50.59 at Callaway for Ultrasonic Fuel Cleaning

This may be the first 50.59 for Ultrasonic Fuel Cleaning among U. S. nuclear power plants, and this is only a summary that is gleaned from ML013540440.

CFR 50.59 SUMMARY REPORT FOR CALLAWAY PLANT
14-Nov-01
RFR 19637
Approve the use of an ultrasonic fuel cleaner.
This RFR approved the use of an ultrasonic fuel cleaning apparatus to remove crud from partially burned fuel assemblies to be reloaded into the reactor and the immersion of the treated coupon assembly while fuel cleaning operations are being performed.
The ultrasonic cleaning process was developed by Dominion Engineering, Inc., under the sponsorship of EPRIs Robust Fuels Program. This evaluation concluded that use of the ultrasonic fuel cleaning apparatus in the spent fuel pool as described in this RFR would not adversely affect any safety related systems or components. Also it was determined that the use of the ultrasonic cleaning process on the fuel assemblies would not adversely affect the fuel assemblies such that they could not be operated for the remainder of Cycle 11. It was determined that no unreviewed safety question exists for this change.

I've said it previously, Ultrasonic Fuel Cleaning is a complex process and it is amazing that a multitude of nuclear power plants have deployed this under 50.59.

Who knows?  Perhaps on-site reprocessing could proceed under 50.59. In that case, Ultrasonic Fuel Cleaning would be the initial complex process in a series of subsequent steps.