High Flux Isotope Reactor Back in Operation After Long Outage
NS&D Monitor
1/16/2015
Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s High Flux Isotope Reactor came back into operation this week after a recent maintenance period. During the 32-day maintenance-and-refueling outage that was longer than normal because of the holidays, ORNL workers made modifications to the “deep well pump” in the reactor pool, installed new sensors in the cooling tower fans and made a number of other adjustments and improvements at the reactor. Tim Powers, the lab’s reactor chief, said the 85-megawatt research reactor was restarted on Jan. 13 and reached full power later in the day.
Among the other tasks that were completed: upgrades to the “uninterruptable power supplies” for two of the research beam lines; modifications to a lab to support laser alignment and testing activities for Helium-3 neutron detection systems; repair of an important valve associated with the reactor’s cold source; and maintenance on pool coolant pumps, emergency power generators, nuclear safety channels, secondary temperature control system, and primary temperature control system.
The ORNL official said workers also performed surveillance tests and inspections on the reactor’s pony motor batteries and the primary coolant pump bearing temperature system. Powers said the schedule calls for HFIR to operate 24 days before shutting down on Feb. 6 for another, shorter maintenance period. Extensive maintenance and refurbishments are conducted regularly at the reactor in hopes continuing research operations for decades to come. The ORNL reactor was built and first operated in the 1960s.
