A cold demonstration of fuel consolidation. Part 1

Spent fuel consolidation is an option for increasing spent fuel storage capacities being considered by many utilities. The process of consolidating fuel involves separating the fuel rods from the structural frame which holds them in a square array. The rods are then repackaged into a tightly packed bundle which occupies about half the cross-sectional area of fuel assembly. Thus approximately twice as much fuel can be stored in the underwater racks at a spent fuel storage pool. There have been several demonstrations of fuel consolidation to date. The focus of this paper is the development and subsequent demonstration program of a shear/compactor