Trojan Reactor Vessel OK'd for Hanford Disposal
The Washington Department of Health said on November 24 that a technical review proves the possibility of disposing the Portland General Electric Company (PGE) Trojan nuclear reactor vessel as one piece at the Richland Low-Level Radioactive Waste site.
Rather than first cutting into pieces, disposal of the reactor as a unit is postulated to pose lower risk. It allegedly reduces
- PGE worker exposure by half,
- exposure at the site to 1/25, and
- the number of shipments from 40 to one.
The reactor vessel's walls comprise 4 to 8 inches of carbon steel. The majority of the radioactivity is bound within the stainless steel material of the internal components. All internal void spaces will be filled with concrete.
According to John Erickson, director of the Department of Health's Radiation Protection Division, the determination to allow disposal of the reactor in one piece is based on the integrity of the unit reactor being tens of thousands of years, at which time radioactivity would be at safe levels.
PGE plans to ship the 1020 ton, 42-ft. reactor vessel up the Columbia River by barge from the plant site near Rainier, OR, to the disposal site near Richland, WA, during the latter half of 1999.
According to the rules of the Northwest Interstate Compact, Washington cannot exclude the Trojan reactor vessel from the Hanford site, since the shipment complies with the site's license and other requirements.
The Washington Department of Health's technical review dealt primarily with the proposed burial of the reactor vessel at the disposal site. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the U.S. Department of Transportation have regulatory authority over transportation and gave final approval to the transportation plan.
PGE previously has barged large radioactive components (four steam generators and one pressurizer from the Trojan plant) up the Columbia River.
Contact: Washington Department of Health | Division of Radiation Protection, John Erickson. Tel: 360-236-3210