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The mission of the Decommissioning and Environmental Sciences (DES) Division is to promote the development and use of those skills and technologies associated with the use of nuclear energy and the optimal management and stewardship of the environment, sustainable development, decommissioning, remediation, reutilization, and long-term surveillance and maintenance of nuclear-related installations, and sites. The target audience for this effort is the membership of the Division, the Society, and the public at large.
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Nuclear new build procurement considerations
It may seem counterintuitive, but the best time to enhance the ability to support operations and maintenance for a new plant is before construction starts. This is one of many lessons learned by the currently operating nuclear fleet. As construction and startup of many nuclear facilities was completed, it quickly became evident that the ability to efficiently support operations and maintenance was limited. Most of the information necessary to establish and manage procurement of spare and replacement items, maintenance, and configuration of the facilities was unavailable and had to be gathered on a case-by-case, “on-demand” basis. Absence of necessary information and the associated challenges resulted in the need for staff augmentation and multiyear-long projects to develop equipment bills of material and maintenance programs and to perform technical evaluations for the huge quantities of spare and replacement items being requested.
Aurelien Chassery, Helene Lorcet, Joel Godlewski, Karine Liger, Christian Latge, Xavier Joulia
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 67 | Number 2 | March 2015 | Pages 300-303
Proceedings of TRITIUM 2013 | doi.org/10.13182/FST14-T15
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Within the framework of the dismantling of fast breeder reactors in France (PHENIX, SUPERPHENIX, RAPSODIE), several processes are under investigation regarding sodium disposal. One of them, called ELA (radioactive sodium waste treatment process), is based on the implementation of the sodium-water reaction, in a controlled and progressive way, to remove residual sodium mainly from the sodium purification systems called cold traps. This sodium contains impurities such as sodium hydride, sodium oxide and tritiated sodium hydride. The hydrolysis of these various chemical species leads to the production of a liquid effluent, mainly composed of an aqueous solution of sodium hydroxide, and a gaseous effluent, mainly composed of nitrogen (inert gas), hydrogen and steam. The tritium is distributed between these effluents, and, within the gaseous effluent, according to its forms HT and HTO. HTO being 10,000 times more radiotoxic than HT, a precise knowledge of the mechanisms governing the phase distribution of tritium is necessary. Indeed, it will help to design the process needed to optimize the treatment of the off-gas before its release into the environment. This paper presents the first experimental results from a parametric study on the tritium distribution between the various effluents generated during hydrolysis operations. This parametric study has been performed in a laboratory scale hydrolysis process designed at the CEA Cadarache.