31. Each spent fuel assembly is made up of pencil-thick metal rods filled with eraser-sized pellets of waste. 32. In essence, the vendors make a model of the fuel assembly but power it with resistive heaters. 33. Earlier Wednesday, technicians placed two additional metal straps around the fuel assembly to give it greater support. 34. In addition, spent fuel assemblies are used to provide a gamma irradiation facility in the reactor pool. 35. Each pool contains about 800 fuel assemblies . 36. All rods of a fuel assembly are held in place with 10 stainless steel spacers separated by distance. 37. This facility, treating 2500 fuel assemblies per year, would be the first of its kind for RBMK fuel. 38. In addition to the regular fuel assemblies , there are instrumented ones, containing neutron flux detectors in the central carrier. 39. Palo Verde officials plan to remove a stuck radioactive-fuel assembly in the Unit 2 reactor late Tuesday or Wednesday. 40. The fuel assemblies consist of two sets ( " sub-assemblies " ) with 18 fuel rods and 1 carrier rod.
