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Argonne to investigate Pu chemistry to aid Hanford cleanup
Researchers at the Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory are investigating the details of plutonium chemistry with the goal of aiding the cleanup of the Hanford Site in Washington state. For more than 40 years, reactors located at Hanford produced plutonium for America’s defense program, resulting in millions of gallons of liquid radioactive and chemical waste.
E.T. Cheng
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 34 | Number 3 | November 1998 | Pages 489-495
Nonelectrical Applications | doi.org/10.13182/FST98-A11963660
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The ST-VNS devices designed for testing and developing fusion power blanket may offer a unique opportunity for near-term, non-electric applications:
-A minimum size, MW level, plasma based 14 MeV neutron source can be very attractive for neutron science applications such as neutron and gamma radiography, and isotope production.-A 70–250 MW level ST-VNS can provide neutrons to drive a sub-critical fission assembly to destroy the actinides discharged from about 10–30 light water reactors and to produce power. A further reduction of long-term radiological hazard from fission power plants can be assured when additional 1,000 – 3,000 MW fusion reactors are developed in the future to transmute the long-lived fission products, Tc and I.-The ST-VNS device also offers a possibility to produce tritium for industrial and defense applications. A 300 MW spin-off device is capable of producing an excess tritium of 2 kg annually, when a conservative overall tritium breeding ratio of 1.2 and 60% availability are assumed.
A minimum size, MW level, plasma based 14 MeV neutron source can be very attractive for neutron science applications such as neutron and gamma radiography, and isotope production.
A 70–250 MW level ST-VNS can provide neutrons to drive a sub-critical fission assembly to destroy the actinides discharged from about 10–30 light water reactors and to produce power. A further reduction of long-term radiological hazard from fission power plants can be assured when additional 1,000 – 3,000 MW fusion reactors are developed in the future to transmute the long-lived fission products, Tc and I.
The ST-VNS device also offers a possibility to produce tritium for industrial and defense applications. A 300 MW spin-off device is capable of producing an excess tritium of 2 kg annually, when a conservative overall tritium breeding ratio of 1.2 and 60% availability are assumed.