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Author

J. Abrefah

Bio: J. Abrefah is an academic researcher. The author has contributed to research in topics: Spent nuclear fuel & Spent fuel pool. The author has an hindex of 1, co-authored 4 publications receiving 3 citations.

Papers
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ReportDOI
01 Jul 1998
TL;DR: A series of whole element drying tests have been conducted by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) on several intact and damaged fuel elements recovered from both the K-East and K-West basins as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: The water-filled K-Basins in the Hanford 100 Area have been used to store N-Reactor spent nuclear fuel (SNF) since the 1970s. Because some leaks in the basins have been detected and some of the fuel is breached due to handling damage and corrosion, efforts are underway to remove the fuel elements from wet storage. An Integrated Process Strategy (IPS) has been developed to package, dry, transport, and store these metallic uranium fuel elements in an interim storage facility on the Hanford Site. Information required to support the development of the drying processes, and the required safety analyses, is being obtained from characterization tests conducted on fuel elements removed from the K-Basins. A series of whole element drying tests (reported in separate documents, see Section 8.0) have been conducted by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) on several intact and damaged fuel elements recovered from both the K-East and K-West Basins. This report documents the results of the fourth of those tests, which was conducted on an N-Reactor outer fuel element removed from K-West canister 5744U. This element (referred to as Element 5744U) was stored underwater in the K-West Basin from 1983 until 1996. Element 5744U was subjected to a combination of low- and high-temperature vacuum drying treatments that were intended to mimic, wherever possible, the fuel treatment strategies of the IPS. The system used for the drying test was the Whole Element Furnace Testing System, described in Section 2.0, located in the Postirradiation Testing Laboratory (PTL, 327 Building). The test conditions and methodologies are given in Section 3.0. Inspections of the fuel element before and after the test are provided in Section 4.0. The experimental results are provided in Section 5.0, and discussed in Section 6.0.

1 citations

ReportDOI
11 Aug 1999
TL;DR: In this article, the results of a test "dry-run" conducted prior to the eighth and last of those tests, which was conducted on an N-Reactor outer fuel element removed from K-West canister 6513U.
Abstract: The water-filled K-Basins in the Hanford 100 Area have been used to store N-Reactor spent nuclear fuel (SNF) since the 1970s. Because some leaks in the basin have been detected and some of the fuel is breached due to handling damage and corrosion, efforts are underway to remove the fuel elements from wet storage. An Integrated Process Strategy (IPS) has been developed to package, dry, transport, and store these metallic uranium fuel elements in an interim storage facility on the Hanford Site (WHC 1995). Information required to support the development of the drying processes, and the required safety analyses, is being obtained from characterization tests conducted on fuel elements removed from the K-Basins. A series of whole element drying tests (reported in separate documents, see Section 7.0) have been conducted by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) on several intact and damaged fuel elements recovered from both the K-East and K-West Basins. This report documents the results of a test ''dry-run'' conducted prior to the eighth and last of those tests, which was conducted on an N-Reactor outer fuel element removed from K-West canister 6513U. The system used for the dry-run test was the Whole Element Furnace Testing System, described inmore » Section 2.0, located in the Postirradiation Testing Laboratory (PTL, 327 Building). The test conditions and methodologies are given in Section 3.0. The experimental results are provided in Section 4.0 and discussed Section 5.0.« less

1 citations

ReportDOI
11 Aug 1999
TL;DR: A series of whole element drying tests have been conducted by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) on several intact and damaged fuel elements recovered from both the K-East and K-West basins as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: The water-filled K-Basins in the Hanford 100 Area have been used to store N-Reactor spent nuclear fuel (SNF) since the 1970s. Because some leaks in the basin have been detected and some of the fuel is breached due to handling damage and corrosion, efforts are underway to remove the fuel elements from wet storage. An Integrated Process Strategy (IPS) has been developed to package, dry, transport, and store these metallic uranium fuel elements in an interim storage facility on the Hanford Site (WHC 1995). Information required to support the development of the drying processes, and the required safety analyses, is being obtained from characterization tests conducted on fuel elements removed from the K-Basins. A series of whole element drying tests (reported in separate documents, see Section 8.0) have been conducted by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL)on several intact and damaged fuel elements recovered from both the K-East and K-West Basins. This report documents the results of the eighth of those tests, which was conducted on an N-Reactor outer fuel element removed from K-West canister 6513U. This element (referred to as Element 6513U) was stored underwater in the K-West Basin from 1983 until 1996. Element 6513U was subjected to a combination of low- and high-temperature vacuum drying treatments that were intended to mimic, wherever possible, the fuel treatment strategies of the IPS. The system used for the drying test was the Whole Element Furnace Testing System, described in Section 2.0, located in the Postirradiation Testing Laboratory (PTL, 327 Building). The test conditions and methodologies are given in Section 3.0. Inspections of the fuel element before and after the test are provided in Section 4.0. The experimental results are provided in Section 5.0 and discussed in Section 6.0.

