High-capacity racks

摘要

Spent fuel pools were not originally designed for long-term storage, which today can span decades, and as a result many have reached or are approaching capacity. One potential solution to this problem is to store assemblies closer to each other by re-racking existing pools or installing high-density grids in new facilities. Vendors claim that this can increase storage capacity by a factor between two and five times. Re-racked pools must meet the same stringent regulatory requirements for safety that apply to the original pool racks, such as meeting seismic qualifications and maintaining sub-criticality of the fuel by incorporating neutron poison materials.