IRVINE, Calif.--()--Kurion, Inc., an innovator in nuclear waste management, today announced that since the June 17 start-up of its proprietary cesium removal system at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant it has processed more than 137,340 Metric Tons (MT) (36 million gallons) of waste water and was responsible for removal of approximately 3.5 x 1017 Becquerel (9.4 million curies) of cesium (see graphic).
A little more than a month after the March 11, 2011 Great East Japanese Earthquake and Tsunami damaged the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant, the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) announced the selection of Toshiba (oil/grease separation), Kurion (cesium removal), AREVA (cesium removal), and Hitachi (desalination) to provide an unprecedented external reactor water cooling system rated at 1200 MT/day (317,000 gallons/day – about 15 backyard swimming pools/day). The mission of these first responders was to quickly reduce the safety and environmental risks presented by the increasing and very large quantity of highly radioactively contaminated, oily and saline water that was creating a high dose concern on site and restricting entry into the reactor and turbine buildings. The system started operation June 17, less than 100 days following the tsunami (compares with about 18-months for startup of the cesium removal system at Three Mile Island used to process 790,000 gallons (2650 MT) of high activity water, or 2.5 days of processing for the TEPCO system).
“Under dire circumstances and facing incredible odds, the Kurion team, together with our fabrication partners and the staff at TEPCO, were able to successfully create a system that has helped TEPCO achieve its goal to declare the end of Phase I of its ‘Roadmap towards Restoration from the Accident’ when the plant reached Cold Shutdown status December 16,” said John Raymont, CEO of Kurion, Inc.
“One year after the tsunami, the water cooling system has now processed more than 258,780 MT (68 million gallons), reduced salinity by almost 90 percent and estimated to have removed about 12 million curies (4.4 x 1017 Becquerel) of the estimated original 13.6 million cesium curie inventory (5 x 1017 Becquerel)” (refer to graphic). “These are astounding figures,” Raymont said, adding that “the initial inventory is approximately 27 times the annual disposal of all curies of activity for the US fleet of 104 reactors in the US, some 507,000 curies (1.9 x 1016 Becquerel)” (see graphic).
“TEPCO wisely decided on a defense-in-depth strategy of developing redundant cesium removal systems. This was driven by cesium being far and away the safety risk to the site and environment from a dose standpoint, given its high abundance due to the failed fuel and it being a strong gamma emitter, the sole ionizing radiation found in nuclear waste that can penetrate piping,” said Dr. Mark Denton, Kurion’s Chief Technology Officer. “Of the cesium removal systems the Kurion system is the sole system to see the high-activity high-salinity water found at initial cooling system startup in June.” This is because the AREVA system operated “behind” the Kurion system as a “polisher” by taking its effluent water and removing the last tenths of a percent of activity. By starting up more than two months later and initially located behind the Kurion system as per the AREVA system, the SARRY system simply missed out on the higher activity water and salinity; never seeing more than 60 percent of the level of the cesium concentration or 50 percent of the salinity present in June. As a result, the Kurion system has processed about 53 percent of all the waste water processed to date but is responsible for about 70 percent of the cesium activity removed (see graphic).
“Despite the historically fast turnaround of eight weeks from award to system startup, the Kurion system has demonstrated itself to be a reliable performer with the benefit of low dose to the workers and without problematic hot spots,” said Dr. Richard Keenan, Kurion Vice President of Engineering. “As a result of these benefits TEPCO recently confirmed that it wants to use the Kurion and SARRY systems as redundant backup systems for each other for the foreseeable future”, said Dr. Gaetan Bonhomme, Kurion Vice President of Strategic Initiatives. As a result, Kurion is developing continuous improvement concepts to ensure that TEPCO benefits from optimum performance.
ABOUT KURION
KURION PROVIDES INNOVATIVE, EASILY DEPLOYABLE TECHNOLOGIES TO ACCELERATE PROJECT PERFORMANCE AND COMPLIANCE AND SUBSTANTIALLY REDUCE CUSTOMER RADIOACTIVE WASTE MANAGEMENT LIFE-CYCLE COSTS. FOUNDED IN 2008, KURION IS BACKED BY LEADING ENERGY INVESTORS LUX CAPITAL MANAGEMENT AND FIRELAKE CAPITAL MANAGEMENT. HEADQUARTERED IN IRVINE, CA, KURION OPERATES A R&D FACILITY IN OAK RIDGE, TN AND A TEST FACILITY IN ROLLA, MO. FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE VISIT WWW.KURION.COM.
Notes for graphic “Reduction of Initial Radioactivity Inventory by Cesium Adsorption Systems”
1) Estimated initial inventory of radioactive based on TEPCO data showing 118,390 m3 of water at 4.2 million Becquerel/cc of total cesium. Historic salinity data from TEPCO for 2011 and March 6, 2012.
2) Estimated activity of radioactive cesium removed following start of treatment based on conservative assumptions derived from data made available publicly by TEPCO via handouts and press releases. Since mid-June it is estimated that the cesium activity has increased by about 15 percent due to fuel decay products.
3) Curie disposal for the US fleet of 104 reactors for all sources (e.g. cesium, nickel, cobalt) averaged over 1997 through 2006 per the Manifest Information Management System (MIMS). Add about 10 percent to this figure to arrive at the total annual US curie disposal for all sources and generators.
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