What Is a Spent Fuel Pool?

Spent fuel pools are facilities for the wet storage of spent fuel. They usually refer to pools that store spent fuel at nuclear facilities such as nuclear power plants or reprocessing plants.
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Spent fuel pools are facilities for the wet storage of spent fuel. They usually refer to pools that store spent fuel at nuclear facilities such as nuclear power plants or reprocessing plants.

Spent fuel

Spent fuel is the nuclear fuel in a nuclear fuel assembly (that is, a spent fuel assembly) that has been burned to a depth that is designed to be unloaded, which is unloaded from the reactor and is no longer used in the reactor. Among them are unfissionable and newly generated fissile nuclides, unused fissionable nuclides, many fission products and transuranic elements.

For the safe storage of spent fuel, there are usually two types of storage methods, dry storage and wet storage. Dry storage refers to storing spent fuel in a gaseous environment such as air or inert gas. Dry storage facilities include facilities for storing spent fuel in shielded tanks, shafts or cellars.

Wet storage refers to storage in water or other liquids.

Common wet storage methods include the storage of spent fuel components or spent fuel components in pools or other liquids, usually supported by racks or baskets and / or containers or tanks that also contain liquids. The liquid surrounding the fuel in the pool can dissipate heat and shield radiation, while a bracket or other device ensures a geometric arrangement that can maintain a subcritical state.

Facilities that use wet methods to store spent fuel are often referred to as spent fuel pools. ^{[1] [1]}