Potential problems and incidents when carrying fuel elements must be considered in the course of the fuel handling process. This mainly involves the consequences of dropping a load, which could happen while handling fuel elements in the fuel element storage pool, including loading fuel element containers or moving them around in the reactor building or interim fuel element storage. In an interim fuel element storage, for example, the possible effects of fuel element containers being dropped must be covered which could occur in the delivery area when lifting fuel element containers off carrier vehicles or in the storage area itself when moving fuel elements by crane.

Other internal installation events could include fires, explosions and flooding which could also occur. This calls for specific plant studies to show where such events could occur and what might be the impact of those events in terms of differential tempera­tures, pressures and flooding heights.