Forced Helium Dehydrator
Holtec’s Forced Helium Dehydrator (FHD) offers a proven alternative to conventional vacuum drying methods. During the inertization process, maintaining the integrity of used nuclear fuel as its environment transitions from aqueous (high heat transfer) to gaseous (low heat transfer) is critical. Certified by the NRC in 2001, the Forced Helium Dehydrator was first employed to successfully dehydrate Trojan’s fuel assemblies—including those containing water-laden fuel rods. Since then, the system has been adopted by more than 20 nuclear facilities worldwide, including Chernobyl in Ukraine and Sizewell B in the United Kingdom.
Benefits:
- The drying process must not only be efficient, but (1) it must also prevent the generation of high thermal strains (which may damage the fuel cladding, and (2) ensure that any moisture entrapped inside a breached cladding is removed. Vacuum drying, the classical method of used fuel de-moisturization, has proved to be marginal or inadequate.
- In addition to ensuring that NRC’s mandated level of dryness will be achieved regardless of the state of the fuel, the FHD minimizes the thermal strains on the fuel cladding during the drying process, thus minimizing the potential of crack initiation or propagation of any existing crack in the fuel cladding.
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