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

Technical Report · Fri Mar 01 00:00:00 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 National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE; USDOE, Washington, DC (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: AC06-76RL01830
• OSTI ID: 6080957
• Report Number(s): PNL-6964-HEDR; ON: DE91009778; TRN: 91-012521
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS
21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS
HANFORD PRODUCTION REACTORS
REACTOR OPERATION
HANFORD RESERVATION
HISTORICAL ASPECTS
OPERATION
ENVIRONMENTAL EXPOSURE
FUEL ELEMENTS
HAPO
MONITORING
NUCLEAR FACILITIES
PLUTONIUM
PUREX PROCESS
RADIATION DOSES
RADIOACTIVE EFFLUENTS
RADIOACTIVE MATERIALS
REDOX PROCESS
RESEARCH PROGRAMS
STORAGE FACILITIES
URANIUM
WASTE MANAGEMENT
ACTINIDES
DOSES
ELEMENTS
MANAGEMENT
MATERIALS
METALS
NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
PLUTONIUM PRODUCTION REACTORS
PRODUCTION REACTORS
RADIOACTIVE WASTES
REACTOR COMPONENTS
REACTORS
REPROCESSING
SEPARATION PROCESSES
TRANSURANIUM ELEMENTS
US AEC
US DOE
US ERDA
US ORGANIZATIONS
WASTES
053000* - Nuclear Fuels- Environmental Aspects
220700 - Nuclear Reactor Technology- Plutonium & Isotope Production Reactors
050800 - Nuclear Fuels- Spent Fuels Reprocessing