First loading campaign complete at Krško dry storage facility
23 August 2023
Holtec International has completed its first used fuel loading campaign at a newly commissioned dry storage facility at the Slovenian nuclear power plant earlier than expected. Sixteen casks holding a total of 592 used fuel rods have now been placed in the facility.
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Holtec announced the completion of the first waste placement campaign on 21 August (Image: Holtec)
"The 16th and final HI-STORM FW dry storage system was placed into the dry storage building at NEK's (Nuklearna Elektrarna Krško) Krško nuclear power plant last week," Holtec said. "This marks the successful completion of loading activities of Holtec's first loading campaign at Krško. We thank our partners at NEK for their support in project preparation and execution that led us to such a successful conclusion. We also thank our loading team for their efforts to make this project such a success."
The first HI-STORM cask was placed in the dry storage building in April, marking the start of commissioning of the facility which was designed and constructed by Holtec under a contract awarded by NEK in February 2017. The first loading campaign had been expected to be completed by late this year.
Each HI-STORM FW cask holds 37 used fuel elements, with a thick concrete shell providing full physical and radiological protection against extreme events such as weather, earthquakes or an aircraft crashing.
Krško, a 696 MWe Westinghouse pressurised water reactor, was the first western nuclear power plant to be built in eastern Europe, entering commercial operation in 1983. Slovenia's Ministry of the Environment earlier this year approved the plant's continued operations for a further 20 years, until 2043.
Researched and written by World Nuclear News