The USG-1 facility was developed to incinerate spent reactor graphite. It is equipped with a monitoring and control system; its maximum capacity is 10 kg/h. Trial combustion of a batch of unirradiated graphite was conducted. The tests showed that the units in the facility are serviceable and irradiated reactor graphite can be incinerated directly in an air flow. For a 1.5 kg load of graphite, the burn rate at 900°C was equal to 0.3 kg/h. The burn rate increases with increasing load. The incineration of irradiated graphite bushings of the EI-2 reactor in the USG-1 incinerator was studied at PDC UGR. The completeness of incineration was 95% and the 137Cs catching efficiency was 95%. With modification of the gas purification unit, the USG-1 incinerator can be used to burn irradiated graphite contaminated by traces of nuclear fuel and in monitoring the atmospheric emissions of 14CO2.
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Translated from Atomnaya Énergiya, Vol. 122, No. 4, pp. 210–213, April, 2017.
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Kashcheev, V.A., Ustinov, O.A., Yakunin, S.A. et al. Technology and Facility for Incinerating Irradiated Reactor Graphite. At Energy 122, 252–256 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10512-017-0263-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10512-017-0263-7