LESSONS LEARNED FROM CLEANING OUT THE SLUDGE FROM THE SPENT FUEL STORAGE BASINS AT HANFORD ICEM-07

Conference · Fri Aug 31 04:00:00 EDT 2007

OSTI ID:915494

PM, KNOLLMEYER

Until 2004, the K Basins at Hanford, in southeastern Washington State, held the largest collection of spent nuclear fuel in the United States Department of Energy (DOE) complex. The K East and K West Basins are massive pools each holding more than 4 million liters of water - that sit less than 450 meters from the Columbia River. In a significant multi-year campaign that ended in 2004, Fluor Hanford removed all of the fuel from the two Basins, over 2,300 metric tons (4.6 million pounds), dried it, and then placed it into dry storage in a specially designed facility away from the River. Removing the fuel, however, did not finish the cleanup work at the K Basins. The years of underwater storage had corroded the metallic uranium fuel, leaving behind a thick and sometimes hard-packed layer of sludge that coated the walls, floors and equipment inside the Basins. In places, the depth of the sludge was measured in feet rather than inches, and its composition was definitely not uniform. Together the Basins held an estimated 50 cubic meters of sludge (42 cubic meters in K East and 8 cubic meters in K West). The K East sludge retrieval and transfer work was completed in May 2007. Vacuuming up the sludge into large underwater containers in each of the Basins and then consolidating it all in containers in the K West Basin have presented significant challenges, some unexpected. This paper documents some of those challenges and presents the lessons learned so that other nuclear cleanup projects can benefit from the experience at Hanford.

• Research Organization: Hanford Site (HNF), Richland, WA
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE - Office of Environmental Management (EM)
• DOE Contract Number: AC06-96RL13200
• OSTI ID: 915494
• Report Number(s): HNF-34947-FP REV 0
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS
12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE WASTES FROM NUCLEAR FACILITIES
CLEANING
COLUMBIA RIVER
DRY STORAGE
METERS
NUCLEAR FUELS
RADIOACTIVE WASTE MANAGEMENT
SLUDGES
SPENT FUEL STORAGE
STORAGE