A Consortium Approach to Nuclear Plant Material Recycle and the Stabilization of Nuclear Naval Vessels and Waste Materials

Abstract

The decontamination of nuclear plant materials have been conducted with varying degrees of difficulty or success since the discovery of radioactivity. The development of decontamination techniques, i.e. removal of contamination from surfaces of facilities or equipment by washing, heating, chemical or electrochemical action, mechanical cleaning, have progressed over the past 40 years to the point where the combined techniques are utilized to handle specific project requirements. Forty years ago, power plant decontaminations were conducted at INEL on EBR-1 after 500+ fuel pin failures, on an accident at a naval prototype when a test specimen prematurely released fission products, after the Materials Test Reactor and the Engineering Test Reactor decommissioning and at a naval prototype reactor compartment redesigned for testing advanced fuel development. These decontamination projects utilized technologies that are still being used today.