INL Site Cleanup Contractors Collaborate on Spent Nuclear Fuel Project

IDAHO FALLS, Idaho – Crews with EM Idaho National Laboratory (INL) Site cleanup contractor Fluor Idaho recently provided their expertise to a critical sampling effort at the site required under a federal permit.

Several Fluor Idaho personnel at the Idaho Nuclear Technology and Engineering Center (INTEC) conducted a leak test of the Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installation, which was built for the interim storage of spent nuclear fuel.

EM contractor SpectraTech manages spent nuclear fuel from Three Mile Island Unit 2 and a debris storage facility at INTEC. Fluor Idaho employees helped perform leak checks at each of the 29 storage vaults that contain fuel and debris from the 1979 Three Mile Island accident in Pennsylvania. SpectraTech is a small business that also manages a fuel storage facility in northern Colorado.

The INL site spent nuclear fuel storage installation is a horizontal concrete storage facility where spent fuel and debris are stored horizontally inside stainless steel sleeves. A large, steel door seals each vault.

According to Fluor Idaho Shift Supervisor Larry Wobig, SpectraTech contracted with Fluor Idaho to complete the work because several Fluor Idaho employees have experience with managing the INL Site spent fuel storage installation.

Wobig said the leak test is required by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which is the federal agency that oversees the storage of the Three Mile Island Unit 2 spent nuclear fuel and reactor core debris.

“It made sense for us to complete the work because many of the technical experts work at Fluor Idaho and know that facility inside and out,” said Wobig.

Wobig said the seals to each vault remain effective and the leak testing of the storage modules didn’t indicate any leaks.

“This has been a reliable facility and has been safely storing the Three Mile Island Unit 2 fuel since 1999,” he said.