Metal Cask Storage at Virginia Power

By the end of 1990, Virginia Power will have loaded five different dry storage cask designs for the Surry Power Station Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installation. This should provide a valuable base of information when making future cask purchase decisions. In 1989, Virginia Power will be working with the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), the Sandia and Oak Ridge National Laboratories and other nuclear utilities to validate computer codes used to predict storage cask reactivity. This effort will involve reactivity measurements of Surry spent fuel storage racks and a loaded CASTOR V/21 storage cask. Increased burnup of discharged fuel means that cask designs for bmnups up to 35,000 MWD/MTU will be inadequate. New designs for fuel burnups up to 45,000 MWD/ MTU will be needed in 2 to 3 years.