Fuel pool systems, dry cask storage and criticality safety verification
Commissioning software for fuel handling and storage where every crane interlock, pool cooling train and cask loading step has to prove out against a criticality safety basis that allows no exceptions.
Fuel handling and storage systems — spent fuel pool cooling and cleanup, fuel handling cranes and interlocks, dry cask storage systems — sit at the intersection of mechanical commissioning and criticality safety, where a single missed interlock test is not a punch item but a safety case violation. Deskely holds every crane interlock, pool system and cask loading step in one register, with criticality safety verification built into the gate.
- Assets
- Fuel cranes, pool cooling trains, cask systems
- Test
- Interlock test, pool system functional test, cask loading verification
- Basis
- Criticality safety analysis
- Gate
- Fuel movement authorisation
Choose your project type
The problem
A fuel handling system has dozens of interlocks, and every one of them is a criticality safety control, not a convenience feature.
Fuel handling cranes carry load limit, position and sequence interlocks that enforce the criticality safety analysis, spent fuel pool cooling and cleanup systems maintain water chemistry and temperature within tight limits, and dry cask systems execute a strict loading, drying and sealing sequence that cannot be shortcut.
When interlock test records, pool system functional tests and cask loading checklists sit in separate binders, the fuel handling supervisor cannot always confirm before the first fuel movement that every interlock protecting the criticality safety basis has actually been proven this outage, not just historically.
Deskely tags every interlock, pool train and cask loading step individually against the criticality safety analysis it supports, so fuel movement authorisation is granted from verified interlock status rather than an assumption that nothing has drifted since the last outage.
Setting up the register
Interlocks, pool systems and cask loading steps are tagged assets matched to the criticality safety analysis.
Crane interlock logic diagrams, pool system P&IDs and cask loading procedures are parsed into a reviewed register, so every interlock, valve and instrument carries its criticality safety function and its test frequency from day one.
Interlock test templates are defined once per interlock type and instantiated across every crane and fuel handling machine on-site, so a load limit interlock test on one crane uses the same rigour and the same record structure as on any other.
Dry cask loading is tracked as a discrete sequence per cask, with drying, helium backfill and seal weld verification held against the specific cask serial number, because a cask loading record is a lifetime record that follows the cask to the storage pad and beyond.
Execution
Interlock testing, pool system verification and cask loading are proven in sequence before any fuel movement is authorised.
Every interlock is functionally tested against its criticality safety function before fuel movement begins, with load limit, position and sequence interlocks captured as separate discrete tests rather than one generic 'crane test' record.
Pool cooling and cleanup system functional tests confirm flow, temperature and water chemistry control ahead of a fuel campaign, with any deviation logged as a finding against the specific train rather than the pool system as a whole.
Dry cask loading is executed step by step with independent verification at each critical step — drying, backfill pressure, seal weld — captured against the cask serial number, with any deviation held as an open item until resolved before the cask leaves the fuel building.
Fuel movement authorisation and storage pad transfer
Fuel movement is authorised from verified interlocks, not a supervisor's memory that the crane worked fine last time.
The fuel movement readiness review draws on signed interlock test records and pool system verification for the specific campaign, giving the licensee's independent oversight function the same evidence the fuel handling supervisor used to authorise the first move.
Cask loading records transfer with the cask to the independent spent fuel storage installation, carrying the full drying, backfill and seal verification history as a lifetime record rather than a one-time loading certificate.
Every signature carries a name, role, qualification and timestamp, satisfying the criticality safety programme's requirement that interlock and loading verification be independently confirmed, not self-certified by the operating crew.
FME control inside the fuel building
A dropped tool in a spent fuel pool is not a housekeeping issue, it is a foreign material event that can hold up fuel movement until it is recovered and accounted for.
Foreign material exclusion inside the fuel building applies to every tool, fastener and piece of temporary equipment brought near the pool or the cask loading pit, because an item dropped into the pool near stored fuel assemblies is both a potential fuel damage risk and a search-and-recovery problem that can suspend fuel movement until the item is located and removed or its absence otherwise justified.
FME control for fuel handling work is tighter than general plant FME control precisely because recovery options near irradiated fuel are limited and the consequence of an unresolved foreign material item is a stop-work condition, not a punch item carried to the next outage.
Deskely tracks FME entry and exit logs, tool accountability counts and search sign-off specifically for fuel building work areas as their own record type, tied to the specific fuel movement campaign, so a tool count discrepancy is flagged and resolved before the next fuel assembly move rather than discovered at the end of the campaign.
The fuel movement authorisation evidence set
Six record types stand between a crane hook and the first fuel assembly it is allowed to move.
Fuel handling and storage sit on top of a criticality safety analysis that tolerates no unverified interlock, so the evidence set is built around individual controls rather than a single system test. These records are what fuel movement authorisation is actually granted against.
Interlock functional test record
That a specific load limit, position or sequence interlock on a fuel handling crane operates correctly against the criticality safety function it protects.
Tested before the first fuel movement of a campaign.
Pool cooling and cleanup system test record
That the spent fuel pool cooling train maintains water chemistry, temperature and flow within limits ahead of a fuel movement campaign.
Verified per campaign, not assumed from historical performance.
Cask loading step verification record
That an individual dry cask loading step — drying, helium backfill, seal weld — was completed and independently verified against the cask's serial number.
Captured step by step during cask loading, before the cask leaves the fuel building.
FME search and tool accountability log
That every tool and item brought into a fuel building work area is accounted for at task close, with no unresolved discrepancy near stored fuel.
Reconciled at the end of each fuel handling work session.
Independent verification sign-off
That an interlock or cask loading step was confirmed by a second, independently qualified individual rather than self-certified by the operating crew.
Recorded alongside the primary test or loading step.
Fuel movement authorisation record
That all interlock, pool system and campaign-specific verifications are complete and signed before the fuel handling supervisor authorises the first fuel move.
Issued immediately before fuel movement begins.
How it runs
From interlock commissioning to fuel movement authorisation.
Fuel handling programmes reward tracking every interlock as its own criticality safety control, because a missed test on one interlock is a safety case gap, not a minor punch item.
- 01
Map interlocks to the safety analysis
Crane interlocks, pool systems and cask loading steps modelled against the criticality safety analysis they support.
- 02
Template interlock tests
Load limit, position and sequence interlock tests defined once per interlock type, instantiated across every crane.
- 03
Verify pool systems per campaign
Cooling and cleanup system functional tests captured before each fuel movement campaign, not assumed from history.
- 04
Track cask loading as a lifetime record
Drying, backfill and seal verification held against the cask serial number, transferring with the cask to the storage pad.
FAQ
Questions about Fuel handling and storage scopes.
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