Research Opportunities for Deactivating and Decommissioning Department of Energy Facilities (2001) / Chapter Skim
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2. D&D Challenges in the DOE Complex
2. D&D Challenges in the DOE Complex
Pages 13-32
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From page 13... ...
include the following: · production reactors, . research reactors, · chemical processing bui Idings, · uranium, plutonium, and tritium production facilities, and .
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From page 14... ...
tion, electrical, and security systems; removing items from glove boxes Source: DOE and laboratory hoods; and flushing out chemical processing equipment and associated process piping and instrumentation. To ensure safety, surveillance and maintenance of deactivated facilities must continue.
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. ~ , · reactor operations to irradiate fuel and targets to produce nuclear materials; · chemical separations of plutonium, uranium, and tritium from irradiated fuel and target elements; · component fabrication of both nuclear and nonnuclear components; · weapon operations, including assembly, maintenance, modifica.
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,<..~. 0~0 ~0 Amchitka Island W.., Bikini and <~` EnEwetok :1: Atolls Nuclear Weapons Production Uranium Mining Uranium Uranium and Milling Refining Enrichment = Uranium is mined, milled, Uranium is processed into and refined from ore low-enriched, highly enriched, and depleted uranium 1L ~ ~ (;\, i, ~ \L Fuel and Plutonium Uranium Target Production Foundry Fabrication Reactors Uranium gas Uranium metal Uranium target is converted is formed into elements into metal fuel and target are irradiated to elements far create plutonium reactors R E S E A R C H O P P O R T U N ~ T ~ E S F O R D & D 16
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Enrichment .:' ~Tritium Production Separation; Former industrial sites contaminated with radioactivity, some but not all of which contributed to nuclear weapons production. Number indicates how man sites were or are located in the StYate.
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; Savannah River Site (H Canyon complex) ; Idaho National Environmental Engineering Laboratory (Idaho Chemical Processing Plant)
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contains 20 weight percent or more of uranium-235; it was fashioned into weapons components and also used as reactor fuel. Low enriched uranium (LEU)
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Fue! and Target Fabrication Fuel and target fabrication consists of the foundry and machine shop operations required to convert uranium feed material, principally metal, into fuel and target elements used in nuclear materials production reactors.
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The components of the reactor cores also became highly radioactive over time. The highly radioactive spent fuel and target materials typically went on to chemical separations, although an inventory of unprocessed spent fuel and targets remains in storage.
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The major nuclear component fabrication sites were Los Al amos N ational Laboratory i n New Mexico; the Rocky Flats Plant near Boulder, Colorado; the Y-12 Plant in Oak Ridge, Tennessee; and the Plutonium Finishing Plant in Hanford, Washington. Non-nuclear components were manufactured chiefly at the Mound Plant in Miamisburg, Ohio, the Kansas City Plant in Missouri, the Pinel las Plant in Largo, Florida, and the Pantex Plant near Amari I lo, Texas.
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From page 23... ...
Waste Processing As a part of site cleanup, wastes that were produced by the historical operations described in the preceding sections and that are currently stored at the DOE sites must be treated and conditioned for disposal. Highly radioactive wastes will be treated in facilities that have similar layout and shielding walls as the formerly used chemical separations plants.
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From page 24... ...
Because these modern waste treatment facilities are being designed and will be operated and shut down in view of eventual decommissioning, they are not likely to present as great a D&D chal lenge as the h istorical faci I ities. Greatest Future Challenges for D&D DOE recognizes that its site closure program postpones the most difficult D&D tasks until well after 2006 and that this schedule allows time for the development of new technologies to perform at least some of these tasks (Hart, 2000~.
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From page 25... ...
ng faci I ities i ncl ude Savannah River Site's F and H canyons; Hanford's PUREX, T-Plant, B-Plant, U-Plant, and REDOX; and Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory's Chemical Processing Plant. These are massive concrete structures Hanford's PUREX plant is approximately 1000 feet long with walls up to four feet thick (see Figure 2.4~.
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From page 26... ...
Opportunities for cost reduction in the D&D of gaseous diffusion plants were examined by a previous NRC committee (NRC, 1996~. However, that committee's findings may be superseded by new DOE directives on release criteria for radioactively contaminated metals from these plants (Nuclear Waste News, 2000~.
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From page 27... ...
Most of these faciliC h a p t e r 2 FIGURE 2.6 Door leading into a plutonium processing room at the Rocky Flats Site is sealed due to very high levels of alpha radiation within the room. There are more than 20 such rooms at the site.
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The Savannah River Site has been the United States' primary tritium production facility since the mid-1 950s. The Savannah River Site also purifies and loads tritium into weapons components.
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During D&D, surprises were encountered that prompted a search for better detection, bulk sampling, and laboratory analysis methods for characterizing contaminated concrete (Hochel, 2000~. Phases of a D&D Pro ject The D&D of nuclear faci I ities is a complex, mu Iti-step process.
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One of these reports discussed end states in terms of alternative scenarios and accordingly defined end state as the "the final product of a waste processing, remediation, or management scenario characterized well enough in terms of chemical, physical, and radioactive attributes to allow details of scenarios to be R E S E A R C H O P P O R T U N ~ T ~ E S F O R D & D 30
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From page 31... ...
For most facilities at Rocky Flats the end state is complete removal of the building. Re-industrialization, including decontamination and reuse of many buildings, is planned for much of the Oak Ridge Site and parts of the Hanford Site.
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The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (USNRC) has recently asked for advice on the technical bases for criteria to control release of slightly contaminated solids from USNRC-licensed facilities.4 Data on radiation exposure to D&D workers will be valuable for future epidemiological studies.
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