DOE decontamination and decommissioning program experiences
Approximately 475 United States government-owned facilities used in national defense and energy development programs have been shutdown and declared excess to present needs. These facilities include nuclear reactors, fuel reprocessing plants, waste treatment systems, laboratory facilities, and liquid and solid waste disposal grounds. Many of the facilities contain large quantities of man-made radioactive materials. Some of the facilities were constructed in the early 1940's, and have been deteriorating since their shutdown up to 20 years ago. Maintenance of these facilities has been performed to assure adequate control of the radioactive materials, however, this work has been expensive. None of these surplus facilities were designed to be long-term waste repositories, therefore, final decommissioning must be performed. In many instances, decommissioning work can make serviceable facilities, equipment, or materials available for other government uses. In other cases, the contamination can be fixed and the facility sealed to prevent intrusion or spread of radioactive material. In some instances, it may be most cost effective to dismantle the facility and release the land for other uses or for sale. This paper presents a general overview of the DOE program for decommissioning of surplus facilities and provides specific information of five typical decommissioning projects that are currently underway. These projects involve work on a plutonium laboratory, a liquid waste handling system, two hot cell facilities, and a large production reactor. Decommissioning techniques, equipment and results of actual field experiences will be described. 2 figures, 1 table.
- Research Organization:
- UNC Nuclear Industries, Inc., Richland, WA (USA). Decommissioning Programs Dept.
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC06-76RL01857
- OSTI ID:
- 5629417
- Report Number(s):
- UNI-SA-118; CONF-8311105-1; ON: DE84002337
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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CLEANING
DECOMMISSIONING
DECONTAMINATION
EQUIPMENT
HOT CELLS
HOT LABS
LABORATORIES
LABORATORY EQUIPMENT
NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
NUCLEAR FACILITIES
US DOE
US ORGANIZATIONS