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Demolition starts at ORNL’s Isotope Row
The Department of Energy reported last week that the demolition of Isotope Row at Oak Ridge National Laboratory has begun. The demolition work follows six years of targeted decontamination efforts and is expected to be completed by the end of this year.
Isotope Row is a group of 10 facilities constructed at ORNL between the late 1940s and early 1960s for the production of radioisotopes that were used in medical, industrial, scientific, and defense applications. Isotope production stopped in the early 1990s, leaving behind buildings with contaminated ventilation systems, hot cells, and other equipment requiring specialized cleanup operations and teardown.
Ralph W. Moir, Joseph D. Lee, R. Carroll Maninger, William S. Neef, Jr., Albert E. Sherwood, David H. Berwald, Jackson H. DeVan, Jungchung Jung
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 8 | Number 1 | July 1985 | Pages 133-148
Technical Paper | Blanket Comparison and Selection Study | doi.org/10.13182/FST85-A24678
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The concept described for the blanket surrounding a fusion reaction chamber is based on the use of molten fluoride salts to convert fusion energy into electricity and to breed the tritium fuel for the fusion power plant. Helium cools the first-wall and the blanket internals, which consist of a bed of beryllium balls in which neutrons are multiplied. The neutrons are used to breed tritium and also to release extra energy in exothermic nuclear reactions. Tritium is bred in the molten Flibe salt (LiF + BeF2) that flows slowly (∼0.1 m/s) in steel tubes and is removed from the salt and the helium by processing both streams. Because the solubility of tritium in Flibe salt is so low, there is a strong driving force for tritium permeation. A 10-µm-thick tungsten permeation barrier, deposited by chemical vapor deposition on the salt-carrying tubes, is proposed for preventing excessive tritium permeation into the helium stream. A 1-mm-thick aluminum jacket on the steel steam generator tubes is proposed to prevent excessive tritium permeation into the steam system. Flibe salt has safety advantages with respect to large accidents in that it will not react with air or water, in contrast to liquid lithium. For the first time, a method is proposed for recycling solid material in fusion blankets. To accomplish this, beryllium pebbles were chosen because the pebbles can be loaded into the blanket after manufacturing and, to accommodate radiation-induced swelling, can be moved periodically by flowing. Once the balls have reached their radiation damage lifetime, they can be removed from the blanket for refabrication and recycle.