DEI Completes HE-UFCTM Ultrasonic Fuel Cleaning at River Bend Station
River Bend station is a boiling water reactor (BWR) located near St. Francisville, Louisiana. Entergy recently completed HE-UFCTM ultrasonic fuel cleaning at River Bend. All 411 reload fuel bundles were ultrasonically cleaned during the refueling outage prior to reloading them to the reactor.
The HE-UFCTM cleaning activity was effective in removing and capturing more than 20,000 Ci of fuel crud activity. A notable improvement in fuel reliability has been observed during subsequent plant operation following HE-UFCTM. While other plant actions are continuously being taken to improve fuel reliability, HE-UFCTM is considered to have been the major contributor to this success due to effective removal of debris present on fuel bundle bottom nozzles prior to reloading these bundles to the reactor.