided fabrication
oversight of the dry storage system
components and performed an
Once PCB paint and asbestos was
removed from the buildings,
demolition began.
inspection of the accessible spent fuel
assemblies stored in the fuel pool.
Framatome ANP, working as a
subcontractor for NAC International
who was awarded the contract for
the dry storage system, performed fuel
loading and all associated fuel pool
activities. These included confirmatory
fuel inspections and characterization;
and the reconstitution and sipping of
damaged fuel. The first concrete
storage cask was loaded and placed on
the ISFSI pad in June 2002, with
the final cask placed in June 2003.
The YAEC and Framatome ANP
team designed and operated a system
to pump the 570 m 3 of water from the
spent fuel pool and process the water
before releasing it into the nearby
Sherman Pond.
Demolition
Actual demolition, performed by
DEMCO, a New York based company,
began in November 2003. Initial
work was slowed by the need to
remove PCB paint and asbestos from
Demolition of the containment
shell required dividing the shell
into 130 sections.
many buildings before demolition
could proceed.
By early 2004, the landscape around
Yankee Rowe had changed dramatically.
The turbine building and many other
buildings had been demolished and
demolition crews were cutting 130
sections from the containment shell.
The 14.5 tons concrete reactor support
structure will then be brought down
by the controlled use of explosives.
Demolition is scheduled to be
completed in 2004, with green field
achieved in 2005.
Framatome ANP continues to fill key roles
in the Yankee organization by providing
management, oversight, radiation protection,
laboratory analysis, waste shipping
controls, engineering, licensing, quality
assurance, administrative, and health and
safety support. “Framatome ANP has
provided integral support throughout the
decommissioning process at Yankee
Rowe,” said YAEC Vice President Greg
Maret. “Their expertise has been an asset
to the project.”
Advanced Nuclear Power N O 11 November 2004 25