Criticality safety aspects of K-25 building uranium deposit removal
- Oak Ridge National Lab., TN (United States); and others
The K-25 Building of the Oak Ridge Gaseous Diffusion Plant (now the K-25 site) went into operation during World War II as the first large-scale production plant to separate {sup 235}U from uranium by the gaseous diffusion process. It operated successfully until 1964, when it was placed in a standby mode. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has initiated a decontamination and decommissioning program. The primary objective of the Deposit Removal Project is to improve the nuclear criticality safety of the K-25 building by removing enriched uranium deposits from unfavorable-geometry process equipment to below minimum critical mass. Although the likelihood of a nuclear criticality accident is considered remote, the existence of large enriched-uranium deposits in unfavorable-geometry process equipment is inherently unsafe. Thus, deposit removal activities are being conducted in the K-25 building to enhance safety. The DOE orders require that the calculated probability of a nuclear criticality event be less than one in a million (10{sup -6}) per year.
- OSTI ID:
- 186569
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-950601-; ISSN 0003-018X; TRN: 96:006992
- Journal Information:
- Transactions of the American Nuclear Society, Vol. 72; Conference: Annual meeting of the American Nuclear Society (ANS), Philadelphia, PA (United States), 25-29 Jun 1995; Other Information: PBD: 1995
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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