Decommissioning Lines-of-Inquiry for Design Review of New Nuclear Facilities
- Project Enhancement Corporation, 20300 Century Boulevard, Ste 175, Germantown, MD 20874 (United States)
An independent review of the design of the Salt Waste Processing Facility (SWPF) at Savannah River included a requirement to address the ability to decommission the facility. This paper addresses the lines of inquiry (that were developed for the review and their use in future for reviews of other projects, referred to herein as 'DDLOI'. Decommissioning activities for almost any type of facility are well within the technological state-of-the-art. The major impacts for complications resulting from insufficient consideration during design of a new facility that involves radioactive processes and/or material is the cost of: a) gaining access to high radiation areas and b) dealing with high levels of contamination. For this reason, the DDLOI were developed as a way of raising the awareness of designers and design reviewers to design features that can impede or facilitate ultimate decommissioning. The intent is that this report can be used not only for review, but also by engineers in the early stages of design development when requirements are being assembled. The focus for the DDLOI is on types of facilities that contain nuclear and/or radioactive processes and materials. The level of detail is more specific than would be found in decommissioning plans prepared for regulatory purposes. In commencing this review, the author's could find no precedent for a systematic review of design for decommissioning that included results of a review. Therefore, it was decided to create a report that would provide detailed lines of inquiry along with the rationale for each. The resulting DDLOI report included 21 topical areas for design review. The DDLOI combined the authors' experience in developing baselines for facilities to be deactivated or demolished with prior publications by the U.S. Army and the International Atomic Energy Agency. These two references were found via an Internet search and were the only ones judged to be useful at a field application level. Most others addressed principles or methods but did not have specific recommendations at a detailed design level. The DDLOI not only recommended what reviewers should look for, but also provides the reason as to why each item is important. Overall, the 21 topical areas there are presented in four main sections, which are: - Yard and Exterior Spaces addresses yard areas, underground tunnels, vaults, roofs and siding. - Structures and Interior Spaces addresses interior spaces, use of hazardous materials, placement of large or heavy equipment, and walls and floors designed for shielding. - Systems and Equipment first addresses systems for deactivation, service and utility systems isolation, pipes and ducts, tanks, and crud traps. In addition, DDLOI for laboratories, gloveboxes, and hot cells are included. - Contamination Control addresses the design of, walls, floors, ceilings, sumps, and drains with regard to contamination control. The ability to decontaminate is also included. The final section of the report is a listing of the individual DDLOI topics in a table format, which is designed as a tool that for use as a review checklist. In applying the DDLOI, two cautions are advised: - Designing for the operational mission of the facility is a higher priority than accommodating ease of decommissioning. The recommendations should be considered as preferable design practices when they can be accommodated without compromising the primary design objectives. - The DDLOI should be considered as guidance and not design requirements; noting some will become requirements because they are incorporated in modern building codes. Applying the DDLOI to the SWPF resulted in an overall conclusion that the design for the most part was compatible with the ability to decommission the facility. The most significant recommendation was to completely line the walls of a hot cell with stainless steel that was originally designed with two of its sides as the concrete wall of the building. This recommendation was subsequently incorporated in the design. Future design reviews of nuclear or radioactively contaminated facilities, whether by independent parties or the designers themselves, can benefit from the lines-of-inquiry that are the subject of this paper. The DDLOI, with an example of their use, are in a public domain report, which is freely available from the authors.
- Research Organization:
- American Nuclear Society, 555 North Kensington Avenue, La Grange Park, Illinois 60526 (United States)
- OSTI ID:
- 21144252
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: DD and R 2007: ANS Topical Meeting on Decommissioning, Decontamination, and Reutilization 2007, Chattanooga, TN (United States), 16-19 Sep 2007; Other Information: Country of input: France; 3 refs; Related Information: In: Proceedings of the 2007 ANS Topical Meeting on Decommissioning, Decontamination, and Reutilization - DD and R 2007, 336 pages.
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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