A steel-lined concrete pool roughly 12 m deep where discharged fuel assemblies sit in racks under several metres of water, which both removes decay heat and shields radiation. PWR pools are borated and racks contain neutron absorbers to keep the stored fuel subcritical. Loss of pool cooling or inventory is analysed as an accident in its own right, and freshly discharged fuel glows blue with Cherenkov light.
Spent fuel pool temperature is up to 38 with the full core offload, keep both cooling trains running.
Also heard as
- SFP
- fuel pool
- spent fuel storage pool
Related terms
Decay heat
Heat produced by radioactive decay of fission products after a reactor shuts down, which must be removed.
Dry cask storage
Storage of cooled spent fuel in sealed steel canisters inside concrete or steel casks, cooled passively by air.
Criticality safety
The discipline of preventing an accidental chain reaction wherever fissile material is handled outside a reactor.
Safeguards
The verification system that checks nuclear material is not diverted from peaceful use to weapons.