Trillo nuclear power plant temporary storage facility

Since 2002 the Trillo nuclear power plant has had a cask storage facility designed to temporarily house its spent fuel.

This is a shed with concrete walls and roof capable of housing 80 dual purpose (storage and transport) casks. These casks have been developed by Enresa along with other Spanish and US companies, providing an easy to handle and maintain design for the dry storage of irradiated fuel.

The DPT casks are cylindrical containers with a maximum weight of 118 tons when loaded, a height of 5.02 metres and a diameter of 2.36 metres. The walls are of steel-lead-steel-neutron shielding in sequence and the casks have a capacity for 21 fuel assemblies from this nuclear power plant.

The DPT dual purpose casks have been subjected to exhaustive safety tests to ensure that they fulfil the regulations on both transport and storage. In this respect they are capable of withstanding drops from 9 metres, fires of 800ºC, immersion up to 200 metres, tipping, loss of the neutron shielding, hurricane force winds, earthquakes, etc.

One of the advantages of this technique is that the casks may be constructed as needed, this allowing the investments to be made gradually over time.