CRNL research reactor retrofit Emergency Filtration System

This paper presents a brief history of NRX and NRU research reactor effluent air treatment systems before describing the selection and design of an appropriate retrofit Emergency Filtration System (EFS) to serve these reactors and the future MX-10 isotope production reactor. The conceptual design of the EFS began in 1984. A standby concrete shielding filter-adsorber system, sized to serve the reactor with the largest exhaust flow, was selected. The standby system, bypassed under normal operating conditions, is equipped with normal exhaust stream shutoff and diversion valves to be activated manually when an emergency is anticipated, or automatically when emergency levels of gamma radiation are detected in the exhaust stream. The first phase of the EFS installation, that is the construction of the EFS and the connection of NRU to the system, was completed in 1987. The second phase of construction, which includes the connection of NRX and provisions for the future connection of MX-10, is to be completed in 1990