PROGRESSIVE APPLICATION DECOMMISSIONING MODELS FOR U.S. POWER AND RESEARCH REACTORS

This paper presents progressive engineering techniques and experiences in decommissioning projects performed by Burns and Roe Enterprises within the last fifteen years. Specifically, engineering decommissioning technical methods and lessons learned are discussed related to the Trojan Large Component Removal Project, San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) Decommissioning Project and the Brookhaven Graphite Research Reactor (BGRR) Decommissioning Project Study. The 25 years since the 1979 TMI accident and the events following 911 have driven the nuclear industry away from excessive, closed/elitists conservative methods towards more pragmatic results-oriented and open processes. This includes the essential recognition that codes, standards and regulatory procedures must be efficient, effective and fit for purpose. Financial and open-interactive stakeholder pressures also force adherence to aggressive risk reduction posture in the area of a safety, security and operations The engineering methods and techniques applied to each project presented unique technical solutions. The decommissioning design for each project had to adopt existing design rules applicable to construction of new nuclear power plants and systems. It was found that the existing ASME, NRC, and DOE codes and regulations for deconstruction were, at best, limited or extremely conservative in their applicability to decommissioning. This paper also suggests some practical modification to design code rules in application for decommissioning and deconstruction. The representative decommissioning projects, Trojan, SONGS and Brookhaven, are discussed separately and the uniqueness of each project, in terms of engineering processes and individual deconstruction steps, is discussed.