DEMONSTRATION SOLIDIFICATION TESTS CONDUCTED ON RADIOACTIVELY CONTAMINATED ORGANIC LIQUIDS AT THE AECL WHITESHELL LABORATORIES

Conference · Mon Feb 25 00:00:00 EST 2002

OSTI ID:828214

Ryz, R A; Brunkow, W G; Govers, R; Campbell, D; Krause, D

The AECL, Whiteshell Laboratory (WL) near Pinawa Manitoba, Canada, was established in the early 1960's to carry out AECL research and development activities for higher temperature versions of the CANDU{reg_sign} reactor. The initial focus of the research program was the Whiteshell Reactor-1 (WR-1) Organic Cooled Reactor (OCR) that began operation in 1965. The OCR program was discontinued in the early 1970's in favor of the successful heavy-water-cooled CANDU system. WR-1 continued to operate until 1985 in support of AECL nuclear research programs. A consequence of the Federal government's recent program review process was AECL's business decision to discontinue research programs and operations at the Whiteshell Laboratories and to consolidate its' activities at the Chalk River Laboratories. As a result, AECL received government concurrence in 1998 to proceed to plan actions to achieve closure of WL. The planning actions now in progress address the need to safely and effectively transition the WL site from an operational state, in support of AECL's business, to a shutdown and decommissioned state that meets the regulatory requirements for a licensed nuclear site. The decommissioning program that will be required at WL is unique within AECL and Canada since it will need to address the entire research site rather than individual facilities declared redundant. Accordingly, the site nuclear facilities are being systematically placed in a safe shutdown state and planning for the decommissioning work to place the facilities in a secure monitoring and surveillance state is in progress. One aspect of the shutdown activities is to deal with the legacy of radioactively contaminated organic liquid wastes. Use of a polymer powder to solidify these organic wastes was identified as one possibility for improved interim storage of this material pending final disposition.

• Research Organization: Atomic Energy of Canada Limited, MB; The Chamberlain Group, Ltd., Lynchburg, VA; Nochar Inc., Indianapolis; BWXT Services, Inc., OH (US)
• Sponsoring Organization: Sponsor not identified (US)
• OSTI ID: 828214
• Resource Relation: Conference: Waste Management 2002 Symposium, Tucson, AZ (US), 02/24/2002--02/28/2002; Other Information: PBD: 25 Feb 2002
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS
12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE WASTES, AND NON-RADIOACTIVE WASTES FROM NUCLEAR FACILITIES
21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS
ATOMIC ENERGY OF CANADA LTD
BUSINESS
CLOSURES
DECOMMISSIONING
LIQUID WASTES
MONITORING
NUCLEAR FACILITIES
ORGANIC COOLED REACTORS
ORGANIC WASTES
POLYMERS
RESEARCH PROGRAMS
SHUTDOWN
SOLIDIFICATION
WASTE MANAGEMENT
WASTE STORAGE