Characterization of Iraq’s Remote Nuclear Facilities for Decommissioning and Waste Management

Author(s):  
Fouad Al-Musawi ◽  
Adnan Jarjies ◽  
Ross A. Miller

The Government of Iraq (GOI) has undertaken efforts to decommission and dismantle former nuclear facilities. The GOI has only preliminary information on some of the former nuclear facilities. This paper will highlight the challenges involved in conducting inspections of the outlying former nuclear facilities in Iraq and present a brief summary of the results of those inspections. The facilities discussed in this paper are located at various sites throughout Iraq, from locations close to Baghdad to those in the north and far western desert areas. Some of the facilities, such as those at the Al Tuwaitha Nuclear Research Center have been visited and characterized. Other facilities, including the following, have not been visited or thoroughly characterized. • Al Jesira, Uranium feed stock production facility; • Adaya, Burial location for contaminated equipment; • Djerf al Naddah, Spent fuel storage facility; • Rashdiya, Centrifuge development center; • Al Qa’im, Uranium (yellowcake) production facility. The visits were conducted to develop an inventory of the buildings/structures that need to be included in decommissioning/dismantlement efforts. The number of buildings, type of construction, size and general condition of the buildings were noted. In addition, attempts were made to determine contamination levels on surfaces, equipment, rubble, etc. This information will be used to support the Iraqi decommissioning and dismantlement project. Because the facilities are scattered throughout the country of Iraq, significant planning and coordination was required to ensure personnel security. Teams consisting of individuals from the Iraqi Ministry of Science and Technology (MoST) and Americans were under military escort when traveling to and visiting the sites. Because of the security issues, time on the ground at each site was limited. This paper will highlight the challenges involved in conducting the inspections of the outlying former nuclear facilities In Iraq and present a brief summary of the results of those inspections.

Author(s):  
Grant W. Koroll ◽  
Dennis M. Bilinsky ◽  
Randall S. Swartz ◽  
Jeff W. Harding ◽  
Michael J. Rhodes ◽  
...  

Whiteshell Laboratories (WL) is a Nuclear Research and Test Establishment near Winnipeg, Canada, operated by AECL since the early 1960s and now under decommissioning. WL occupies approximately 4400 hectares of land and employed more than 1000 staff up to the late-1990s, when the closure decision was made. Nuclear facilities at WL included a research reactor, hot cell facilities and radiochemical laboratories. Programs carried out at the WL site included high level nuclear fuel waste management research, reactor safety research, nuclear materials research, accelerator technology, biophysics, and industrial radiation applications. In preparation for decommissioning, a comprehensive environmental assessment was successfully completed [1] and the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission issued a six-year decommissioning licence for WL starting in 2003 — the first decommissioning licence issued for a Nuclear Research and Test Establishment in Canada. This paper describes the progress in this first six-year licence period. A significant development in 2006 was the establishment of the Nuclear Legacy Liabilities Program (NLLP), by the Government of Canada, to safely and cost effectively reduce, and eventually eliminate the nuclear legacy liabilities and associated risks, using sound waste management and environmental principles. The NLLP endorsed an accelerated approach to WL Decommissioning, which meant advancing the full decommissioning of buildings and facilities that had originally been planned to be decontaminated and prepared for storage-with-surveillance. As well the NLLP endorsed the construction of enabling facilities — facilities that employ modern waste handling and storage technology on a scale needed for full decommissioning of the large radiochemical laboratories and other nuclear facilities. The decommissioning work and the design and construction of enabling facilities are fully underway. Several redundant non-nuclear buildings have been removed and redundant nuclear facilities are being decontaminated and prepared for demolition. Along with decommissioning of redundant structures, site utilities are being decommissioned and reconfigured to reduce site operating costs. New waste handling and waste clearance facilities have been commissioned and a large shielded modular above ground storage (SMAGS) structure is in final design in preparation for construction in 2010. The eventual goal is full decommissioning of all facilities and infrastructure and removal of stored wastes from the site.


