Safe Shutdown and Deactivation of the 105-K Disassembly Basin at the Savannah River Site
Nuclear production reactors at the Savannah River Site (SRS) were operated for several years in support of the United States nuclear weapons program. When this overall mission ended, the 105-K and 105-L reactors continued to perform vital missions, including the safe storage of spent nuclear fuel. A spent fuel consolidation effort is underway at SRS, and part of this effort was the safe shutdown and deactivation of the 105-K Disassembly Basin. 105-K ceased reactor operations in the early 1990s and was converted to a nuclear materials management facility. Although not originally designed for long-term storage, the 105-K Basin performed well as an interim, underwater location for reactor fuel and other radiation sources. Following the de-inventory of spent fuel in September 2002, the need to operate the 105-K Basin was eliminated.During production, the Disassembly Basins were used to temporarily store irradiated components removed from the reactor vessel. They are large concrete pools containing approximately 3.4 million gallons of water to provide cooling and shielding for the stored components. In support of this mission, the Basins were furnished with equipment for maintaining water parameters, monitoring radiation, and handling and reconfiguring the fuel components. Some of this equipment is located within the Basin structures themselves, and other pieces are located elsewhere in the local reactor areas. 105-K Basin deactivation activities included the lay-up, removal, or abandoning of this equipment. Eventual decommissioning activities will likely follow the Site-established plan to evaporate much of the Basin water and use the remaining water to grout-in-place residual contamination and scrap materials. Traditional deactivation projects include a substantial reduction in overall facility surveillance and maintenance activities and a relocation of all non-essential personnel to alternate work locations. In this case, however, the Disassembly Basin is not an individual facility, but rather is an integral part of the 105-K reactor facility. This facility has enduring DOE missions that are vital to national security and the cost-effective management of DOE nuclear materials. Therefore, the usual method of restricting facility access could not be utilized to provide the deactivated end state of the Basin. The ongoing missions in 105-K necessitate its status as an occupied and operational facility, whereas other SRS reactor buildings that have been deactivated are kept locked. Although comprising its own wing of the 105-K building, the Basin has an interface with the rest of the facility that required certain isolation measures. This paper will describe the final fuel storage mission of the Basin prior to deactivation, the deactivation activities that were performed, the interface between the deactivated and operational portions of the 105-K facility, and will briefly touch on the eventual plans to decommission the Basin per the SRS methodology.
- Research Organization:
- Savannah River Site (SRS), Aiken, SC (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- US Department of Energy (US)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC09-96SR18500
- OSTI ID:
- 807675
- Report Number(s):
- WSRC-MS-2002-00936; TRN: US0301948
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: Waste Management Symposium 2003, Tucson, AZ (US), 02/23/2003--02/27/2003; Other Information: PBD: 5 Feb 2003
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
45 MILITARY TECHNOLOGY, WEAPONRY, AND NATIONAL DEFENSE
DEACTIVATION
MANAGEMENT
NATIONAL SECURITY
NUCLEAR FUELS
NUCLEAR MATERIALS MANAGEMENT
NUCLEAR WEAPONS
PRODUCTION REACTORS
RADIATION SOURCES
REACTOR OPERATION
REACTOR VESSELS
SHUTDOWN
SPENT FUELS
WASTE MANAGEMENT