Reactor Decommissioning History
Connecticut Yankee (Haddam Neck)
revised 14-FEB-2014

Overview

Connecticut Yankee (called Haddam Neck by the NRC and others) was a Westinghouse design commercial PWR power reactor. It had a generating capacity of 1825 MWt and 590 MWe. It operated from 1967 (or 1968) to July 1996. Decommissioning began 1999 and the reactor removed from site in 2003.

Reactor Decommissioning Specifics

Internals Removal
All work was performed underwater. Abrasive Water Jet (AWJ) and Metal Disintegration Machining (MDM) were primarily used. Some long handle tools were also used for mechanical work such as unbolting and manipulating. The AWJ was used to remove larger components (such as the Baffle Plates) and to size reduce them for packaging. Several MDM tools were used to help remove components (such as removing bolt heads). All work on the internals was done remotely. All work on the internals was done by PCI Energy Services.

Reactor Vessel Removal
The reactor pressure vessel was removed whole. This assembly was shipped off-site via barge. It is not known which company cut the piping to free the reactor vessel. Bigge Power Constructors provided the rigging services.

Segmentation and Packaging Plan (S&P Plan)
Pre-site: PCI Energy Services; Steve Larson, Jim Jesko, George Knetl, Fred Frank.
At site: PCI Energy Services?

GTCC Packaging
The Greater than Class C (GTCC) material from the reactor will remain on site with the fuel in the ISFSI. There are three NAC MPC canisters.

Key People
Jim Jesko was the on-site Project Manager for PCI Energy Services.

Contractors
Bechtel Power Corporation.
Bigge Power Constructors.
PCI Energy Services.

Comments
This was the first of three underwater internals segmentations done in the USA using Abrasive Water Jet (AWJ) as the primary cutting tool (CY, SONGS-1, and Maine Yankee). AWJ was used (dry; not underwater) at Trojan for a repair project before this. It is believed that AWJ was used in Japan on reactor internals before being used at CY. AWJ is planned to segment the Rancho Seco RV dry (i.e. not underwater).

Although AWJ is preferred over Plasma from an ALARA standpoint, it generates a lot of secondary waste. The cutting media (garnet) is very difficult to contain. The force of the abrasive is so great that it can cut through containment devices 2-feet (600mm) away. If allowed to accumulate, the abrasive will become similar to wet concrete. Because CY was the first USA reactor to use this process, there were many lessons learned. The two following AWJ segementations (SONGS-1 and Maine Yankee) saw important changes to refine this process.

Related Publications and Documents
No published technical papers have been found relating to the decommissioning of this reactor or segmentation of the reactor internals.

References
NRC's "Fact Sheet on Decommissioning Nuclear Power Plants" (web page 8/15/05).
Southern California Edison's web page as of 8/12/05.
Bigge Power Constructors' printed literature dated 8/25/04.
PCI Energy Services' web page 8/12/05.
Steve Larson interview 8/12/05.

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