Experience with fuel damage from abnormal conditions in handling and transport

Very few fuel bundles have sustained major mechanical damage because of handling operations. Little is known about damage to fuel during shipments; however, such damage, if any, is apparently minor. In most cases involving damage from handling, it appears that the result was minor degradation of fuel-bundle components and no breaching of the fuel-rod cladding or release of radioactive gases, even in those cases where fuel bundles were dropped as much as 1.5 to 9 meters through water and impacted on other fuel bundles or the bottom of the spent-fuel storage pool.