Westinghouse to upgrade Clab cooling system

Westinghouse is to increase the capacity of the cooling system at Sweden's central interim storage facility for used nuclear fuel (Clab) at Oskarshamn under a contract signed with with the country's radioactive waste management company, Svensk Kärnbränslehantering AB (SKB).

Westinghouse is to increase the capacity of the cooling system at Sweden's central interim storage facility for used nuclear fuel (Clab) at Oskarshamn under a contract signed with with the country's radioactive waste management company, Svensk Kärnbränslehantering AB (SKB).

A used fuel storage pool at Clab (Image: SKB)

Under the contract with SKB, Westinghouse will design, procure, deliver and install the new cooling system, as well as decommission the existing system. The installation work of the new system will be managed by Swedish contractor Elajo AB. The project is expected to take about three years to complete.

Used nuclear fuel is deposited at Clab in two storage pool systems 30 metres down in the bedrock. The water shields against radioactivity and cools the hot fuel. Radioactivity and heat generation are reduced over time, and after temporary storage the fuel has become easier to handle later in a final repository.

Some 5000 tonnes of used fuel is currently stored in Clab, which was commissioned in 1985. The facility receives about 300 tonnes of fuel per year from Sweden's nuclear power reactors.

Westinghouse said that the extension of Clab's cooling system will help increase the storage capacity of facility from 8000 to 11,000 tonnes of used nuclear fuel.

Researched and written
by World Nuclear News