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SWMF Disposes of Safety and Control Rods from the Five SRS Production Reactors

AIKEN, S.C. – Employees of the Solid Waste Management Facility (SWMF) at the Savannah River Site (SRS) recently completed characterizing and shipping for disposal mixed waste containing over 950 cadmium safety and control rods from five SRS production reactors.

Mixed waste contains both hazardous and radioactive waste.

“The shipping and storage cask containing the safety and control rods has been in storage at the Solid Waste Management Facility for over 25 years, the time needed to allow the radioactivity to reduce to a level below the limits allowed by the Department of Transportation for off-site shipment,” said Verne Mooneyhan, Facility Manager for SWMF, which is managed and operated by SRS contractor Savannah River Nuclear Solutions. “The cadmium rods included in this shipment span nearly 70 years of history at SRS.”

The control and safety rods, fabricated in the early 1950s, were positioned in the five Reactor vessels to speed up or slow down nuclear chain reactions to obtain optimum production of nuclear materials for processing. The last operating production reactor at SRS, K Reactor, was shut down in 1988 but was briefly operated in 1992 before being permanently retired.