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When maintenance is performed on a nuclear reactor’s associated rod drives and limit switches, personnel typically work on a platform over an open nuclear fuel pool. Water shields radiation and keeps fuel cells cool, and these pools of water surrounding nuclear reactor cores are designed to slow down the high energy particles that occasionally escape the core. In a nuclear research environment, the reactor tank is usually partially covered with aluminum deck plating to allow operators and researchers access to the cavity for experiment loading and unloading.
