Lessons Learned From Decommissioning B411 Decontamination Centre at Whiteshell Laboratories - 18211

Conference · Sun Jul 01 04:00:00 EDT 2018

OSTI ID:22975383

Smith, Miles ^[1]; Luke, Adriana; Gamley, Sean ^[2]

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1. Atkins Nuclear Secured (United States)
2. Canadian Nuclear Laboratories (Canada)

Whiteshell Laboratories, located in Manitoba, Canada, provided research facilities for the Canadian nuclear industry since the early 1960's. The facility was centered on the largest organically cooled, heavy water moderated nuclear reactor in the world, the WR-1. It is now operated by Canadian Nuclear Laboratories (CNL) and is the first major decommissioning project of a nuclear research establishment in Canada. One of the major projects to support the closure of Whiteshell Laboratories (WL) is the decommissioning and demolition of the Building 411 (B411) Decontamination Centre, which provided a decontamination service for maintaining research and development of experimental rigs, equipment and tools in a safe usable state. It also provided a laundry service for radioactively contaminated clothing. The team successfully self-performed their first demolition of a nuclear facility, but not without challenges. The baseline decommissioning strategy assumed most of the facility would meet unconditional clearance levels; however when characterization revealed the extent of contamination exceeded initial assumptions projected from process knowledge, in conjunction with resource challenges and a waste disposal pathway not firmly established, active remediation of the facility was undertaken. With an unknown waste acceptance criteria for the future waste disposal facility, sludge that had accumulated in a tank used to collect xylene and organic coolant from contaminated tools and equipment and the selection of appropriate waste packages for waste storage, transportation and disposal forced the project team to adjust their demolition timeline. This, coupled with developing an open air demolition plan and managing an uncertain end state criteria, were just some of the major tasks the team successfully navigated. The impact on both schedule and cost performance caused by the change in strategy, and the lessons learned experienced by the WL Decommissioning Project Team that are being applied as the Whiteshell Laboratories Closure Project (WLCP) moves forward with the next major decommissioning challenge, are highlighted in this paper. (authors)

• Research Organization: WM Symposia, Inc., PO Box 27646, 85285-7646 Tempe, AZ (United States)
• OSTI ID: 22975383
• Report Number(s): INIS-US--20-WM-18211
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE WASTES FROM NUCLEAR FACILITIES
CONTAMINATION
DECONTAMINATION
HEAVY WATER
MANITOBA
ORGANIC COOLANTS
PROGRAM MANAGEMENT
RADIATION PROTECTION
RADIOACTIVE WASTE DISPOSAL
RADIOACTIVE WASTE FACILITIES
RADIOACTIVE WASTE STORAGE
REACTOR DECOMMISSIONING
REACTOR DISMANTLING
RECOMMENDATIONS
REMEDIAL ACTION
SLUDGES
WNRE
WR-1 REACTOR
XYLENES