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Spent fuel pools hold nuclear fuel to cool before long-term storage. They are located near reactors, made of concrete tanks with stainless steel lining and equipped with racks. Water must circulate through cooling equipment to keep temperatures low. When full, old fuel is moved to dry storage. Safety concerns include the risk of a nuclear chain reaction and overfilling. Proper design and maintenance are necessary to meet regulatory standards.
A spent fuel pool is a holding area for spent nuclear fuel to allow it to cool before being moved to more appropriate long-term storage. As fuel is consumed in the reactor, it can be transferred to the pool where it remains submerged to create radiation shielding and give it an opportunity to cool. The pool can be operated with an automatic system so that the operators do not come into direct contact with the components except for maintenance needs. In other cases, workers must manually manipulate fuel rods and other components to store the fuel.
Typically, spent fuel pools are located close to the reactor for convenience. They consist of huge concrete tanks lined with stainless steel and equipped with racks to hold individual fuel rods. Insulator boron can be added to reduce the risk of a chain reaction. The depth of the pool determines how many rods it can hold; legal requirements may provide for a certain amount of coverage, and facilities may make a spent fuel pool deeper for added safety.
As the rods are in the pool of spent fuel, the temperature of the water increases. Nuclear plants must constantly circulate water through cooling equipment and back into the pool to keep temperatures low. They also monitor it for signs of reactions that could cause large levels of hydrogen to build up around the spent fuel pool. This requires ongoing supervision by experienced technicians who are familiar with common problems with spent fuel pools so they can act quickly if problems begin to develop.
Facilities may maintain an initial pool for immediate cooling followed by a larger pool for older fuel. When it starts to fill up, technicians have to move the old fuel rods to dry storage. In this technique, the rods are removed from the pool and placed in specially designed containers that prevent radiation from escaping. Stored fuel can be transported to a long-term storage facility, where it slowly degrades over time.
Significant safety concerns surround the spent fuel pool design. If the pool is not properly designed and maintained, there is a risk of a nuclear chain reaction which could cause serious environmental damage. Pools are also at risk of becoming overfilled, leading to a situation where a power plant has no space to store spent fuel rods. Engineers responsible for the design and maintenance of nuclear facilities must provide evidence that they are planning ahead to accommodate the fuel and can meet regulatory standards for nuclear fuel safety.
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