PP&L, Inc. said today (10/18) that it has successfully completed the first of 14 carefully staged, week-long transfers of used nuclear reactor fuel at the company's Susquehanna nuclear plant, located near Berwick, Pa.

"Safety is the overriding priority in this process," said Herbert D. Woodeshick, PP&L, Inc.'s special assistant to the president for Susquehanna.

According to Woodeshick, the used uranium fuel, which already has been cooled for 10 years or more, is being transferred from the 39-foot deep spent-fuel pool beside the nuclear reactor to an interim storage facility, also located inside the plant's security fence behind the Unit 1 cooling tower.

Since the beginning of plant operation in 1983, the company has stored all of the plant's used fuel in the specially designed water-filled tanks next to each reactor. Available space in those pools will be used up by next year, Woodeshick said.

PP&L chose the dry-storage technology to provide temporary storage for the plant's used fuel until the federal government opens a permanent central-storage facility early in the 21st Century. "No used fuel will go outside of the plant's security fence until it is removed to the permanent federal facility," Woodeshick stressed. Woodeshick also said the dry-storage facility will have no radiological effect on the surrounding area. He also said only used fuel from the Susquehanna plant will be placed in the new facility.

The dry-storage facility uses natural air circulation to remove heat produced by the used fuel. The fuel is isolated inside 15-foot long, airtight, sealed stainless-steel canisters. These canisters, weighing about 85 tons each, in turn, are placed inside sturdy, 30-inch thick concrete modules. "These horizontal modules are built to withstand earthquakes, floods, tornadoes and temperature extremes," said Woodeshick.

Woodeshick emphasized that PP&L has been educating plant neighbors and community leaders about the plans for dry storage since 1994. The Susquehanna plant's citizens committee toured a similar dry-storage facility in Maryland in 1994 and inspected the Susquehanna facility close-up earlier this summer.

Beginning this spring, 15 of the reinforced concrete horizontal-storage modules were placed on a concrete storage pad measuring 262 feet by 223 feet. This pad is located on the west side of the plant, about a quarter-mile from the plant's nuclear reactors. The dry-storage area features a security fence, lighting and temperature instrumentation.

Earlier this summer, the Susquehanna plant's dry-fuel storage team successfully conducted a "dry run" of the used fuel transfer process. "As part of this training exercise, the team handled 'dummy' fuel rod bundles without the actual fuel inside them but weighing the same as the real thing," Woodeshick explained.

The real transfer process is long and meticulous, involving the following steps:

-- One of the stainless-steel canisters is placed into a special transfer cask and then is lowered into a cask pit between the plant's two spent fuel pools, which are located next to the plant's two nuclear reactors. Each reactor uses 764 fuel assemblies, and each pool is designed to hold 2,840 used fuel assemblies.

-- The canister is loaded with 52 used fuel assemblies from the pool. These 14-foot-long fuel assemblies are each made up of over 80 separate fuel rods holding used uranium fuel pellets.

-- The canister is sealed shut, drained of water and filled with helium gas to act as a heat-transfer medium.

-- The outside of the transfer cask is decontaminated, and the transfer cask, containing the stainless-steel canister and weighing about 100 tons by this time, is loaded onto a transfer trailer with 32 independently steered wheels for the quarter-mile trip to the dry-storage pad.

-- Once at the storage pad, the stainless-steel canister is pushed by a special hydraulic plunger from the transfer cask into position inside the horizontal-storage module.

-- The lid of the horizontal-storage module is welded shut.

-- The temperature of each horizontal-storage module, which should be around 180 degrees, is monitored continuously.

According to Woodeshick, the storage pad can accommodate as many as 105 of the horizontal-storage modules, which could give PP&L a place to store its used fuel well into the second decade of the 21st Century. "But, we hope the federal government will have the central nationwide storage facility ready before that time," Woodeshick said.

The entire process of the dry-storage system at the Susquehanna plant is being monitored by three permanent, on-site inspectors from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and by one engineer from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection's Bureau of Radiation Protection.

The Susquehanna plant, located in Luzerne County about five miles south of Berwick, is owned jointly by PP&L and Allegheny Electric Cooperative, Inc.