Nuclear criticality safety aspects of project Olympus

During April 1998, a project to move ∼4.3 kg 235U as fresh nuclear reactor fuel and 0.8 kg 235U irradiated nuclear reactor fuel from the Institute of Physics of the Georgian Academy of Sciences in Tbilisi, Georgia, to the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority's Dounreay facility in Scotland was executed. The project involved coordination among the US Department of State, US Department of Defense (DOD), and US Department of Energy (DOE) as well as the governments of Georgia and the United Kingdom. The project was known by several names: Project Olympus by Lockheed Martin Energy Systems (LMES), Project Partnership by the DOE, and Project Auburn Endeavor by the DOD. The fresh fuel was packaged and prepared for shipment by a team of DOE, LMES, and Lockheed Martin Energy Research personnel, and the irradiated fuel assemblies were handled by a team of NAC International Corporation personnel. Nuclear criticality safety considerations for fresh fuel packaging operations conducted by a 12-member team with the skills detailed in Table 1 are described herein