MPC&A ASPECTS OF THE BN-350 NUCLEAR MATERIAL DISPOSITION JOINT ACTION TEAM (JAT) STUDY

In September 1995, an official U.S. Department of Energy delegation visited the BN-350 Fast Breeder Reactor near Aktau on the Mangyshlak Peninsula on the Caspian Sea at the western edge of Kazakhstan. The BN-350 had operated for many years as part of the Soviet Union’s nuclear weapons complex. As such, the reactor served the dual purpose of breeding plutonium and providing a source of electricity for the city of Aktau. The intent was to ship irradiated fuel from the BN-350 to Russia (Mayak) for reprocessing. However, many of the fuel assemblies irradiated over the twenty-five years of operation remain in the reactor facility’s cooling pool. Subsequent to the September 1995 visit, the DOE laboratories have work with the staff of the BN-350 to design and implement a broad range of MPC&A enhancements. In early 1996, representatives of the facility approached DOE seeking support for the long term disposition of the fuel. This led to the formation of the Joint Action Team (JAT) of U.S. and Kazakhstani experts to conduct a study of the alternatives. The study resulted in a government to government agreement announced by Vice President Gore and President Nazarbaev in November 1997. This paper describes the overall methodology of the JAT Study and addresses the MPC&A aspects in some detail.