Nukem Assists Sogin in Spent Fuel Pool and Water Cleaning Efforts

At the former EUREX reprocessing plant at Saluggia in Northern Italy a concrete spent fuel pool installation was in operation divided in 3 segments. The segments either contained fuel elements, miscellaneous metal components or have been used as transfer buffers for the transportation of spent fuel during the operation period of the EUREX facility. Its current operator SOGIN, the organization that recently consolidated the management of all nuclear liabilities in Italy under one roof, had decided to decontaminate and clean the fuel pool as a first step of a mid term strategy to decommission this installation. Based oil NUKEMs experience in cleaning and decommissioning of nuclear installations SOGIN contacted NUKEM and a four stage approach had been determined. Based oil a feasibility study, SOGIN placed a second order with NUKEM for the cleaning and decontamination of the fuel pool as a first step. Works of the second campaign, which started in November 2007 included the detailed cleanup and inspection of the walls and floors of the fuel pool in preparation for the drain down of the pool water with subsequent painting of the entire fuel pool surface area for residual contamination control.