Decommissioning of the High Flux Beam Reactor at Brookhaven Lab

Hu, J. P.¹  Reciniello, R. N.¹  Holden, N. E.¹ 

[1] Brookhaven National Lab. (BNL), Upton, NY (United States)

关键词: decommissioning;    HFBR;    spent fuel;    control rod;    beam plug;   

DOI  :  10.2172/1169553
RP-ID  :  BNL--95298-2011
PID  :  OSTI ID: 1169553
Others  :  R&D Project: EST-003-NEFA
Others  :  Other: KB0301041

学科分类：核物理和高能物理

美国|英语

来源: SciTech Connect

【 摘 要 】

The High Flux Beam Reactor at the Brookhaven National Laboratory was a heavy water cooled and moderated reactor that achieved criticality on October 31, 1965. It operated at a power level of 40 mega-watts. An equipment upgrade in 1982 allowed operations at 60 mega-watts. After a 1989 reactor shutdown to reanalyze safety impact of a hypothetical loss of coolant accident, the reactor was restarted in 1991 at 30 mega-watts. The HFBR was shutdown in December 1996 for routine maintenance and refueling. At that time, a leak of tritiated water was identified by routine sampling of ground water from wells located adjacent to the reactor???s spent fuel pool. The reactor remained shutdown for almost three years for safety and environmental reviews. In November 1999 the United States Department of Energy decided to permanently shutdown the HFBR. The decontamination and decommissioning of the HFBR complex, consisting of multiple structures and systems to operate and maintain the reactor, were complete in 2009 after removing and shipping off all the control rod blades. The emptied and cleaned HFBR dome which still contains the irradiated reactor vessel is presently under 24/7 surveillance for safety. Details of the HFBR cleanup conducted during 1999-2009 will be described in the paper.