The West Valley Demonstration Project (WVDP) removed the last of its spent nuclear fuel assemblies from an on-site storage pool last year and is now decontaminating its Fuel Receiving and Storage (FRS) Facility. The decontamination project will reduce the long-lived curie inventory, associated radiological hazards, and the operational costs associated with the maintenance of this facility. Workers at the WVDP conducted the first phase of the FRS decontamination project in late 2001 by removing 149 canisters that previously contained spent fuel assemblies from the pool. Removal of the canisters from the pool paved the way for nuclear divers to begin removing canister storage racks and other miscellaneous material from the FRS pool in February 2002. This was only the third time in the history of the WVDP that nuclear divers were used to perform underwater work.After decontaminating the pool, it will be drained slowly until all of the water is removed. The water will be processed through an ion exchanger to remove radioactive contaminants as it is being drained, and a fixative will be applied to the walls above the water surface to secure residual contamination.
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