Author(s):  
Fouad Al-Musawi ◽  
Emad S. Shamsaldin ◽  
John R. Cochran

The government of Iraq, through the Ministry of Science and Technology (MoST) is decommissioning Iraq’s former nuclear facilities. The 18 former facilities at the Al-Tuwaitha Nuclear Research Center near Baghdad include partially destroyed research reactors, a fuel fabrication facility and radioisotope production facilities. These 18 former facilities contain large numbers of silos and drums of uncharacterized radioactive waste and approximately 30 tanks that contain or did contain uncharacterized liquid radioactive wastes. Other key sites outside of Al Tuwaitha include facilities at Jesira (uranium processing and waste storage facility), Rashdiya (centrifuge facility) and Tarmiya (enrichment plant). The newly created Radioactive Waste Treatment Management Directorate (RWTMD) within MoST is responsible for Iraq’s centralized management of radioactive waste, including safe and secure disposal. In addition to being responsible for the uncharacterized wastes at Al Tuwaitha, the RWTMD will be responsible for future decommissioning wastes, approximately 900 disused sealed radioactive sources, and unknown quantities of NORM wastes from oil production in Iraq. This paper presents the challenges and progress that the RWTMD has made in setting-up a radioactive waste management program. The progress includes the establishment of a staffing structure, staff, participation in international training, rehabilitation of portions of the former Radioactive Waste Treatment Station at Al-Tuwaitha and the acquisition of equipment.


1988 ◽  
Vol 110 (3) ◽  
pp. 240-246 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. Muto ◽  
Y. Kasai ◽  
M. Nakahara

Forced vibration tests for a spent fuel storage pool of nuclear facilities [1] were conducted for the purpose of determining sloshing suppression effects. The devices reported in this paper are cantilever-type water restraint plates. They reduce sloshing and also prevent overflow of water from the pool. Parameters examined in the experimental tests were the installation height levels, lengths and shapes of the water restraint plates. The most effective installation conditions of these water restraint plates were found through the tests.


2019 ◽  
pp. 82-87
Author(s):  
Ya. Kostiushko ◽  
O. Dudka ◽  
Yu. Kovbasenko ◽  
A. Shepitchak

The introduction of new fuel for nuclear power plants in Ukraine is related to obtaining a relevant license from the regulatory authority for nuclear and radiation safety of Ukraine. The same approach is used for spent nuclear fuel (SNF) management system. The dry spent fuel storage facility (DSFSF) is the first nuclear facility created for intermediate dry storage of SNF in Ukraine. According to the design based on dry ventilated container storage technology by Sierra Nuclear Corporation and Duke Engineering and Services, ventilated storage containers (VSC-VVER) filled with SNF of VVER-1000 are used, which are located on a special open concrete site. Containers VSC-VVER are modernized VSC-24 containers customized for hexagonal VVER-1000 spent fuel assemblies. The storage safety assessment methodology was created and improved directly during the licensing process. In addition, in accordance with the Energy Strategy of Ukraine up to 2035, one of the key task is the further diversification of nuclear fuel suppliers. Within the framework of the Executive Agreement between the Government of Ukraine and the U.S. Government, activities have been underway since 2000 on the introduction of Westinghouse fuel. The purpose of this project is to develop, supply and qualify alternative nuclear fuel compatible with fuel produced in Russia for Ukrainian NPPs. In addition, a supplementary approach to safety analysis report is being developed to justify feasibility of loading new fuel into the DSFSF containers. The stated results should demonstrate the fulfillment of design criteria under normal operating conditions, abnormal conditions and design-basis accidents of DSFSF components.  Thus, the paper highlights both the main problems of DSFSF licensing and obtaining permission for placing new fuel types in DSFSF.


