Trends in the design and operation of off-gas cleaning systems in nuclear facilities

Trends in the design and operation of off-gas cleaning systems in nuclear facilities reflect the normal development by manufacturers of new and improved equipment and the demand for more safety, greater reliability, and higher collection efficiency as an aftermath of the well publicized accident at Three Mile Island. The latter event has to be viewed as a watershed in the history of off-gas treatment requirements for nuclear facilities. It is too soon to predict what these will be with any degree of assurance but it seems reasonable to expect greatly increased interest in containment venting systems for light water and LMFBR nuclear power reactors and more stringent regulatory requirements for auxiliary off-gas cleaning systems. Although chemical and waste handling plants share few characteristics with reactors other than the presence of radioactive materials, often in large amounts, tighter requirements for handling reactor off-gases will surely be transferred to other kinds of nuclear facilities without delay. Currently employed nuclear off-gas cleaning technology was largely developed and applied during the decade of the 1950s. It is regrettable that the most efficient and most economical off-gas treatment systems do not always yield the best waste forms for storage or disposal. It is even more regrettable that waste management has ceased to be solely a technical matter but has been transformed instead into a highly charged political posture of major importance in many western nations. Little reinforcement has been provided by detailed studies of off-gas treatment equipment failures that show that approximately 13% of over 9000 licensee event reports to the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission pertained to failures in ventilating and cleaning systems and their monitoring instruments