The Sodium Process Facility at Argonne National Laboratory-West
Argonne National Laboratory-West (ANL-W) has approximately 680,000 liters of raw sodium stored in facilities on site. As mandated by the State of Idaho and the US Department of Energy (DOE), this sodium must be transformed into a stable condition for land disposal. To comply with this mandate, ANL-W designed and built the Sodium Process Facility (SPF) for the processing of this sodium into a dry, sodium carbonate powder. The major portion of the sodium stored at ANL-W is radioactively contaminated. The sodium will be processed in three separate and distinct campaigns: the 290,000 liters of Fermi-1 primary sodium, the 50,000 liters of the Experimental Breeder Reactor-II (EBR-II) secondary sodium, and the 330,000 liters of the EBR-II primary sodium. The Fermi-1 and the EBR-II secondary sodium contain only low-level of radiation, while the EBR-II primary sodium has radiation levels up to 0.5 mSv (50 mrem) per hour at 1 meter. The EBR-II primary sodium will be processed last, allowing the operating experience to be gained with the less radioactive sodium prior to reacting the most radioactive sodium. The sodium carbonate will be disposed of in 270 liter barrels, four to a pallet. These barrels are square in cross-section, allowing for maximum utilization of the space on a pallet, minimizing the required landfill space required for disposal.
- Research Organization:
- Argonne National Lab., Idaho Falls, ID (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy, Washington, DC (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- W-31109-ENG-38
- OSTI ID:
- 674558
- Report Number(s):
- ANL/ED/CP-95701; CONF-980249-; ON: DE98057807; TRN: 99:000240
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: Conference on technical options for the decommissioning of BN-350 LMFR, No City Given (Kazakhstan), 23-27 Feb 1998; Other Information: PBD: [1998]
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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