That looks like some kind of weird combination of a reflection and difficulty focusing. I agree, it’s not a problem with the fuel. You might be able to eliminate this with a lighting adjustment. It is not unusual to see strange artifacts on these digital cameras. It also might be a problem with the thermals adjustment, if you have that feature on your camera. I love the thermals adjustment when doing ID verification in the core, but it can do some weird things.

Damon Bryson

VC Summer Nuclear Station

803-345-4814

From: PWRRM [mailto:pwrrm-bounces@retaqs.com] On Behalf Of Hulvey, Kimberly Dawn
Sent: Tuesday, March 28, 2017 8:56 AM
To: 'pwrrm@retaqs.com' <pwrrm@retaqs.com>
Subject: [Pwrrm] question on fuel assembly bottom nozzle observation

***This is an EXTERNAL email. Please do not click on a link or open any attachments unless you are confident it is from a trusted source.

During our refueling outage fuel assembly inspections, we noticed something unusual in a number of periphery fuel assemblies removed from the core. We initially thought it was some type of debris and were going to attempt removal. Upon further inspection, the ‘marking’ is only seen at certain angles of viewing – it looks like a haze. Since we have seen this on more than one assembly, we don’t think it is camera distortion or camera focusing issues. When we zoon in and look at the flow holes better, we do not see any obstruction so we are currently planning to reuse these assemblies. Just curious if anyone had ever seen anything similar. Pictures are attached.

Thank you in advance for your response and help.

Kim Hulvey

WBN Reactor Engineering Manager

423-365-7720 (office)

931-581-5423 (cell)