CANDU Fuel Defect Bundle Transfer Platform

Abstract

Containment of nuclear material in the CANDU design is most effectively achieved by ensuring the integrity of the fuel bundle cladding is maintained. Recent fuel defects experienced at Ontario Power Generation’s Pickering station challenged this principle, triggering an investigation into their underlying cause. This effort was hindered by fundamental limitations in defect locating capabilities, resulting in numerous suspect bundles discharged to fuel bay storage baskets incompatible with the existing retrieval tooling. Recovery of these bundles, crucial to the fuel defect causal analysis, was ultimately achieved through the commissioning of a submersible seismically qualified fuel bundle transfer platform capable of both unloading and re-loading bundles from any existing basket position.