US plant takes delivery of Holtec fuel racks

Tuesday, 9 July 2019

Holtec has designed and provided high-density racks to Harris since 1991. The latest racks are detuned honeycomb (DHB) racks, a type of rack developed by Holtec in the 1990s, which minimise the load on the pool slab under seismic conditions. It has provided DHB modules to over 120 nuclear units around the world, the company said.

Duke Energy has also recently installed 1000 Holtec-supplied DREAM (Device for Reactivity Mitigation) Inserts at Harris, Holtec said. These address problems with the degradation of Boraflex, a neutron absorber employed in used fuel pools to control reactivity and maximise fuel packing density, which has affected fuel racks made in the 1980s.

Harris is a single-unit 928 MWe (net) pressurised water reactor located at New Hill, North Carolina, which began commercial operation in 1987. The plant has four fuel pools, which Holtec says makes it unique among nuclear plants in the matter of wet storage capacity. The latest racks will be installed in Pool D, Holtec said.