Criticality safety for deactivation of the Rover dry headend process

摘要

The Rover dry headend process combusted Rover graphite fuels in preparation for dissolution and solvent extraction for the recovery of (sup 235)U. At the end of the Rover processing campaign, significant quantities of (sup 235)U were left in the dry system. The Rover Dry Headend Process Deactivation Project goal is to remove the remaining uranium bearing material (UBM) from the dry system and then decontaminate the cells. Criticality safety issues associated with the Rover Deactivation Project have been influenced by project design refinement and schedule acceleration initiatives. The uranium ash composition used for calculations must envelope a wide range of material compositions, and yet result in cost effective final packaging and storage. Innovative thinking must be used to provide a timely safety authorization basis while the project design continues to be refined.