PLENTIFUL ENERGY

and several lead assemblies were irradiated successfully. The core conversion to
metal fuel was terminated by the later decision to shut down FFTF permanently.
Inherent passive safety potential was recognized from the onset of the IFR
Program. However, it was the initiative of the EBR-II management team itself, led
by John Sackett and Pete Planchon, who planned and executed the long series of
plant characterization tests necessary to safely lead up to a full-scale demonstration
of the ability of the reactor to survive loss of cooling accidents, without control or
safety system operation. They brought this work to culmination in the landmark
tests of April 1986 (described in detail in Chapter 7). At the time DOE was funding
both the Power Reactor Innovative Small Module (PRISM) design by GE and the
Sodium Advanced Fast Reactor (SAFR) design by Rockwell International in
competition with each other. Because of our joint effort with the Large Pool Plant,
it hadn‘t taken much to convince the SAFR design to adopt metal for its reference
fuel, while GE had remained somewhat reluctant to do so. But after the inherent
passive safety tests, the PRISM project manager, Sam Armijo, visited Argonne to
announce their decision to switch to the metal fuel as their reference fuel as well.
It was possibly in pyroprocessing that the most exciting new discoveries and
advances were made. Conventional wisdom has a development program
progressing from laboratory-scale to bench-scale to engineering-scale to pilot-scale,
and so on. We did not have the luxury of completing all the necessary development
before proceeding with hot (radioactive) demonstration with EBR-II spent fuel in
the refurbished Fuel Cycle Facility (FCF). Les Burris, who had been involved in the
early EBR-II melt-refining, lead the pyroprocessing development effort with other
early pioneers, like Bill Miller, Bob Steunenberg, Dean Pierce, and others. The
fundamental process development had to go on at the same time the design of the
electrorefiner and other equipment systems for hot demonstration in FCF was done.
Fabrication, testing and eventual qualification followed, all while the process itself
was being developed. Early results were vital to success. The important thing was
to keep the work moving along in all the necessary areas. The equipment could be
altered and corrected if process development made it necessary.
The refurbishment of the FCF was a challenge of a different nature. The facility
had been constructed long before the requirements now formalized in DOE orders
had been established. Bringing the facility into compliance with the DOE orders on
a shoestring budget was the challenge. Some of us initially questioned its very
feasibility. Mike Lineberry and Bob Phipps, who together held this responsibility,
overcame repeated nerve-wracking hurdles. Harold McFarlane secured the
necessary environmental permits, and Bob Benedict assured the technical readiness
of the facility and process equipment systems. Refurbishing the FCF itself while at
the same time proving and installing pyroprocessing equipment systems based on
entirely new principles was an engineering feat, one of the principal technical
accomplishments of the IFR Program.
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