A safety review of the NRU effluent heat recovery project.

Abstract

The NRU effluent heat recovery project (EHRP) diverts heated effluent water from the NRU process effluent weir and distributes the water for various heating applications in both the inner and active area at Chalk River Nuclear Laboratories (CRNL). The dominant hazard of the system operation is from leakage of tritiated heavy water from the reactor heavy watersystem into the light water system and the subsequent contamination of the steam system. Protective features include continuous leakage monitoring and automatic isolation of the recovery system. Modelling of the worst case accident, predicts a dose equivalent from tritium in steam humidification of about 26 mrem (260 Sv). The operation of the heat recovery projectdoes not present an unacceptable risk to CRNL personnel.