Orion ENC Completes Underwater Performance Test of Spent Nuclear Fuel Burnup Measurement Equipment

[Financial News] Orion ENC, a nuclear power specialist, announced on the 22nd that it has completed underwater performance testing of a prototype of field equipment for measuring the burnup of fuel assemblies in spent nuclear fuel storage pools.
Orion ENC has been conducting technology development and prototype manufacturing as the lead organization for the 'Development of On-site Spent Nuclear Fuel Burnup Measurement Equipment,' an R&D project funded by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE). The company explained, "Through this test, we have confirmed the potential for localization in the field of nuclear safety instrumentation, which currently has a high dependence on foreign equipment."
This equipment utilizes gamma-ray and neutron detection technologies to non-destructively verify the burnup, cooling time, and radiological characteristics of fuel assemblies. The measurement results can be used as basic data to evaluate safety during the storage, transportation, dry storage, and disposal of spent nuclear fuel.
During the decommissioning of aging nuclear power plants, the characteristics of each fuel assembly must be verified before spent nuclear fuel stored in storage pools is transferred to dry storage facilities. Accordingly, as nuclear power plant decommissioning and the transition to dry storage expand, demand for related instrumentation equipment is also expected to increase.
Orion ENC has integrated underwater mechanical structures, waterproofing and shielding designs, remote operation, radiation detection, and data analysis technologies into this prototype. Equipment in this field is supplied mainly by overseas companies such as Mirion Technologies of France and Equipos Nucleares SA of Spain.
"We confirmed the performance of the field equipment in this underwater performance test," a company official said. "We plan to accumulate reliability and operational data to enter the domestic market in 2028 and expand into the global nuclear power plant decommissioning and spent nuclear fuel management market in 2030."
[email protected] Choi Doo-sun Reporter