Argonne Nuclear Experts Lead U.S. Team in Kazakhstan Reactor Shutdown

Argonne nuclear experts are leading international projects to safely shut down and manage the spent fuel of the Russian-designed BN-350 reactor in Aktau, Kazakhstan.

“The BN-350 was the major source of electricity and desalinated drinking water for Aktau, a Kazakhstani city located on the shores of the Caspian sea directly north of Iran and west of Chechnya,” said Pete Planchon, manager of the Argonne program.

The BN-350 is a sodium-cooled fast breeder reactor similar to Argonne-West’s Experimental Breeder Reactor-II (EBR-II). But from startup in 1972, the BN-350 produced plutonium for the USSR weapons complex.

Argonne is leading two projects for the BN-350—the shutdown and spent-fuel packaging and storage.

SHUTDOWN AGREEMENT
In December 1999, Kazakhstan’s Minister of Energy, Industry and Trade, Vladimir Shkolnik, signed an agreement with U.S. Department of Energy Secretary Bill Richardson to shut down the BN-350 reactor. Based on previous support and earlier success on other joint pro-jects, Minister Shkolnik personally requested in the agreement that Argonne be the lead U.S. institution.

The agreement provides shutdown planning, defueling, decontaminating, and draining and processing the reactor’s sodium coolant. It also calls for improving fire protection and radiation monitoring at the plant. These projects are helping to train Kazakhstan engineers and scientists in western-style nuclear safety culture and engineering methods, and assisting with nuclear safety projects that have international importance by working through the newly formed, Argonne-sponsored Kazakhstan Nuclear Technology Safety Center.

“Argonne’s specialty has been in spent-fuel management and reactor/nuclear facility safety technology,” said Planchon. “We have demonstrated expertise in managing complex international nuclear projects for DOE.”

Argonne’s experience in shutting down EBR-II in Idaho provides valuable expertise for planning the BN-350 shutdown. The fundamental planning tasks include establishing the criteria for shutting the reactor down, developing detailed goals and objectives, and generating technical requirements.

EBR-II and Detroit’s Fermi-I reactors were cooled with liquid sodium. In a different process than that used for sodium from spent EBR-II fuel, Argonne engineers are currently converting this reactive liquid sodium into sodium hydroxide, which can be packaged in drums and safely disposed of in low-level-radiation landfills. Kazakhstan is considering using this technology for the BN-350 project.

To safely drain and process the sodium, the sodium’s highly radioactive cesium contamination needs to be removed. A group of Argonne engineers is working with the Kazakhstanis to design, install and operate a cesium trap to decontaminate the sodium. After this is done, work will begin on draining the sodium and designing, building and operating a sodium processing facility based on Argonne’s technology used at EBR-II.

Argonne is also assisting Kazakhstan in improving fire safety at the plant. Argonne has supplied “immediate response” fire-protection and safety equipment, including fire extinguishers, emergency lighting and self-contained breathing apparatuses. A more detailed assessment planned for later this year will lead to more comprehensive improvements both in fire protection and radiation monitoring at the facility.

SHUTDOWN PROJECT
Pete Wells, project manager for the BN-350 shutdown, is co-leader of a team of experts from the U.S., Kazakhstan, Russia and the European Union planning the seven-year-long shutdown process. “The involvement of experts from different countries,” said Wells, “provides an opportunity for the Kazakhstanis to learn from our experiences and make educated decisions regarding the options available to support decommissioning the reactor.”

The funding is supplied by the United States through the Department of Energy and the Department of State, and by various European Union countries through their Technical Assistance to the Commonwealth of Independent States program. Two workshops have been held in 2000 supporting the decommissioning plan development for BN-350.

SPENT FUEL
Argonne is also responsible for managing the BN-350’s spent fuel. This requires determining the makeup of the fuel, removing it from the reactor, and preparing and packaging it for storage. The storage phase of the project includes designing, building and loading fuel into a 50-year interim dry storage facility to keep it safe.

Argonne scientists and engineers worked with their BN-350 counterparts. The team considered factors such as cost, safety and political feasibility and decided to prepare, package and store the nuclear material in a dry storage facility in Kazakhstan.

Engineers improved the BN-350’s spent fuel security and tracking system to ensure that new spent fuel was properly accounted for and protected as it was generated.

“During the first year of the project, the conditioning [treating fuel to prepare it for storage] and packaging equipment was designed, fabricated, installed and tested,” said Eric Howden, spent-fuel packaging and storage project manager. “And the first-ever preliminary and final safety analysis reports in Kazakhstan were completed, and packaging operations begun.”

The final core unloading was completed in September 2000. The fuel conditioning and packaging effort has proceeded ahead of schedule and will be completed early
in 2001.

A decision on the location of the fuel storage site and the dry storage technology is expected in 2001. Argonne scientists have recommended the use of vertical, dry silo storage in a facility similar to one at Argonne-West. Plans would have the dry storage facility designed by Argonne in 2001, constructed in 2002, and the fuel loaded for 50-year storage in 2003.

For more information please contact Dave Baurac at 630-252-5584

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