Industry and industry

The various phases and operational steps in the BEFC may be performed by a number of different entities that require close coordination. To assure safe and effective operations,

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interactions among industry participants are necessary to address issues related to contractual arrangements, schedule coordination, records management, transfer of ownership, assuring compatibility (tooling, physical geometry, acceptance criteria, etc.), specifying performance requirements, as well as numerous other transfers of information and materials needed.

Interfaces are both direct and indirect because spent fuel along with associated equipment and information are propagated through the various phases of the BEFC. Examples of these industry/industry issues include:

• Coordination between fuel owner and cask vendor concerning cask timing and delivery issues, specification of fuel characteristics for cask design, specification of cask performance requirements , etc.;

• Communication between NPP operator and fuel vendor concerning fuel performance specifications and feedback of fuel performance information;

• Ensuring that thermal loads and limits are clearly understood by both storage facility operator and cask vendor;

• Ensuring that burnup history and records of fuel condition are clearly documented by both NPP operator and storage facility operator and within the storage cask/facility parameters;

• Interfacing of transport carrier and NPP operator with storage, reprocessing, and disposal facility operators as well as many other participants such as governments and municipalities, equipment vendors, other transport industry regulators, and others to ensure:

 Schedule coordination with shipping and receipt facilities;

 Equipment compatibility with shipping and receiving facilities;

 transport routes and associated approvals are properly prepared;

 Personnel training and qualifications.

To illustrate the need for close coordination among industry participants, consider the case where the reactor cooling pool is nearing its capacity. In this case, the NPP operator must manage very stringent time limits for loading casks to free up storage positions in the cooling pool. Hence, storage casks must be delivered and loaded at, or above, the same pace that spent fuel is removed from the reactor. Consequently, delays in cask availability could result in plant shutdown. To avoid this consequence, careful planning and coordination must be done as well as provision for backup solutions such as maintaining some excess cooling pool and/or storage cask capacity.

Several good practices have been successfully applied to facilitate interactions among various industry participants and phases of the BEFC. These practices can be generally grouped into the following categories. A few examples of good practices are given with each.

Effective planning and preparation:

• Participate in user groups to address common concerns and to share technical information, lessons learned, and solutions;

• To help assure successful transportation, a leading organization responsible for the success of the operation may be designated to coordinate the many participants involved. The industry participants are accountable for the progress of their individual task towards the leading organization; similarly the leading organization

will solely be accountable to the authorities for the progress and success of the transport. Transport coordination services:

 Assure availability of authorized transport routes;

 Confirm compatibility of interfaces between casks, transport conveyances, tools, and equipment;

 Verify operator and carrier organization qualifications, insurance contracts, equipment maintenance, etc.;

 Assign clear responsibilities and time limits to each Industry participant;

 Follow up the implementation of each individual task;

 Organize coordination meetings on a regular basis and keep in close contact with the authorities.

• Evaluate the potential risks and, if necessary, develop procedures or casks tailored to address specific needs of degraded fuels (fuel owner and the NPP operator). For example, in Belgium, fuel owners are working with the transport carrier to reduce structural stresses on casks and cask contents during fuel transfers (i.e.

administrative controls during transfer, shock absorbers on casks, accelerometers on cask, etc.);

• Precautions have to be taken in order to avoid the potential degradation of fuel leakers due to extended storage in wet conditions. The licenses of storage casks may, depending on the country, require that stored spent fuel elements must be leak-tight.

Contingency planning:

• Perform contingency planning to mitigate the consequences of potential errors or oversights and to avoid unnecessary costs, delays, and technical difficulties;

• Review past events and other relevant facilities and operations to identify areas where additional effort and/or redundancy as appropriate (e.g. consider multiple vendors to reduce risks associated with cask availability);

• Maintain some reserve capacity in cooling pool and/or on-site storage casks;

• Plan for possible delays in receiving approval;

• Plan alternative routes for transport of spent fuel and high-level waste in order to offer the flexibility to the transport.

Careful coordination and contractual arrangements:

• Hold regular coordination meetings to ensure customer requirements and vendor constraints are clearly understood, to status progress, address emerging issues, and to assure early identification and resolution of issues that may affect the success of the transaction;

• Clearly identify points of contact and decision making authority within each organization;

• Ensure contractual arrangements clearly specify tasks, responsibilities, interfaces, products, quality assurance (QA) requirements, schedules, and all other conditions necessary for a successful transaction;

• Transfer of ownership is a significant activity involving many parties representing the industry, the regulator, and other affected stakeholders. A clearly defined

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process and approval authority helps to ensure any change of ownership is properly executed. Transfer of ownership addresses a number of issues such as:

 Identification and segregation of financial, regulatory, and other legal obligations and liabilities;

 A complete records package that includes fabrication, operations, and storage history.

• Contractually specify delivery times with sufficient margin to ensure operations are not adversely impacted;

• Fuel characteristics define the cask to be supplied. Jointly developed suitable casks for difficult fuels in order to define the best compromise between the requirements of the fuel owner and the design constraints of the cask vendor.

Execution and follow-up:

• Hold regular debriefing and feedback meetings;

• Thorough follow-up by applying appropriate quality assurance and process controls to ensure contract performance;

• Report off-normal events and other lessons learned that can benefit other industry participants;

• Ensure timely access to relevant industry information and act promptly to take appropriate corrective actions and/or to implement improved practices.