Title:

Unique Solutions for Dry Storage of Magnox Fuel

Speaker:

Dr. Kimberly Burns

Affiliation:

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

When:

Thursday, September 16, 2010 at 11:00:00 AM   Add to Calendar

Where:

Boggs Building, Room 3-47

Host:

Dwayne Blaylock
dwayne.blaylock@nre.gatech.edu
404-894-3606

Abstract

Storage of Magnox fuel in the presence of moisture causes corrosion on the cladding of the fuel rods exposing the uranium. The exposed uranium has the potential to form uranium hydride poses the threat of forming uranium hydride, a potentially pyrophoric material. For this reason, it is desirable to store spent Magnox fuel in a dry storage configuration. Using the confines of an existing structure, a dry storage facility was designed to passively store Magnox fuel. Many design criteria had to be met including, but not limited to, fitting within the existing structure, not posing any risk of criticality, safe dose limits to facility workers while loading the dry storage facility, and safe dose limits once the facility is completed. Unlike many dry storage facilities, the building will still be used for other activities once the fuel is loaded, is a major concern.

Biography

Dr. Kimberly Burns received her BS, MS and PhD degrees in nuclear and radiological engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology. She completed her doctorate on “Coupled Multi-Group Neutron Photon Transport for the Simulation of High-Resolution Gamma-Ray Spectroscopy Applications” in 2009. She has worked in the Nuclear Materials and Engineering Analysis Group at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory since 2008. Dr. Burns has worked on reactor development, fuel storage development, and detector response simulations.

Notes

Refreshments will be served.