06 Mar Work on Fuel fabrication plant Completed

After more than a year of grinding and disassembling work, DD 's artisans now yanked out of the Fuel fabrication plant .

I I I the Fuel fabrication plant Research Centre Risø produced fuel rods in the period 1960-2002. The fuel was used to power both the DR 2 and DR 3 reactors. The employees of the the Fuel fabrication plant measured uranium powder up and pressed it into pieces, which were rolled out into thin sheets surrounded by aluminum. The plates were cleaned and degreased and finally bent to cylinders. The production took place in different rooms, which we have now cleaned up.

It has been a larger task with the fuel fabrication plant than originally assumed. In fact, cleaning the building should have been quite limited because we knew what each room had been used for. We dismantled tables, cleaning vessels and ventilation in the various areas, and then we cleaned the walls, floors and ceilings with knuckle grease and grinding machines to remove all old traces of uranium. This meant that the task should be solved.

It wasn't going to be that easy, however. It turned out that there were small patches of radioactive material when our health assistants reviewed the building. Our craftsmen had to re-enter the workclothes several times because uranium could still be traced. A number of samples of the concrete floor were thoroughly examined in our laboratories.

Work on the Fuel fabrication plant shows why we place so much emphasis on controls and measurements, even if it may take time. Radioactive substances cannot be seen or felt, so it is necessary to use delicate equipment to find it. It typically takes several weeks to measure a sample for uranium because the radiation from uranium is low-energeth, and because naturally occurring uranium is found everywhere – even under our laboratory. We call it a release measurement when an object is measured to have such a small content of activity that the object can be used elsewhere without restrictions.

However, the very last sentence has not yet been set. Before we can finally transfer the Fuel fabrication plant to the Building Agency, which owns it, we must write the final report. We expect this to be completed by the spring. The final report must then be approved by the nuclear regulators.