Decontamination and Decommissioning of the Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor
E. Perry, J. Chrzanowski, K. Rule, R. Strykowsky, M. Viola, and M. Williams
Date of PPPL Report: November 1999
Presented at: The 18th IEEE/NPSS (Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers/Nuclear and Plasma Science Society) Symposium on Fusion Engineering (SOFE) which was held in Albuquerque, NM,on October 25-29, 1999.
The Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor (TFTR) is a one-of-a-kind, tritium-fueled fusion research reactor that ceased operation in April 1997. The Decontamination and Decommissioning (D&D) of the TFTR is scheduled to occur over a period of three years beginning in October 1999. This is not a typical Department of Energy D&D Project where a facility is isolated and cleaned up by “bulldozing” all facility and hardware systems to a greenfield condition. The mission of TFTR D&D is to: a) surgically remove items which can be re-used within the DOE complex, b) remove tritium contaminated and activated systems for disposal, c) clear the test cell of hardware for future reuse, d) reclassify the D-site complex as a non-nuclear facility as defined in DOE Order 420.1 (“Facility Safety”) and e) provide data on the D&D of a large magnetic fusion facility. The 100 cubic meter volume of the donut-shaped reactor makes it the second largest fusion reactor in the world. The record-breaking deuterium-tritium experiments performed on TFTR resulted in contaminating the vacuum vessel with tritium and activating the materials with 14 Mev neutrons. The total tritium content within the vessel is in excess of 7,000 Curies while dose rates approach 75 mRem/hr. These radiological hazards along with the size and shape of the Tokamak present a unique and challenging task for dismantling.