Year
2017
Abstract
The paper describes a project related to the underwater sealing of spent fuel assemblies for Atucha reactors in Argentina, near Buenos Aires. It was financed by the Directorate General for International Cooperation and Development from the European Commission, made in collaboration with the Brazilian-Argentine Agency for Accounting and Control of Nuclear Materials (ABACC) and technically managed by the Seals & Identification Laboratory (SILab) of the European Commission in Ispra (Italy). The project aimed at a technology transfer by demonstrating the sealing feasibility, paving the way for a future Safeguards use of the proposed sealing concept. Based on ultrasonic bolt seals already in use throughout the world and designed to resist very harsh environment for years, SILab proposed to adapt its ultrasonic patented sealing principle to hangers holding the spent fuel assemblies in Atucha. The configuration is completely different from the other applications in a sense that there is no rack or container to be sealed. The spent fuel assemblies in Atucha Pressurized Heavy Water Reactor are held on hangers, bolted on massive beams fixed on each side of the pond and this on two layers (bottom & upper layers at two different depths). User requirements, preliminary concepts, mechanical design, prototypes, tests in house and on site will be described in the paper, as well as the training sessions of ABACC inspectors & Atucha’s operators performed in Buenos Aires. Steps towards a future Safeguards use of the proposed sealing system will be discussed.