ORAU TEAM Dose Reconstruction Project for NIOSH

Document No. ORAUT-TKBS-0041 Revision No. 01 Effective Date: 06/02/2009 Page 14 of 89
Figure 2-1. Apollo site layout.
room with the exception of the filter press section of the plant waste treatment area (NUMEC 1963).
Production and process areas are described in Table 2-1. Some of these areas are illustrated in
Figure 2-2.
2.1.3
Process Descriptions
Brief summaries for the principal operations are given below and additional details can be found in the
series of AEC Feasibility and Health and Safety Laboratory (HASL) reports provided in the cited
references (Forscher 1963; AEC 1960a,b,c, 1961a,b). Inherent in all of the operations is nuclear
criticality safety that governs not only the operations and storage but also the movement of material
within the facility. Nuclear criticality safety is maintained at the facility through the control of one or
more of the conventional parameters of geometry, mass, concentration, and control of neutron
interaction between sub-critical units. The standard administrative policy at this and other similar
facilities is to control two such parameters whenever possible. For birdcage units, the two control
parameters are geometry (birdcage dimensions) and a 235 U mass limit that can be placed within the
birdcage. A review of the available literature shows that no criticality accidents have occurred during
Apollo site operations.
2.1.3.1 General Process Operations
NUMEC Apollo process operations were varied. Since NUMEC Apollo acted as a research center
and an all-purpose process center a variety of radioactive materials and Special Nuclear Materials
(SNM) were processed. Most of the work performed involved commercial work for commercial
reactors but much of the work was in the development of better fuel configurations for the burgeoning
Navy nuclear program. Even though this work is not considered weapons related work the SNM and
radiation level exposures resulting from this work during the AEC operational years (1957 to 1983) are
to be included in radiation dose reconstruction as per NIOSH policy. Only some examples are listed
below to illustrate the breadth of the SNM operations that occurred at the NUMEC Apollo site.