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Demolition starts at ORNL’s Isotope Row
The Department of Energy reported last week that the demolition of Isotope Row at Oak Ridge National Laboratory has begun. The demolition work follows six years of targeted decontamination efforts and is expected to be completed by the end of this year.
Isotope Row is a group of 10 facilities constructed at ORNL between the late 1940s and early 1960s for the production of radioisotopes that were used in medical, industrial, scientific, and defense applications. Isotope production stopped in the early 1990s, leaving behind buildings with contaminated ventilation systems, hot cells, and other equipment requiring specialized cleanup operations and teardown.
Kenneth S. Allen, Edward P. Naessens, Jr.
Nuclear Technology | Volume 152 | Number 3 | December 2005 | Pages 354-366
Technical Paper | Radioactive Waste Management and Disposal | doi.org/10.13182/NT05-A3682
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Analysis is performed on the production and destruction rates of recycled transuranics (TRUs) in a light water reactor (LWR) fuel assembly using a Monte Carlo-based fuel depletion code (MONTEBURNS 2.0). Thirteen TRUs were recycled into the LWR model through ten 3-yr burnup cycles for a total depletion period of 30 yr. The focus of the research was to determine the relative reduction of TRU waste within the fuel cycle and determine the impact of the recycled TRUs on fuel criticality, waste toxicity, activity, and heat-load production. The amount of TRUs could be reduced by more than a factor of 4 for a 30-yr period when these 13 isotopes were recycled.
