A history of major Hanford facilities and processes involving radioactive material. [Contains glossary]

Technical Report · Fri Mar 01 04:00:00 EST 1991

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/6080957· OSTI ID:6080957

Ballinger, M Y; Hall, R B

The Hanford Environmental Dose Reconstruction (HEDR) Project was established in 1987 to estimate radiation doses that people could have received from nuclear operations at the Hanford Site since 1944. Hanford Site operations began in 1944 to produce plutonium for nuclear weapons. This effort included fabricating fuel elements, irradiating the fuel in nuclear reactors, and separating the resulting plutonium from uranium and fission byproducts. To build a foundation for the first step in estimating radiation doses, HEDR staff at the Pacific Northwest Laboratory compiled and summarized historical information that describes the processes and facilities in which radioactive material was generated or used at the Hanford Site. This document categorizes nuclear operations under six processes: fuel fabrication, reactor operations, fuel separations, plutonium finishing, research and development, and tank farms and waste recovery. Historical emission controls and effluent monitoring are discussed for each process. Because Hanford Site operations used the first large-scale nuclear facilities of their kind, process development and effluent control measures evolved as knowledge about the processes improved. Over the years, facilities were added or modified to improve processes, accelerate production, and better control emissions to the environment. 25 refs., 23 figs., 3 tabs.

• Research Organization: Pacific Northwest Lab., Richland, WA (USA)
• Sponsoring Organization: DOE; USDOE, Washington, DC (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: AC06-76RL01830
• OSTI ID: 6080957
• Report Number(s): PNL-6964-HEDR; ON: DE91009778
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

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ACTINIDES
DOSES
ELEMENTS
ENVIRONMENTAL EXPOSURE
FUEL ELEMENTS
HANFORD PRODUCTION REACTORS
HANFORD RESERVATION
HAPO
HISTORICAL ASPECTS
MANAGEMENT
MATERIALS
METALS
MONITORING
NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
NUCLEAR FACILITIES
OPERATION
PLUTONIUM
PLUTONIUM PRODUCTION REACTORS
PRODUCTION REACTORS
PUREX PROCESS
RADIATION DOSES
RADIOACTIVE EFFLUENTS
RADIOACTIVE MATERIALS
RADIOACTIVE WASTES
REACTOR COMPONENTS
REACTOR OPERATION
REACTORS
REDOX PROCESS
REPROCESSING
RESEARCH PROGRAMS
SEPARATION PROCESSES
STORAGE FACILITIES
TRANSURANIUM ELEMENTS
URANIUM
US AEC
US DOE
US ERDA
US ORGANIZATIONS
WASTE MANAGEMENT
WASTES