Orano’s expertise providing Pool Cleanout Equipment Services for operating and decommissioned nuclear power plants

Orano TN and BSI formalized a teaming agreement and affirmed their market leading position for poolcleanout services. In turn, Orano TN completed the purchase of BSI-developed, state-of-the-art andindustry-proven equipment for processing of irradiated hardware.The specialty equipment for reactor component volume reduction and processing enhances Orano’sused fuel pool cleanout services, and includes a compactor/shear for control rod blades and fuelchannels, a velocity limiter shear, a satellite roller ball punch, and a mobile rod cutter. This equipmentcombined with Orano’s industry workhorse TN RAM Type B transport cask provides customers with aturnkey solution for comprehensive reactor pool services to move used fuel and obsolete radioactivecomponents to secure onsite dry storage or remote burial. In addition, Orano and BSI signed a teamingagreement to continue using BSI’s experienced operations staff and innovative engineering support forexecuting these projects.The Orano and BSI team recently completed a used fuel pool cleanout project at a shutdown pressurizedwater reactor (PWR) in coordinated operations, including the packaging and shipment of irradiatedcomponents and used fuel racks. A key innovative success was the use of a unique thimble plug springremoval tool that significantly reduced the remaining amount of Greater than Class C (GTCC) waste instorage.The new equipment is intended to expand Orano’s services in the commercial and federal markets,including the U.S. Department of Energy, and international regions.Over 20 reactor shutdowns have been announced in the US, with more expected in the next decade.The ability to segment, package and transport waste in order to optimize limited cask volumes allowssignificant cost savings in the disposal of LLW. While these pool cleanout services lend themselvestowards BWRs (control blades, stellite bearings, velocity limiters), PWR operators can also benefit fromthis technology.This paper will present a description of the pool cleanout equipment, as well as Orano’s growingcapabilities to respond to the industry needs.