![]() ![]() These technically challenging exercises have been instrumental in enhancing the NRC's technical support capability and overall emergency preparedness and would be expected to produce similar results at DOE reactor sites. With the current focus on Department of Energy (DOE) reactor operational safety and emergency preparedness, this capability more » is envisioned as a means of upgrading emergency preparedness at DOE production and test reactor sites such as the K-Reactor at Savannah River Laboratory (SRL) and the Advanced Test Reactor (ATR) at INEL. The objective of these exercises has been to assist the NRC in upgrading its preparedness to provide technical support backup and oversight to US commercial nuclear plant licensees during emergencies such as the Three Mile Island (TMI) accident. Since 1984 the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory (INEL) has conducted twenty-five comprehensive emergency preparedness exercises at the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission's (NRC) Headquarters Operations Center and Regional Incident Response Centers using the NRC's Nuclear Plant Analyzer (NPA), developed at the INEL, as an engineering simulator. This paper will examine the status of producing new 238Pu from irradiated targets. Product samples have been shipped to LANL for evaluation, including chemical impurity analysis. Key activities, such as the transport of the neptunium to ORNL, irradiation of neptunium, and chemical processing to recover the newly generated 238Pu, have been demonstrated with the initial amounts of ~100 g heat-source plutonium oxide (HS PuO2) produced. ![]() The 238PuO2 product is more » shipped to Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) for fabrication of heat source pellets. Irradiated targets are processed in hot cells at the ORNL Radiochemical Engineering Center to recover the plutonium (Pu) product and unconverted neptunium (Np) for recycle. Target rods, containing neptunium oxide (NpO2), are fabricated at ORNL and irradiated in the ORNL High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR) currently and soon will be irradiated in the Advanced Test Reactor (ATR) at Idaho National Laboratory (INL). The effort is being led by Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). NASA and the Department of Energy (DOE) are currently working together to reestablish a 238Pu supply capability using DOE's existing facilities and reactors. ![]()
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