Removal of GCRE and MOX Fuel from RBOF Storage Racks

The Receiving Basin for Offsite Fuel (RBOF) is a Savannah River Site (SRS) facility used for underwater receipt, storage, and conditioning of spent nuclear fuel, generally from offsite reactors. This facility is currently undergoing a de-inventory process. Two of the most recent fuel categories to be de-inventoried, which are the subject of this paper, are the Gas Cooled Reactor Experiment (GCRE) Fuel and the Argonne National Lab Mixed Oxide (MOX) Fuel. These fuels were stored in one of the many racks in the Main Basin. The handling of this fuel involved the first effort to de-inventory RBOF stored fuel from a multi-tiered rack and hence, presented new criticality safety challenges. After this and the remaining de-inventory efforts for the RBOF facility, it is planned for shut-down. This paper discusses the major criticality safety contingencies and controls associated with the de-inventory of the GCRE and MOX fuels.