Savannah River

An improved solvent extraction process, PUREX, utilizes an organic mixture of tributyl phosphate solvent dissolved in a hydrocarbon diluent, typically dodecane. This was used at Savannah River, Georgia, ca 1955 and Hanford, Washington, ca 1956. Waste volumes were reduced by using recoverable nitric acid as the salting agent. A hybrid REDOX/PUREX process was developed in Idaho Falls, Idaho, ca 1956 to reprocess high bum-up, fuUy enriched (97% u) uranium fuel from naval reactors. Other separations processes have been developed. The desirable features are compared in Table 1. 

In the heavy-water plants constmcted at Savannah River and at Dana, these considerations led to designs in which the relatively economical GS process was used to concentrate the deuterium content of natural water to about 15 mol %. Vacuum distillation of water was selected (because there is Httle likelihood of product loss) for the additional concentration of the GS product from 15 to 90% D2O, and an electrolytic process was used to produce the final reactor-grade concentrate of 99.75% D2O. 

SRC - estinghouse Savannah River Corporation, Aiken SC SRV - Safety ref ves. 

Brandyberry, M. D. and H. E. Wingo, 1990, External Events Analysis for the Savannah River Site K Reactor, ANS Topical Meeting, The Safety, Status and Future of Non Commercial Reactors and Irradiation Facilities, Boise ID, Sept. 31 - October 4, 1990... 

Savy, J. B., 1980, Seismic Hazard Analysis of the Savannah River Site, UCID-21596, November. 

I am a physicist who switched to nuclear engineering for my Ph D. My introduction to PSA was as an original participant in the Reactor Safety Study in 1972. Material for this book was first gathered in 1974 for a workshop on what to expect in WASH-1400 (the results of the Reactor Safety Study). Materials were gathered over the years for EPRI, Savannah River Laboratory, and other workshops. A culmination was in 1988 with "Probabilistic Risk Assessment in the Nuclear Power Industry" with Robert Hall as coauthor. This book updates these materials and adds material on PSA in the chemical process industry. I prepared the material for printing using a word processor... 

Armstrong, M. E., Cecil, W. L., Taylor, K. (1988). "Root Cause Analysis Handbook." Report No. DPSTOM-81, E. I. DuPont De Nemours Co., Savannah River Laboratory, Aiken, SC 29808. 

Contact D. S. Cramer, Savannah River Plant, Aiken, SC 29868... 

The failure events were obtained from Savannah River Plant sources such as Reactor Incident Reports, daily logs, and operating summaries. The records include over 4,400 events going back to 1970 for an effective average of 3 operating nuclear reactors. Some entries represent data averaging about 110 reactor years experience accumulated since operation began. 

The Bush Administration (1989-1993) had a similar free marketplace philosophy as Reagan, hut faced the daunting task of having to start directing billions toward cleaning up after forty years of neglect at the contaminated weapons complex, particularly the federal facilities at Savannah River South Carolina, Hanford Washington, and Rocky Flats Colorado. The cleanup plan was fourfold characterize and prioritize all waste cleanups at departmental sites, con-... 

Texas A M University We.stinghousc Savannah River Company... 

Westinghouse Savannah River Company Aiken, South Carolina... 

E. I. du Pont de Nemours Company, Inc., Savannah River Laboratory, Aiken, SC 29808... 

Nelson, D. statement at Workshop on Environmental Chemistry of Plutonium, Savannah River, 1980. 

Alberts, J.J. Lutkenhoff, D. Geiger, R.A. and Gant, D., "Annual Report of Ecological Research at the Savannah River Ecology Laboratory," Institute of Ecology, University of Georgia, Athens, Ga., 1979, pp. 90-91. 

An overview is given of plutonium process chemistry used at the U. S. Department of Energy Hanford, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Rocky Flats, and Savannah River sites, with particular emphasis on solution chemistry involved in recovery, purification, and waste treatment operations. By extrapolating from the present system of processes, this paper also attempts to chart the future direction of plutonium process development and operation. Areas where a better understanding of basic plutonium chemistry will contribute to development of improved processing are indicated. 

Large-scale plutonium recovery/processing facilities originated at Los Alamos and Hanford as part of the Manhattan Project in 1943. Hanford Operations separated plutonium from irradiated reactor fuel, whereas Los Alamos purified plutonium, as well as recovered the plutonium from scrap and residues. In the 1950 s, similar processing facilities were constructed at Rocky Flats and Savannah River. 

The facilities at Savannah River(j)) consist of five heavy-water-moderated and cooled production reactors, two chemical separations areas as a heavy water extraction plant, several test reactors, reactor fuel and target processing facilities, the Savannah River Laboratory, and many other facilities necessary to support the operations. During the 1960 s, two of the... 

In addition to fuel and targets(15J6) from SRP reactors, SRP also reprocesses a wide variety of fuels from offsite research reactors and a wide range of unirradiated plutonium scrap materials.(17) Following customary Savannah River practice, initial processing of each offsite material is designed to transform the actinides to a solution that is compatible with one of the solvent extraction cycles in either of the separations areas. A major advantage of this practice is that the... 

Environmental Assessment - Waste Form Selection for SRP High-Level Waste. DOE/EA - 0179, Savannah River Operations Office, Aiken, SC, 1982. 

G. A. Russell, E. R. Holcomb, H. P. Landon, L. F. Processing of Irradiated, Enriched Uranium Fuels at the Savannah River Plant. U.S. DDE Report DP-1500,... 

Lord CG, Gaines KF, Boring CS, Biisbin ILJ, Gochfeld M, Burger J. 2002. Raccoon (Procyon lotor) as a bioindicator of mercury contamination at the U.S. Department of Energy s Savannah River Site. Archiv Environ Contam Toxicol 43 356-363. 

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