RRFM 2009 Transactions - European Nuclear Society

5
The pool and the support structure for the reactor container are large structures which would
be difficult to repair in the case of a major failure. Each week, the exact amount of makeup
water added to the pool to compensate for evaporation is noted. This would be the first
indication of a minor leak, which, hopefully, could be repaired before it became a major leak.
In 2008, a programme of annual inspections of the pool was begun. The concrete pool cover
is withdrawn and the following components are inspected: the pool wall, the outside of the
reactor container, the irradiation tubes, the tubes leading to the pool cooling coil, the support
structure. The onset of corrosion was discovered on one of the I-beams of the support
structure, likely caused by condensation dripping from the tubes of the cooling system.
Remedial measures are being taken to stall the corrosion.
This strategy was developed with the experience acquired over thirty years of reactor
operation. It could be improved with the additional information on operational experience
available at the other SLOWPOKE facilities. In 2009, each facility will be asked to compile a
list of their complete operating experience, including all operational occurrences or other
experience that may be related to ageing. The compounded list will benefit the ageing
management strategies of all the facilities.
This strategy has not yet been fully documented in accordance with to our QA programme.
Once this is done and the strategy is fully implemented, we are confident that our facility will
eventually be shut down, not because of the effects of ageing, but because the reactor is no
longer useful or has exhausted the available reactivity.
3. References
1. R.E. Kay, P.D. Stevens-Guille, J.W. Hilborn and R.E. Jervis, SLOWPOKE: A new low
cost laboratory reactor, Int. J. Appl. Radiat. Isot., 24 (1973) 509.
2. G. Kennedy, J. St. Pierre, L. G. I. Bennett, K. S. Nielsen, LEU-fuelled SLOWPOKE-2
research reactors: Operational experience and utilisation, in: Proc. RERTR Conf.,
Bariloche, Argentina, November 2002
http://www.rertr.anl.gov/Web2002/2003Web/Kennedy.html.
3. Experience with a Digital Control and Instrumentation System for the SLOWPOKE-2.
L.G.I. Bennett, L.R. Cosby, K.S. Nielsen, http://www.science.mcmaster.ca/mnr/Main-
Page/TRTR/Web_Pages/TRTR%20Talks/Wednesday/W4-3%20Bennett%20SIRCIS.ppt
4. K. Nielsen, Royal Military College, private communication.
5. Y. Wo, Sakatchewan Research Council, private communication.
6. Management of Research Reactor Ageing, IAEA-TECDOC-792, ISSN 1011-4289, 1995.
308 of 455