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Chapelcross reactor
It seems to me that Chapelcross is a MAGNOX graphite
CO2 cooled reactor like the ones at Berkeley, UK which
have been operating since 1957. (So Berkeley may be
the other power station that is affected by this
incident). Magnesium canned oxide fuel may explain why
CO2 was sprayed over the spent fuel to prevent a fire
from occuring.
But I may be wrong...the particular reactor mentioned
may be an AGR (advanced gas reactor) using graphite as
the moderator but helium as the coolant and I believe
the fuel is clad with Zr alloy tubes.
All of these reactors can refuel on-line with a
shielded fuel unload and reload machine that
tranverses the top of the reactor and then with the
extension arm follow the fuel channel into the
graphite moderator at the top of the core and latch on
to the active fuel and remove it.
After removal a new fuel assembly can be placed into
the vacated fuel channel within the graphite
moderator.
Paul Shafer
--- glen.vickers@EXELONCORP.COM wrote:
> What type of reactor is this? It doesn't sound like
> a PWR or BWR. HTGR?
>
> Glen Vickers
> glen.vickers@exeloncorp.com
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Susan Gawarecki [SMTP:loc@ICX.NET]
> > Sent: Monday, July 09, 2001 2:48 PM
> > To: RADSAFE
> > Subject: OOPS!
> >
> > Britain Nuclear Accident Probed
> >
> > LONDON (AP) via NewsEdge Corporation -
> > Spent fuel rods were accidentally dropped onto the
> reactor floor of a
> > nuclear power plant in Scotland last week, its
> operator said Sunday.
> >
> > British Nuclear Fuels stressed that the
> ``low-level'' incident during
> > refueling Thursday in Chapelcross plant's Reactor
> No. 3 posed minimal
> > danger.
> >
> > The reactor has been shut down while the company
> determines how to
> > retrieve the 24 uranium rods, a spokesman said.
> >
> > The government's watchdog agency, the Nuclear
> Installations
> > Inspectorate, has launched an investigation.
> >
> > The BNFL spokesman said the rods dropped about 2
> feet to the floor
> > during the remote-operated refueling operation.
> >
> > A large cylindrical basket holding the irradiated
> fuel elements appeared
> > to come loose as it was being lowered to a cooling
> pond, he said.
> >
> > Emergency workers were called in and carbon
> dioxide was sprayed
> > over the basket to ensure it did not catch fire.
> >
> > ``At no time was there any increase in radiation
> within the area and no
> > personnel were affected,'' he said. ``There is
> also no indication that
> > the fuel has been damaged.''
> >
> > Refueling has been suspended at all reactors in
> Chapelcross, just a few
> > miles from Scotland's border with England, and at
> another British plant
> > that uses an identical system.
> >
> > The spokesman said it was unclear how long it
> would take to recover the
> > rods and complete the refueling.
> > --
> >
>
.....................................................
> > Susan L. Gawarecki, Ph.D., Executive Director
> > Oak Ridge Reservation Local Oversight Committee
> > -----
>
> > A schedule of meetings on DOE issues is posted on
> our Web site
> > http://www.local-oversight.org/meetings.html -
> E-mail loc@icx.net
> >
>
.....................................................
> >
>
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