Exelon plans new storage site for spent nuclear fuel at Clinton plant in central Illinois

Exelon to Build Dry-Cask Spent Fuel Storage at Clinton Power Station

Exelon said it would break ground by early 2012 on an above-ground dry cask spent nuclear fuel storage facility at its Clinton Power Station, the Associated Press reported. Bill Harris, director of communications at Clinton, was quoted as saying: "We would reach capacity by the end of 2016, if we weren't doing what we're doing with above-ground, dry storage. The solution was going to be centralized storage. We cannot run out of room in spent-fuel pools, so we had to have an alternative."

The new storage facility, which would be able to store 55 tons of spent fuel every two years, would provide enough space for spent fuel storage through the end of the power plant's licensed operating life in 2026. The dry-cask storage program would begin in 2015.

 

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• U.S. Should Re-Evaluate Its Spent Nuclear Fuel Strategy, Experts Say (scientificamerican.com)