Nuclear Criticality Safety Modeling of an LEU Deposit

Conference · Sun Nov 10 04:00:00 EST 1996

OSTI ID:390649

Haire, M. J. ^[1]; Elam, K. R. ^[1]; Jordan, W. C. ^[1]; Dahl, T. L. ^[1]

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1. Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)

The construction of the Oak Ridge Gaseous Diffusion Plant (now known as the K-25 Site) began during World War H and eventually consisted of five major process buildings: K-25, K-27, K-29, K-31, and K-33. The plant took natural (0.711% ²³¹U) uranium as feed and processed it into both low-enriched uranium (LEU) and high-enriched uranium (HEU) with concentrations up to ~93% ²³¹U. The K-25 and K-27 buildings were shut down in 1964, but the rest of the plant produced LEU until 1985. During operation, in leakage of humid air into process piping and equipment caused reactions with gaseous uranium hexafluoride (UF₆) that produced nonvolatile uranyl fluoride (UO₂F₂) deposits. As part of shutdown, most of the uranium was evacuated as volatile UF₆. The UO₂F₂ deposits remained. The U.S. Department of Energy has mitigated a program to unprove nuclear criticality safety by removing the larger enriched uranium deposits.

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), Nuclear Criticality Safety Program (NCSP)
• DOE Contract Number: AC05-96OR22464; AC05-84OR21400
• OSTI ID: 390649
• Report Number(s): CONF-961103--19; ON: DE97000026
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS
42 ENGINEERING
97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING
99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS
CRITICALITY
DECOMMISSIONING
DEPOSITS
ENRICHED URANIUM
HYDROGEN
High-Enriched Uranium (HEU)
K CODES
Low-Enriched Uranium (LEU)
MODERATELY ENRICHED URANIUM
Nuclear Criticality Safety Program (NCSP)
ORGDP
PIPES
REMOVAL
SENSITIVITY ANALYSIS
URANIUM 235
URANIUM FLUORIDES
URANIUM HEXAFLUORIDE