Design Considerations for an On-Site Spent Fuel Transfer System

The use of large casks (e.g., 100 - 125 tons) for the storage or shipping of spent nuclear fuel has been shown to yield operational and economic advantages to utilities that are able to accommodate such units at their reactor facilities. There are, however, some plants that are unable to handle these large casks due to crane capacity or dimensional restrictions. Additionally, some concrete storage casks are not designed to be loaded. following conventional underwater cask handling practices within the reactor or fuel storage building. The possibility exists that some of these facilities can avail themselves of the benefits of large casks through the use of a system that employs a small, shielded transfer device to shuttle fuel between the storage pool and the large cask. Further benefits m~y be derived from the system if It has the added ability to transfer fuel from a large storage cask to a large transport cask at the end of the storage period, thus avoiding returning fuel to the pool.