DOE Decides to Seal and Close Leaking Reactor Pool
WC Monitor
12/5/2014
The Department of Energy has decided to clean up, seal and close a leaking reactor pool at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, but some of the details – including whether to incorporate a second reactor pool in the project – have yet to be addressed. The steady leak (about 100 drops per minute) in the reactor pool was discovered in early September at the Oak Ridge Research Reactor, which has been shut down since the late 1980. The situation has been closely monitored and studied since then by cleanup contractor URS-CH2M Oak Ridge, which made it a top priority. “We have evaluated our options and determined the best course of action is to remove the highest activity items from the Oak Ridge Research Reactor pool and ship them for disposal,” Mike Koentop, executive officer at the Office of Environmental Management in Oak Ridge, said via email. “After the items have been removed, we will vacuum the sludge from the bottom of the pool and then apply a fixative to the inside of the pool as the water is drained,” Koentop said. “We will then place a concrete cover over the pool to provide the necessary shielding for any lower-activity items that remain.”
According to DOE, the next steps should ensure that the Oak Ridge Research Reactor is in a “safe and stable configuration for long-term surveillance and maintenance.” Koentop said DOE has not yet decided whether to take similar actions at the nearby Bulk Shielding Reactor, another long-closed research reactor that still has radioactive materials stored in its pool. That pool, however, is apparently not leaking at this time. DOE’s next decisions will be predicated on a proposed work layout from UCOR. UCOR is currently developing a “Contract Change Proposal” for the near-term reactor work, and which will likely be submitted to DOE by early 2015, Koentop said.
