SRS Employees Identify, Replace Damaged Equipment for Spent Fuel Mission

Pre-planning was essential to the successful execution of the replacement, SRNS Maintenance Lead John Charles Lollar said.

"Personnel protection during the work in the hot areas of the canyon was our highest concern," Lollar said. "Pre-planning helped us implement controls, like distance and shielding, for these hazards."

Lollar applauded the team for keeping positive and embracing teamwork.

"I can't say enough about the teamwork involved in achieving this monumental task," he said. "The dedication and hard work of our craft employees to ensure this job was accomplished and performed safely was instrumental to the successful completion of the job."

Project Operations Lead Mike Baynham said that SRNS employees are always willing to go the extra mile to support the mission.

"We appreciated the support of SRNS and DOE executive leadership," he said. "We basically refurbished a dissolver and its electrical components in three months. Many of our employees have spent all day every day working this project since April, and we are excited to see the project completed safely and successfully."

The Japan Atomic Energy Agency sent the FCA fuel to SRS in 2016, fulfilling a pledge by Japan and the United States to remove all separated plutonium and highly enriched uranium fuel from the FCA reactor. The fuel is not covered, or clad, in aluminum, requiring an electrolytic dissolver to process. That process adds electricity to the traditional chemical dissolution method.

After work on the FCA is complete, the electrolytic dissolver will be used to dissolve other non-aluminum spent nuclear fuel currently in the site's L Basin while chemical dissolvers will work on the disposition of spent nuclear fuel clad in aluminum.

-Contributor: Lindsey MonBarren