Westinghouse Electric Company has announced the successful installation of its spent fuel pool level instrumentation system at Watts Bar Nuclear Plant, operated by Tennessee Valley Authority.

Spent fuel pools are storage pools for spent, or used, nuclear fuel from a nuclear reactor. All U.S. utilities are required by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to install spent fuel pool level instrumentation at nuclear power plants as part of an industry-wide response to lessons learned from the March 2011 Fukushima Daiichi accident.

In the event of an emergency that causes an extended loss of AC power at a nuclear plant, the Westinghouse spent fuel pool instrumentation system provides plant operators a way to monitor the water level in the pool to verify that the used fuel remains covered by water and appropriately cooled.

"Declaration of the Westinghouse spent fuel pool instrumentation system as functional at Watts Bar represents a significant milestone for Westinghouse and the nuclear energy industry," said David Howell, senior vice president, Westinghouse Automation and Field Services.

"This is one of the first Westinghouse post-Fukushima modifications to be installed and operational at a U.S. nuclear power plant. We look forward to supporting Westinghouse customers in meeting regulatory requirements through similar such installations, helping to ensure the continued safe, efficient and economic production of electricity."

Westinghouse has contracts to deliver more than 90 spent fuel pool instrumentation system solutions in the U.S. The system at Watts Bar completed all testing and was declared operational. Additional Westinghouse instrumentation systems are at various stages of installation and testing at other locations.

Westinghouse joined with a leading global manufacturer of state-of-the-art level instrumentation to supply the technology, which is provided by a guided-wave-radar sensor. This wide-range spent fuel pool instrumentation system leverages robust technology to address NRC requirements providing a reliable indication of the spent fuel pool level.