Radioactive Material Transfer Operations

Heat is generated in a 3-cm-diameter spherical radioactive material uniformly at a rate of 15 W/cm. Heat is dissi-paled to the surrounding medium at 25°C with a heat transfer coefficient of 120 W/m °C. The surface temperature of the material in steady operation is... 

While the license is in effect, the NRC has the right to make inspections of the facility, the byproduct material, and the areas where the byproduct material is in use or stored. These inspections have to be at reasonable hours, but they are almost always unannounced. The inspector also will normally ask to see records of such items as surveys, personnel exposure records, transfers and receipts of radioactive materials, waste disposal records, instrument calibrations, radiation safety committee minutes, documentation of any committee actions, and any other records relevant to compliance with the terms of the license and compliance with other parts of 10 CFR, such as 19 and 20. Failure to be in compliance can result in citations of various levels or of financial penalties. Enforcement will be discussed further later. The NRC can require tests to be done to show that the facility is being operated properly, such as asking for tests of the instruments used in monitoring the radiation levels, or... 

All operations with loose radioactive materials occur in sealed confinement structures, such as the Room 113 gloveboxes, the SCBs, the Steel Transfer Box (STB), or under the Room 113A fumehood. These confinement structures are well ventilated and the exhaust filtered through the HCF "hot" exhaust system. (See Chapter 2, "Facility Description," for a discussion of these and other facility design features that limit the spread of contamination.)... 

Nuclear waste (Section II.A.2) presents even more serious problems than does chemical waste. No method of elimination is possible radioactive material must be sequestered from the environment until it decays, which for some common by-products of nuclear reactor operation will take thousands of years. Continual exposure to radiation promotes deterioration of materials, so nuclear wastes held in aboveground storage or in subsurface tanks must frequently be transferred to new containers. Burial of such wastes has frequently been discussed as a long-term solution to the problem of their disposal, but finding geological formations sufficiently stable and remote from aquifers into which the wastes might migrate has proven to be very difficult. At present, ahention is fo-... 

Due to their thermal, physical, or chemical properties, other materials handled in offshore operations may constitute a safety or environmental hazard if released in an uncontrolled manner. Such substances include steam, hot water, certain chemicals, heat transfer fluids, molten sulphur, and naturally occurring radioactive material (NORM). 

Radiation The transfer of heat with no medium. Radiation Authority For radioactive materials, the Radiation Authority is usually a state agency or state designated official. Tlie responsibilities of this authority include evaluating radiological hazard conditions during noniial operations and during emergencies. 

A laboratory membrane brine electrolysis cell, designed for automated operation, was constructed ( 1,2). This system enables the measurement of the sodium ion transport number of a membrane under specific sets of conditions using a radiotracer method. In such an experiment, the sodium chloride anolyte solution is doped with 22Na radio-tracer, a timed electrolysis is performed, and the fraction of current carried by sodium ion through the membrane is determined by the amount of radioactivity that has transferred to the sodium hydroxide catholyte solution. The voltage drop across the membrane during electrolysis is simultaneously measured, so that the overall performance of the material can be evaluated. 

To allow for Inevitable differences In Infection levels between experiments, transfer was expressed relative to the incorporation of HJ methionine into trichloroacetic acid insoluble material (= protein), which provided a measure of mildew growth. This technique only accounted for radioactivity In conidla and surface mycelium, not haustorla, but significant differences In the transfer of triadlmenol were apparent between strains (Table III). These differences were not, however, correlated with triadlmenol sensitivity, so that if reduced accumulation is involved in DMI resistance in barley powdery mildew, it must not operate in all resistant strains. In the same experiments we looked at the possibility that detoxification of triadlmenol might account for resistance, but were unable to find any evidence of triadlmenol metabolites in the six strains examined. 

This section provides an estimate of the projected (calculated) annual exposures to facility workers and TA-V collocated workers from normal operations in the HCF. Norma operations include all activities associated with the chemical extraction of isotopes the transfer of irradiated targets to the HCF, quality control assessment of the product material, the packaging of product material for offsite shipment, and the packaging and storage of the radioactive waste. 

Xe, Kr and tritium (T) that are released from molten salt fuel could be effectively trapped in an activated charcoal bed and/or other trapping materials. The container vessels in which the trapping equipment is installed have thick and heat-resistant steel walls and they can be isolated from the off-gas lines by passively operating valves. The production rate of T is estimated at about 6.2><10 Bq/(100 MW day) in normal operation. More than 90% of the T is transferred into the secondary coolant salt and finally, about 98% of the T is transferred to the trapping equipment through an off-gas line [XXX-22]. In this way, the hazard of radioactive gas release from the core under internal and external events and combinations thereof can be decreased ... 

Medium and high activity waste is stored at the Cadarache Center. High activity waste consists mainly of parts from the nickel and steel reflector assemblies or from control-rod mechanisms and irradiation devices. These account for the major part of the total radioactivity (4800 TBq) which has been removed from the reactor. The liquid effluent produced by washing and decontaminating operations was transferred to the Liquid Waste Treatment Facility at Cadarache where it has been neutralized, concentrated by evaporation and encapsulated in bitumen or cement. Furthermore, on completion of the partial dismantling work, about 300 tons of material (steel and lead in particular) will been returned to service. Much of this will be turned into biological radiation shielding. 

Depending on radioactivity levels the disintegrated internals will be transported either in core material transport casks to CLAB for intermediate storage or transferred to shielded waste transportation containers for final disposal in SFR (Final repository for operational and decommissioning waste). 

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