Affordable Cleanup? Opportunities for Cost Reduction in the Decontamination and Decommissioning of the Nation's Uranium Enrichment Facilities (1996) / Chapter Skim
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GLOSSARY
GLOSSARY
Pages 296-305
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Atomic vapor laser isotope separation (AVLIS) An advanced enrichment technology that converts a feed material into product streams in which a selected set of isotopes has been enriched or depleted.
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Gaseous uranium hexafluoride is pumped into the converters in a cascade via piping and associated compressors and pumps, where it is enriched slightly after passing through the barrier material. Criticality In a nuclear criticality event, an assemblage of enriched uranium results in a selfsustaining chain reaction generating large amounts of heat, radioactive fission products, and gamma and neutron radiation.
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are stored at the uranium enrichment sites. Diffusion barrier The porous, tube-like material housed in the converters that is used to separate uranium isotopes of different molecular weights (e.g., 23sU from 238U)
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Gaseous decontamination In this report, removal of uranium deposits by fluorination using chlorine trifluoride gas, often at elevated temperatures. Gaseous diffusion A method of isotope separation based on the fact that gas atoms or molecules with different masses will diffuse through a porous barrier (or membrane)
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Hazardous substance/hazardous waste Any material that poses a threat to public health or the environment as defined by the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act and the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act. High-assay decontamination facility The facility assumed to be built in the D&D cost estimates of Ebasco Environmental and TLG Engineering to disassemble and decontaminate equipment contaminated with highly enriched uranium.
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Low-level radioactive waste Radioactive waste not classified as high-level radioactive waste, transuranic waste, spent nuclear fuel or byproduct material' and acceptable for disposal in a licensed land disposal facility. Typically, discarded radioactive materials such as rags, construction rubble, and glass are only slightly or moderately contaminated.
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Restricted release of a site requires engineered and administrative controls to ensure public safety.
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A measure of the effort required in an enrichment facility to separate uranium of a given 235u content into two fractions; one with a higher percentage and one with a lower percentage of 235U. The unit of separative work is the kilogram separative work unit (kg SWU)
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Surveillance and maintenance (S&M) Those activities necessary to ensure that a site remains in a safe condition, including periodic inspection and monitoring of the site and prevention of access to radioactive materials left on the site.
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From page 305... ...
Y-12 A plant in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, built for the Manhattan Project to enrich uranium using calutrons. Today, this plant produces and stores components made of enriched and depleted uranium and lithium for thermonuclear weapons.
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Key Terms
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