http://knoxblogs.com/atomiccity/2013/12/01/slow-turn-tracking-molten-salt-reactor/

Slow turn: tracking the Molten Salt Reactor

The Molten Salt Reactor Experiment has been shut down since the 1960s, but it’s going to be decades still before the Oak Ridge National Laboratory reactor goes away. The fissile uranium was extracted from the fuel tanks a few years back, as part of a problem-plagued, technically complex project, but the high-rad fuel salts are still there and will be for the foreseeable future.

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“We continue to perform routine surveillance and maintenance activities at the Molten Salt Reactor Experiment, and have recently successfully completed a pump down on the two fuel drain tanks and one fuel flush tank,” Mike Koentop, a spokesman for the Department of Energy’s Environmental Management Office, said via email. “(In December) we will weigh the two sodium fluoride traps, which is an activity we conduct biannually, to determine the amount of uranium that was captured during the pump down.”

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According to TDEC spokeswoman Kelly Brockman, “The construction start milestone for removal of the fuel salts is scheduled for Fiscal Year 2032. A Remediation Action Report detailing the fuel salts disposition is scheduled for FY2038. The facility will be safely maintained until that time.”

John Owsley of TDEC’s Oak Ridge Oversight Office said the potential for a critical accident was removed by extracting the fissile uranium, so the main concern now is the potential for environmental releases of the “extremely radioactive” materials that remain inside the old facility.

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This entry was posted in Cleanup, nuclear, ORNL, ORO on December 1, 2013 by Frank Munger.