LACBWR Decommissioning Project Continues

Dry Cask Storage construction is underway

Dairyland is planning to move the spent fuel assemblies at our shut-down LACBWR plant to a secure dry cask storage system on the south end of the Genoa Site, while awaiting the availability of a temporary or permanent centralized national repository for spent fuel. The Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installation (ISFSI) site being constructed on the south end of the Genoa Site is for the interim storage of the spent fuel.

LACBWR was shut down and its facilities placed in SAFSTOR in April 1987. Until the spent fuel at LACBWR is removed, Dairyland cannot fully decommission the facility. Although the current method for storing fuel is safe, the storage pool was not intended for long-term storage. It currently costs Dairyland’s member-owners nearly $6 million a year for security, maintenance and monitoring of this site.

A key decommissioning activity occurred in 2007, when Dairyland contracted with Energy Solutions, a national radioactive waste services contractor, to facilitate the removal and disposal of LACBWR’s Reactor Pressure Vessel and other low-level, non-fuel waste to a disposal site in South Carolina.

About the storage casks

Dairyland will be utilizing the NAC Multi-Purpose Canister System. The spent fuel storage system has three major components: a concrete storage cask, a stainless steel canister and the transfer cask.

The thick steel liner and reinforced concrete walls of the storage cask provide radiation shielding, as well as physical protection from potential adverse conditions. The storage cask provides radiation shielding, physical protection and security.

Visitors to or near the Genoa Site may currently notice large concrete cylinders close to LACBWR. They are the storage casks “overpacks” that will house the spent fuel canisters at the ISFSI site.

The canisters that will go inside the casks are also currently being constructed, so the overpacks will sit empty until ready for use. At that time, when canister construction and the fuel loading operations are complete, they will be transferred to a concrete pad at the ISFSI site. The reason the liners are at their current location is simply because the pad at the ISFSI site is not yet built.

Click here for background information on LACBWR.