MC&A FOR POWER REACTORS

Material control and accounting (MC&A) guidance available to power reactor operators in the 1970's identified the fuel bundle or assembly as the basic unit of accounting and control. Additional guidance addressed MC&A of the sources and instruments containing special nuclear material (SNM) that were used in power reactors, but no specific guidance covered units of fuel in the spent fuel pool that were smaller than assemblies. Pieces smaller than intact assemblies, which are typically associated with fuel failure, present a host of accounting and control problems. Rods removed from assemblies and stored in specially constructed containers, broken rods, and pellets vacuumed from the floor of the spent fuel pool have not always received the attention necessary to meet the requirement (Code of Federal Regulations) to control and account for all SNM. Moreover, the original guidance was prepared under the assumption that spent fuel was self-protecting, and the events of September 11, 2001, have called this basic assumption into question. This paper addresses accounting for and controlling all SNM items in a spent fuel pool.