Review of Potential Wigner Effect Impacts on the Irradiated Graphite in Decommissioned Hanford Reactors

Technical Report · Wed May 18 04:00:00 EDT 2022

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/1868372· OSTI ID:1868372

Nichols, William ^[1]; Zhou, W. ^[2]

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1. Hanford Site (HNF), Richland, WA (United States); Central Plateau Cleanup Company, Richland, WA (United States)
2. INTERA, Inc., Austin, TX (United States)

This review of is motivated by the need to consider future disposal of the nine surplus Hanford Site production reactors (B, C, D, DR, F, H, KE, KW, and N) that are decommissioned as part of the Hanford Site Composite Analysis. The B Reactor has been designated as a museum. The other eight reactors will be evaluated in a future performance assessment before a final disposal facility can be authorized to construction or to receive this waste form. After a performance assessment is available, then the Hanford Site Composite Analysis would be updated to account for this additional source term. Disposal is currently assumed to occur in calendar year 2070 by one-piece removal to a projected disposal facility in the 200 West Area of the Hanford Site Central Plateau. The N Reactor core may also be disposed analogously to the single-pass reactors. It will further assume that the B Reactor will remain a museum permanently. The U.S. Department of Energy studied at least five decommissioning alternatives for long-term, safe management of radionuclide-contaminated materials inside the eight single-pass reactors (DOE/EIS-0119-FEIS, Decommissioning of Eight Surplus Production Reactors at the Hanford Site, Richland, Washington).

• Research Organization: Hanford Site (HNF), Richland, WA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Environmental Management (EM)
• OSTI ID: 1868372
• Report Number(s): CP-68001, Rev. 0
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

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