1 citations

ReportDOI
01 Jul 1998
TL;DR: In this paper, the results of the first dry-run test without a fuel element were presented, and the results were used as a baseline for the first two fuel element tests, 1990 (Run 1) and 2003 (Run 2).
Abstract: The water-filled K-Basins in the Hanford 100 Area have been used to store N-Reactor spent nuclear fuel (SNF) since the 1970s. Because some leaks in the basin have been detected and some of the fuel is breached due to handling damage and corrosion, efforts are underway to remove the fuel elements from wet storage. An Integrated Process Strategy (IPS) has been developed to package, dry, transport, and store these metallic uranium fuel elements in an interim storage facility on the Hanford Site. Information required to support the development of the drying processes, and the required safety analyses, is being obtained from characterization tests conducted on fuel elements removed from the K-Basins. A series of whole element drying tests (reported in separate documents, see Section 7.0) have been conducted by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) on several intact and damaged fuel elements recovered from both the K-East and K-West Basins. This report documents the results of the first dry-run test, which was conducted without a fuel element. The empty test apparatus was subjected to a combination of low- and high-temperature vacuum drying treatments that were intended to mimic, wherever possible, the fuel treatment strategies of the IPS. The data from this dry-run test can serve as a baseline for the first two fuel element tests, 1990 (Run 1) and 3128W (Run 2). The purpose of this dry-run was to establish the background levels of hydrogen in the system, and the hydrogen generation and release characteristics attributable to the test system without a fuel element present. This test also serves to establish the background levels of water in the system and the water release characteristics. The system used for the drying test series was the Whole Element Furnace Testing System, described in Section 2.0, which is located in the Postirradiation Testing Laboratory (PTL, 327 Building). The test conditions and methodology are given in section 3.0, and the experimental results provided in Section 4.0. These results are further discussed in Section 5.0.

Cited by
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ReportDOI
01 Sep 2011
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors developed a bibliography to assess what issues associated with fuel drying have been identified, to consider where concerns have been satisfactorily addressed, and to recommend where additional research would offer the most value to the commercial industry and the U. S. Department of Energy.
Abstract: Internationally, the nuclear industry is represented by both commercial utilities and research institutions. Over the past two decades many of these entities have had to relocate inventories of spent nuclear fuel from underwater storage to dry storage. These efforts were primarily prompted by two factors: insufficient storage capacity (potentially precipitated by an open-ended nuclear fuel cycle) or deteriorating quality of existing underwater facilities. The intent of developing this bibliography is to assess what issues associated with fuel drying have been identified, to consider where concerns have been satisfactorily addressed, and to recommend where additional research would offer the most value to the commercial industry and the U. S. Department of Energy.

6 citations

ReportDOI
30 Sep 2002
TL;DR: The Hanford Spent Nuclear Fuel Project focuses its efforts on determining how to safely move the degraded N-Reactor spent fuel from water-stored basins to a dry storage facility.
Abstract: The Hanford Spent Nuclear Fuel Project focuses its efforts on determining how to safely move the degraded N-Reactor spent fuel from water-stored basins to a dry storage facility Based on the laboratory data, the project chose to use a conservative enhancement factor in analyzing the oxidation behavior of the spent metallic fuel However, there is a need for the project to increase the fuel throughput for the drying treatment process by implementing certain design optimization steps The study discussed in this paper re-evaluated the previous laboratory data in conjunction with the cold vacuum drying (CVD) process experience and determined whether the built-in level of conservatism could accommodate the potential changes in the process without compromising public and worker safety An established oxidation reaction-rate constant was used to accurately determine the reactive surface areas of corroded N-Reactor fuel elements The surface areas calculated for 6 different N-Reactor elements that were stored in the K-West Basin and shipped to Pacific Northwest National Laboratory for drying studies ranges from as low as 00018 m2 for a broken element to 81 m2 for a highly corroded SNF element 5744U The SNF element 0309M that was a clean broken piece was used to calibrate themore » calculation method The result using the SNF reaction rate constant (ie, kSNF) gave a very good (ie, 00018 m2) agreement with the geometrical value of 00015 m2 Having established that the hydrogen generation can be used to determine the exposed surface area of these irregular corroded SNF elements, the calculations was extended to provide a good estimate of the exposed uranium surface area of SNF elements loaded into the multi-canister overpacks (MCOs)« less

3 citations