Radiation Effects on Resins and Zeolites at Three Mile Island Unit II
SourceThe March 1979 accident at Three Mile Island created certain waste forms that are not routinely encountered in normal light water reactor plants and were the subject of a research and development program. Fifty EPICOR II organic resin containers were loaded to as much as 2200 Ci (of predominantly cesium plus strontium) in the course of processing contaminated water. Resin samples were taken from two of the EPICOR II vessels and examined. Nineteen zeolite containers loaded with radioactive cesium plus strontium to as much as 55 000 Ci have been analyzed. The makeup and purification system demineralizer resins, highly contaminated by the letdown of reactor coolant, have been radiation surveyed, and gas, liquid, and resin samples have been obtained. On-site sampling and analysis of these wastes indicated that combustible gases (hydrogen and oxygen) were being generated as a result of radiolysis. The results of this work are discussed, compared, and presented.