Holtec announces new cask technology developments

Project Cheetah was launched in 2004, and has led to the development of transformative technologies that have contributed to the increasing efficiency of dry storage systems, the company said. Technologies already developed as a consequence of the project have amongst other things contributed to storage of fuel at sites including Chernobyl, and the development of materials for use in storage and transport systems.

The first of the three new "consequential technologies" announced by the company is a high capacity, high heat load, dual ability (storage and transport) fuel basket for Russian-origin VVER fuel. The VVER fuel basket will be installed in high-integrity double wall multi-purpose canisters which will be used in Ukraine to transport used fuel from the country's nine reactors to its consolidated interim storage facility (CIS), which is due to open next year and has been engineered by Holtec, the company said.

The second development is a new version of Holtec's HI-STORM FW storage cask, which the company says is "even more flood-resistant than its predecessor model". Version E can also be equipped with additional shielding to render its proximate dose "essentially negligible," Holtec said.

The HI-TRAN 300 cask transporter (Image: Holtec)

The final new technology is HI-TRAN 300, a 300-tonne payload, single failure-proof cask transporter. The transporter is qualified to carry Holtec's HI-STORM casks at up to 10% grade and remain stable at the strongest design basis earthquake specified at any Holtec client plant site, the company said. HI-TRAN 300 is being built by Holtec's Advanced Manufacturing Division in Camden, New Jersey, with the first transporter expected to enter service in the first quarter of 2020, the company said.