Dry Storage Field Canisters

Orano TN (Formerly AREVA TN) approached Premier to manufacture 6, NUHOMS® 37PTH Dry Shielded Canister (DSC). These DSCs are used for PWR dry used fuel storage. The 37PTH is designed to store and transport 37 PWR fuel assemblies with or without control components.

The 37PTH canister consists of a stainless steel cylindrical shell, top and bottom carbon steel shield plugs, inner and outer stainless steel bottom cover plates, inner and outer stainless steel top cover plates and the internal stainless steel basket assembly. The space between the inside diameter of the DSC shell and the fuel compartment grid assembly is bridged by aluminum “transition rails,” which are connected to the fuel compartment structure.

All Canisters were built under Premier’s NQA1 program and to ASME Code, and under tight tolerances.

Premier has experience building multiple types of DSC components.

• Stainless steel shell and cover plates
• Coated carbon steel shield plugs
• Stainless steel basket assembly
• Borated aluminum, boral MMC Neutron Absorbers

New Construction for Nuclear Power Plants

4 Domestic IHP’s

Integrated Head Package (IHP) Assembly allows the rapid removal of the Reactor Vessel Closure Head (RVCH) during a reactor refueling outage. The IHP is comprised of the following major operating systems and subassemblies:

• Control Rod Drive Mechanism (CRDM) Cooling System
• Radial Arm Hoist System
• CRDM Support System
• IHP Lifting System
• CRDM, Digital Rod Position Indicator, Hydrogen Ignitor and Digital Metal Impact Cable Management System

Mounted directly on the RVCH, the IHP Assembly minimizes the time, manpower and radiation exposure associated with RVCH removal and replacement during an outage. The assembled height of the IHP is 47 feet.

Premier Technology fabricated and delivered four IHP Assemblies for the domestic power plants. Premier’s scope of work included the following:

• Procurement of Materials and Equipment
• Material Testing
• Material Preparation and Machining
• Heavy Fabrication to Exacting Tolerances
• Load Testing to 1,854,000 Pounds (927 tons)
• Application of Safety Related Coatings
• Instrumentation and Controls
• Final Factory Acceptance and Functional Testing

The project was successfully completed over a span of approximately seven years. All work was performed under Premier’s NQA-1, ASME Section III and 10CFR Appendix B Quality Assurance Programs.

Steam Generator Tube

Innovation to support SMR’s, Steam Generator Tube Support

Premier served as the R&D and manufacturing contractor for a batch of fifty prototype steam generator tube supports for NuScale Power’s Small Modular Nuclear Reactor (SMR) Design. Each reactor steam generator is meant to house hundreds of tube supports, and each tube support has hundreds of tabs which support the steam generator tubing while limiting it from excess vibration.

Premier was provided with prototype drawings and specifications, and was required to formulate and document an entire fabrication process for the production of the unique tube supports. The tube supports produced by Premier were later used in Flow Induced Vibration testing for the purpose of furthering NuScale’s design and review by the NRC.

Premier successfully developed and implemented a complete fabrication process for the prototypical tube supports.

• This process involved processes such as Blanchard grinding, waterjet processing, CNC machining, die stamping of tight tolerance “tabs” to support the tubing, press breaking, TIG welding, deburring and surface finishing, and many proprietary and new dimensional inspections along the way.
• Premier completely designed, developed, and manufactured the stamping dies used to form the tight tolerance bent tabs used to locate, space, and support the helical tubing bundle in NuScale’s steam generator. The stamping dies used to manufacture the bends in this project had to be very heavy duty to handle the extremely high forces required to bend the approximately ¼” thick stainless steel tabs with a relatively tight bend radius.
• Premier designed fixturing, inspection gauges, dimensional inspection procedures, and shipping/packing procedures for completion of the custom tube supports.
• Premier’s final fabrication process report and suggestions helped NuScale Design Engineers make improvements to the tube support design so that the proprietary tube supports can be manufactured more quickly and economically. This effort provides for a reduction in capital cost of a NuScale SMR power plant.