Author(s):  
Ronald Morris

DFD is an acronym for the “Decontamination for Decommissioning” process developed in 1996 by the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI). The process was designed to remove radioactivity from the surfaces of metallic components to allow these components to be recycled or free-released for disposal as non-radioactive. DFD is a cyclic process consisting of fluoroboric acid, potassium permanganate and oxalic acid. The process continues to uniformly remove base metal once oxide dissolution is complete. The DFD process has been applied on numerous components, sub-systems and systems including the reactor systems at Big Rock Point and Maine Yankee in the United States, and the Jose Cabrera (Zorita) Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) in Spain. The Big Rock Point site has been returned to Greenfield and at Maine Yankee the land under the license was reduced for an Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installation (ISFSI). In the upcoming months the Zorita NPP in Spain will initiate dismantlement and decommissioning activities to return the site to a non-nuclear facility. The development of the EPRI DFD process has been an ongoing evolution and much has been learned from its use in the past. It is effective in attaining very high decontamination factors; however, DFD also produces secondary waste in the form of ion exchange resins. This secondary waste generation adds to the decommissioning quota but this can be improved upon at a time when radioactive waste storage at nuclear facilities and waste disposal sites is limited. To reduce the amount of secondary waste, EPRI has developed the DFDX process. This new process is an enhancement to the DFD process and produces a smaller amount of metallic waste rather than resin waste; this reduction in volume being a factor of ten or greater. Electrochemical ion exchange cells are the heart of the DFDX system and contain electrodes and cation ion exchange resin. It has been used very successfully in small system applications and the next evolution is to design, build and implement a system for the chemical decontamination for decommissioning of larger reactor systems and components, and Full System Decontamination (FSD). The purpose of this paper is to provide a reference point for those planning future chemical decontaminations for plant decommissioning. It is based on actual experience from the work already performed to date and the planned development of the DFDX process.


Author(s):  
Peter Nawrotzki

Power plant machinery can be dynamically decoupled from the substructure by the effective use of helical steel springs and viscous dampers. Turbine foundations, coal mills, boiler feed pumps and other machine foundations benefit from this type of elastic support systems to mitigate the transmission of operational vibration. The application of these devices may also be used to protect against earthquakes and other catastrophic events, i.e. airplane crash, of particular importance in nuclear facilities. This article illustrates basic principles of elastic support systems and applications on power plant equipment and buildings in medium and high seismic areas. Spring-damper combinations with special stiffness properties are used to reduce seismic acceleration levels of turbine components and other safety or non-safety related structures. For turbine buildings, the integration of the turbine substructure into the machine building can further reduce stress levels in all structural members. The application of this seismic protection strategy for a spent fuel storage tank in a high seismic area is also discussed. Safety in nuclear facilities is of particular importance and recent seismic events and the resulting damage in these facilities again brings up the discussion. One of the latest events is the 2007 Chuetsu earthquake in Japan. The resulting damage in the Kashiwazaki Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant can be found in several reports. Among other vital components, turbine equipment was damaged and overflow of fuel storage pools was observed (Fukushima, 2007 and Yamashita, 2008).


Author(s):  
Karel Svoboda ◽  
Josef Podlaha

The Nuclear Research Institute Rez plc (NRI) after 55 years of activities in the nuclear field produced some environmental liabilities that shall be remedied. There are three areas of remediation: (1) decommissioning of old obsolete facilities (e.g. decay tanks, RAW treatment technology, special sewage system), (2) processing of RAW from operation and dismantling of nuclear facilities, and (3) elimination of spent fuel from research nuclear reactors operated by the NRI. The goal is to remedy the environmental liabilities and eliminate the potential negative impact on the environment. Remediation of the environmental liabilities started in 2003 and will be finished in 2014. The character of the environmental liabilities is very specific and requires special remediation procedures. Special technologies are being developed with assistance of external subcontractors. The NRI has gained many experiences in the field of RAW management and decommissioning of nuclear facilities and will use its facilities, experienced staff and all relevant data needed for the successful realization of the remediation. The most significant items of environmental liabilities are described in the paper together with information about the history, the current state, the progress, and the future activities in the field of remediation of environmental liabilities in the NRI.


