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RE: Sydney research reactor
Fritz -
I guess you'd have to ask Tech management and several elected officials [among them I assume your newly-minted Senator (then Governor) and the Vice President] about why the fuel removed ... as you pointed out, the decision to de-fuel (and ultimately decommission) the reactor was made at a pay grade substantially higher than either yours or mine. The only technical recommendation I heard come out of the planning body was (as you suggested) that reactor operations be suspended during the Games ... which, given the power history during the last few years, wouldn't have been such a big deal. We were aware (in general terms) of enhanced security measures at GTRR, and I personally had no concerns regarding the security of the reactor fuel. We also recommended that DOE not ship spent fuel through Atlanta during the Games.
Also, for the record ... the fuel was shipped offsite in February 1996 ... several months prior to the Games. It was never made plain to us that de-fueling the reactor was a direct result of security concerns regarding the Games. We were informed that the fuel removal was part of a program to transition from HEU to LEU fuel ... in fact, we were informed that the replacement LEU fuel was being fabricated at the time that the HEU fuel was removed. It just turned out to be "convenient" to perform an extended fuel swap, so that the reactor was de-dueled during the Games. I was just as surprised as anyone when I learned of Tech's decision not to refuel the reactor, and instead to decommission it.
As for the Co-60, I personally recommended, almost 2 years before the Games, that the sources be secured, on-site, in casks, just as they eventually wound up being secured. I was concerned that if the Co-60 ever left Tech (which was the only option) that it would never return ... probably with good cause, given what happened with the reactor. Theft was never an issue (at least not a technical one) ... but in the case of the Co-60, sabotage was. Placing the Co-60 in casks was a relatively simple (although I understand not so "low-cost") means of insuring adequate shielding even with the loss of pool water, by whatever means. Pretty good insurance, in my humble opinion ...
As always, my employer has not reviewed this message, and would probably disavow any connection to it if he had ... my personal opinion only.
Jim Hardeman
Jim_Hardeman@mail.dnr.state.ga.us
>>> fritz.strydom@ors.gatech.edu 8/29/2000 11:59:30 >>>
Jim,
If you Olympic planners weren't so concerned about the reactor then why did
we have to take the fuel out??????????
I'd like to clear up a few things about Georgia Tech and the Olympics.
Note, however, that I am not speaking officially for Georgia Tech.
A decision was made (by political, non-technical people) to remove the fuel
from the reactor during the Olympics. This poor decision actually INCREASED
the chance of the fuel being hijacked or sabotaged. The fuel was perfectly
safe within the reactor. In removing the fuel, each of the 25 fuel elements
was removed from the reactor and taken outside of the building on a cart and
then into our highbay and storage pool. If someone had wanted to disrupt
the Olympics by stealing or sabotaging the fuel, this was the perfect
opportunity. Then, the fuel had to be shipped off-site. Again, this makes
it much easier for someone to steal the fuel - the packaging and shielding
had already been done for them.
We were perfectly willing to suspend reactor operations throughout the
period of time that the Olympics were on campus. The concrete structure of
the reactor combined with the containment building would have safely
protected the fuel from terrorist threat. Just ask the decommissioning
contractor that has spent two months trying to knock it down! Additional
security measures were put into place even with the fuel removed - snipers
on the roof, guards with automatics throughout the building, etc.
As for the 200,000 Ci of Co-60. Again, these were perfectly safe in storage
at the bottom of a 20 foot pool. We were able to fight enough and make
people realize that these could be kept on-site safely. They were secured
in large casks at the bottom of the pool. I think that the only reason we
were allowed to keep these sources is that there wasn't time to ship them
out, however.
We also had to move a 20 Ci calibration source from an underground (15 feet
under) calibration facility.
All in all, it was a total waste of money (and lots of it) and resources to
satisfy the uneducated bureaucrats and public. Plus, it gave the GT
president (who I have heard was working at UCLA when the Olympics were there
in 1984 and helped close their reactor) the first step towards his goal of
decommissioning the reactor.
---------------------------------
Johannes "Fritz" Strydom
Health Physicist
Georgia Institute of Technology
(404) 894-3605
(404) 894-9325 fax
fritz.strydom@ors.gatech.edu
-----Original Message-----
From: radsafe@romulus.ehs.uiuc.edu [mailto:radsafe@romulus.ehs.uiuc.edu]On
Behalf Of Jim Hardeman
Sent: Tuesday, August 29, 2000 10:25 AM
To: Multiple recipients of list
Subject: Re: Sydney research reactor
Another difference is that the Georgia Tech Research Reactor (GTRR) is on
the Georgia Tech campus and was literally inside the Olympic Village ... not
16 miles away from the Olympic stadium ... or six miles away from Olympic
housing. It was more like 1/4 mile away.
For the record ... we Olympic planners weren't so concerned about the
reactor ... or the fuel ... but we were concerned about 200 kCi of Co-60
sitting in the pool.
Jim Hardeman
Jim_Hardeman@mail.dnr.state.ga.us
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