Process Improvement: Reduce unplanned chlorine delivery shutdowns for the plutonium purification processing [Slides]

Chlorine delivery system used by MET-1 leaked in 2012 and operations were suspended. The existing chlorine gas deliver and detection system is in need of upgrade or replacement. It is reaching the end of the 25 year design life. The current system is a bench scale system that is now running on a continuous basis ~ 10 hours per day. Chlorine is used as a reagent for a number of nuclear material metal preparation and purification applications at LANL Plutonium Facility. MET-1 uses Chlorine for purification. Benefits of improving this process immediately benefit MET-1 who deals with the throughput of Plutonium on the technical and engineering side and benefits NCO-1&2 on the safety side.. Authors: Garcia-Lopez, Alicia C. [Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)]. DOE Contract: AC52-06NA25396. Subjects: 37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY; 38 RADIATION CHEMISTRY, RADIOCHEMISTRY, AND NUCLEAR CHEMISTRY