Author(s):  
Ewin Karman Nduru ◽  
Efori Buulolo ◽  
Pristiwanto Pristiwanto

Universities or institutions that operate in North Sumatra are very many, therefore, of course, competition in accepting new students is very tight, universities or institutions do certain ways or steps to be able to compete with other campuses in gaining interest from community or high school students who will continue their studies to a higher level. STMIK BUDI DARMA Medan (College of Information and Computer Management), is the first computer high school in Medan which was established on March 1, 1996 and received approval from the government through the Minister of Education and Culture, on July 23, 1996 with operating license number 48 / D / O / 1996, in promoting the campus, the team usually formed a promotion team to various regions in the North Sumatra Region to provide information to the community. Students who have learned in this campus are quite a lot who come from various regions in North Sumatra, from this point the need to process data from students who are active in college to be processed using data mining to achieve a target, one method that can be used in data mining, namely the ¬K-Modes clustering (grouping) algorithm. This method is a grouping of student data that will be a help to campus students in promoting, using the K-Modes algorithm is expected to help and become a reference for marketing in determining the marketing strategy STMIK Budi Darma MedanKeywords: STMIK Budi Darma, Marketing Strategy, K-Modes Algorithm.


2019 ◽  
pp. 172-176
Author(s):  
Otegbulu M. I. ◽  
Ezeagu A. Agbo ◽  
Agbo Genevieve N.

Security is pre-requisite for the development of human beings and the society. It is a pre-condition for the survival, development and advancement of individuals and groups. The school is an organization that needs to have a planned safety rules and regulations to protect it components so that the culture of learning and teaching is enhanced. Security threat within the school environment could hamper the peaceful atmosphere in the school, and disrupt academic exercises and panic among the personnel in the school. The government, security agents, parents, school administrators and the community has a lot of role to play to make school environment safe and conducive. However, security gadgets and apparatus should be provided to nip these issues in the bud, as well as train the teaching and non-teaching staff on security issues.


2007 ◽  
Vol 66 (4) ◽  
pp. 303-321
Author(s):  
Lode Wils

In het tweede deel van zijn bijdrage 1830: van de Belgische protonatie naar de natiestaat, over de gebeurtenissen van 1830-1831 als slotfase van een passage van de Belgische protonatie doorheen de grote politiek-maatschappelijke en culturele mutaties na de Franse Revolutie, ontwikkelt Lode Wils de stelling dat de periode 1829-1830 de "terminale crisis" vormde van het Koninkrijk der Verenigde Nederlanden. Terwijl koning Willem I definitief had laten verstaan dat hij de ministeriële verantwoordelijkheid definitief afwees en elke kritiek op het regime beschouwde als kritiek op de dynastie, groeide in het Zuiden de synergie in het verzet tussen klerikalen, liberalen en radicale anti-autoritaire groepen. In de vervreemding tussen het Noorden en het Zuiden en de uiteindelijke revolutionaire nationaal-liberale oppositie vanuit het Zuiden, speelde de taalproblematiek een minder belangrijke rol dan het klerikale element en de liberale aversie tegen het vorstelijk absolutisme van Willem I en de aangevoelde uitsluiting van de Belgen uit het openbaar ambt en vooral uit de leiding van de staat.________1830: from the Belgian pre-nation to the nation stateIn the second part of his contribution 1830: from the Belgian pre-nation to the nation state, dealing with the events from 1830-1831 as the concluding phase of a transition of the Belgian pre-nation through the major socio-political and cultural mutations after the French Revolution, Lode Wils develops the thesis that the period of 1829-1830 constituted the "terminal crisis" of the Kingdom of the United Netherlands. Whilst King William I had clearly given to understand that he definitively rejected ministerial responsibility and that he considered any criticism of the regime as a criticism of the dynasty, the synergy of resistance increased between the clericalists, liberals and radical anti-authoritarian groups in the South. In the alienation between the North and the South and the ultimate revolutionary national-liberal opposition from the South the language issue played a less important role than the clericalist element and the liberal aversion against the royal absolutism of William I and the sense of exclusion of the Belgians from public office and particularly from the government of the state.


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