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How much stainless steel for ITER Hot Cell?
-Sabina Griffith

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Jerry Sovka, Chairman of the workshop, opening the session.

The current design of the ITER Hot Cell Facility comprises a substantial concrete, stand-alone building of four floors above ground and one full basement. It is current practice for hot cells to implement stainless steel liners in order to increase the leak tightness of specific areas. Thus, to improve safety during operations and to reduce the amount of waste during the dismantling phase, about 30.000 m3 of the "red zone", the area within the Hot Cell Facility that will not be accessible to man during the nuclear phase of the operation, will be furbished with stainless steel. "After the review of requirements, there is consensus that this is generally unavoidable to use stainless steel lining in the red zones of hot cells", says Magali Benchikhoune, Section Leader of the ITER Hot Cell, summing up the result of the second workshop on the issue of stainless steel liners. Basically, this is because of combination with high dose rate levels and tritium contamination, tritium having great capability to migrate in concrete.

The one-day workshop was chaired by Jerry Sovka, Head of the ITER Civil Engineering and Construction Division, and involved all responsible officers within the ITER Organization and the European Domestic Agency as well as external experts both from fusion and fission (JET, Dounreay site UKAEA, SCK.CEN Belgium, CEA, US SNS and JP Perves as "free consultant"). "For the vast area outside the red zone, the use of resins or epoxy paint is a cost saving alternative", says Benchikhoune, repeating the recommendation of the expert group. "We will now review methods for installation and related installation. Results will be integrated in the ongoing optimization plan." The Hot Cell Facility Design Review is scheduled for 2-4 February 2009 in Cadarache.

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