Fort St. Vrain HTGR

Table 9. The major performance parameters of the Fort St. Vrain HTGR [29,38-40]...

The Fort St. Vrain HTGR was permanently shutdown in August 1988 [41]. The nuclear island performed well dining the reactors 15-year life, although significant problems were encoxmtered with some of the reactors non-nuclear support systems [29,38]. 

The experience with spent fuel stored in dry vaults is also very encouraging. Besides the storage of MAGNOX fuel there is good experience with storage of fuel assemblies from research reactors in the CASCAD facility at Cadarache and from breeder reactors [10]. In the U. S. spent fuel from the Fort St. Vrain HTGR has been stored in a dry vault store for many years. Modular concrete stor e systems have been developed and licoised for LWR fuel assemblies. 

The Fort St. Vrain HTGR plant was shut down in 1989 after approximately ten years of commercial operation. The initial activity following shutdown of this HTGR was to construct a modular dry vault storage facility for the cores 1,482 hexagonal graphite fuel... 

The highest power of a reactor of the HTGR type was 330 MWe in Fort St. Vrain, Colorado. The reactor, started in 1979, had many technical problems, including helium leaks, and did not perform up to expectations. It was shut down in 1989. 

The Fort St. Vrain (FSV) HTGR was designed to produce 842 MW(th) and 330 MW(e). Its operation between 1979 and 1989 provided invaluable fuel performance, fission product release and plentiful data that have been used for further validation of respective calculational tools. Fort St. Vrain represents now the world s first successful decommissioning effort for a long-term operating commercial nuclear reactor. 

The Fort St. Vrain High Temperature Gas-cooled (HTGR) power reactor, operated by Public Service Company of Colorado is located approximately iJO miles north of Denver at the confluence of the South Platte river and St. Vrain creek. It is the only gas-cooled power reactor in the country and while it has had operating difficulties, the nuclear aspects of the design have great promise for the following reasons ... 

FSV Fort St. Vrain, an HTGR protot)fpe power station in the US... 

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