Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant Monday night began loading the facility’s first dry cask storage containers for highly radioactive used reactor fuel
- Edited by Chris Smith -
According to a report by the Tribune News, workers at Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant have started loading the facility’s first dry cask storage containers for highly radioactive used reactor fuel.
Eight dry cask containers will be loaded over the next few months, Pacific Gas and Electric Co. officials say. Once loaded, the large steel and concrete cylinders will be transported to a securre storage pad behind the power plant where they will remain until the federal government comes for them.
Opening of the aboveground, dry storage facility has been years in the works and the subject of lawsuits. Like most commercial nuclear power plants in the nation, Diablo Canyon’s wet storage pools for storing its spent nuclear fuel rods are nearly full and room must be made in them before the next refueling cycle scheduled for next year.
“After years of careful planning, preparation and evaluation, we are ready to move forward with this loading project,” according to plant manager Jim Becker.