Reprocessing plants, nuclear

Agnew, S.E 1994. Investigation report on the Tomsk reprocessing plant nuclear accident in Russia,... 

If the spent fuel is processed in a nuclear fuel reprocessing plant, the radioactive iodine species (elemental iodine and methyl iodide) trapped in the spent fuel elements ate ultimately released into dissolver off gases. The radioactive iodine may then be captured by chemisorption on molecular sieve 2eohtes containing silver (89). 

Hafnium neutron absorption capabilities have caused its alloys to be proposed as separator sheets to allow closer spacing of spent nuclear fuel rods in interim holding ponds. Hafnium is the preferred material of constmction for certain critical mass situations in spent fuel reprocessing plants where hafnium s excellent corrosion resistance to nitric acid is also important. 

Lead bricks are generahy used as temporary shields for radiation sources at nuclear power stations, research institutes, hospitals, and fuel reprocessing plants. Plat, rectangular bricks requite a double layer with staggered seams whereas the interlocking bricks requite only one course. Lead shot can be poured into inaccessible areas like a Hquid. 

As of 1995, there were no nuclear fuel reprocessing plants operating in the United States. Other nuclear nations have constmcted second- or third-generation reprocessing faciUties. These nations have signed the nuclear nonproliferation treaty, and the faciUties are under the purview of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). 

Safety analysis Report, NFS Reprocessing Plant, Docket-50-201, Nuclear Euel Services, Inc., Rockville, Md., 1973. 

D. W. HoWid.2cy, A Eiterature Survey Methodsfor the Removal of Iodine Spedafrom Off-Gas andEiquid Waste Streams of Nuclear Power and Nuclear Fuel Reprocessing Plants, with Emphasis on Solid Sorbents, ORNL/TM-6350, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Term., 1979. 

In plutonium-fueled breeder power reactors, more plutonium is produced than is consumed (see Nuclearreactors, reactor types). Thus the utilisa tion of plutonium as a nuclear energy or weapon source is especially attractive to countries that do not have uranium-enrichment faciUties. The cost of a chemical reprocessing plant for plutonium production is much less than that of a uranium-235 enrichment plant (see Uranium and uranium compounds). Since the end of the Cold War, the potential surplus of Pu metal recovered from the dismantling of nuclear weapons has presented a large risk from a security standpoint. 

Similar demands for reference materials also arise in connection with the monitoring of radioactivity in and around nuclear installations (nuclear power plants, nuclear fuel and reprocessing plants, and nuclear waste facilities). These, in fact, are now the main applications of radionuclide reference materials. 

Environmental Fate. The environmental fate of americium has been extensively studied in relation to its introduction into the Irish Sea from the BNFL nuclear fuel reprocessing plant at Sellafield, United Kingdom (Belot et al. 1982 Bennett 1976 Bunzl et al. 1994, 1995 Malcolm et al. 1990 McCartney et al. 1994 McKay et al. 1994a Murray et al. 1978, 1979 Pattenden and McKay 1994 Walker et al. 1986). 

Facilities were built for receipt and storage of spent fuel, clearance was obtained from major ports for its import, negotiations were carried out with nuclear utility operators and suppliers for its acceptance by the AEC, and research and development was carried out to permit reprocessing in H-canyon, the most successful and versatile reprocessing plant at SRP. 

The fast reactor high level waste is accumulated at the reprocessing plants and retains its toxicity for only a few hundred years, rather than the tens of thousands of years ofthe spent fuel wastes from our present reactors,. Thus, the nuclear waste disposal problems are minimal and arrangements for disposal could be made on a global basis. 

Because the concentration of "Tc in sea water is usually very low, there have been only limited reliable data, except for those cases in which the "Tc concentration is relatively high due to the release of nuclear waste from spent fuel reprocessing plants. However, the advent of highly sensitive detection by ICP-MS has changed this situation. 

Cochran, J. A., Smith, D. G., Magno, P. J. and Shleien, B. (1970). Investigation of Airborne Radioactive Effluent from, cm Operating Nuclear Fuel Reprocessing Plant, Report No. BRH/NERHL-70-3 also Report No. PB-193803 (National Technical Information Service, Springfield, Virginia). 

During the industrial era man has influenced the atmospheric 14C/C ratio. By 1950 input of C02 from combustion of fossil fuel had led to a decrease in this ratio of about 2 percent. By 1963 due to nuclear weapon tests, however, the atmospheric 14C level in the northern hemisphere had increased by about 100 percent. The present excess is still v30 percent. There is also an input of 14C from nuclear power and reprocessing plants. 

Today, the most important environmentally damaging anthropogenic radiation comes from atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons conducted 20 to 30 years ago, authorized discharges to the sea from nuclear reprocessing plants, and from the Chernobyl accident in 1986 (Aarkrog 1990). 

Near nuclear fuel reprocessing plant, England, ... 

In New York state a reprocessing plant near Buffalo began to reprocess nuclear wastes in 1966. After 6 years Nuclear Fuel Services (NFS), a subsidiary of W.R. Grace s Davison Chemical Company, abandoned the facility. There were 2 million cubic feet of radioactive material left behind along with 600,000 gallons of radioactive liquid waste that was seeping into a creek that flows into Lake Erie the source of drinking water for Buffalo. The cost of cleanup was estimated to be 1 billion. 

The two principal methods by which actinides may enter the body are inhalation and penetration through wounds. These two routes of entry are of obvious concern to those individuals working in nuclear fuel reprocessing plants. The principal route of entry by which most of the general public is likely to be exposed to the actinides could be expected to be via the food chain. However, Bennett (176) has indicated that inhalation of 239>(i) 240Pii is more important by a factor of 1000 compared to the uptake by ingestion in contributing to the body burden. 

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