Whiteshell Laboratories has retrieved two high-quantity cesium sources from standpipes in Whiteshell’s Waste Management Area (WMA). The Whiteshell team successfully retrieved, decontaminated Field Irradiator Gamma (FIG) and Zoological Environment Under Stress (ZEUS), then placed the two sources in Optimus H Type-B shipping casks, and shipped them to Chalk River Laboratories for long-term storage.
This is a major achievement as the FIG and ZEUS sources represented 30 per cent of the standpipes’ activity. It’s a major reduction to the site’s liability to have them safely removed. These were also the first Intermediate Level Waste (ILW) packages retrieved from Whiteshell’s standpipes.
A bit of history – what are standpipes?
Standpipes are cylindrical concrete tubes that are approximately three metres in length, sealed at the bottom, buried with the top exposed, and have a large cement plug on top. The standpipes at Whiteshell’s WMA are used to safely contain and isolate radioactive waste, referred to as sources, resulting from the Laboratories’ history of scientific research, which began in the 1960s.
Currently, theproject team is conducting inspections of the standpipes to verify earlier findings and plan for waste retrieval. All the standpipes selected for early retrieval have lower radiological and material hazards. This gives the team time to enhance their strategy for the more complicated standpipes. The team’s completion of the FIG and ZEUS retrievals were the start of work that continues until all standpipes in the WMA are retrieved and empty.
This retrieval, executed on time and on budget, was an essential step in the overall Whiteshell Laboratories Restoration Project, supporting CNL’s mission to clean up and remediate the site.
