McNAMARA: Helium Build-up and Criticality Accident

[Oscar]

McNAMARA: Helium Build-up and Criticality Accident

From: entwork@hotmail.com
To: premier@gov.sk.ca; contactus@nwmo.ca; mkrizanc@nwmo.ca

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Subject: Helium Build-up and Criticality Accident
Date: Wed, 17 Oct 2012 18:25:56 -0400


Premier Wall and Mike Krizanc (NWMO),

I would like to thank NWMO’s Mike Krizanc for promptly sending information on helium build-up and the potential for a criticality accident in the canisters.

I’ve passed on the documentation Mr. Krizanc sent me on helium build-up to ‘experts’ in three countries for their analysis and comments. Our discussion on this matter began when Mr. Krizanc disagreed with the findings of Dr. Chris Busby who stated the helium build-up in the canisters from the decay of alpha particles would cause the canisters to explode within 800 to 1000 years of their placement underground.

This highlights one of the problems residents face when they’re considering projects of this complexity; who do you believe. Dr. Busby and NWMO, though both experts, completely contradict each other. The only solution I’ve found in the ten years I’ve been doing this is to get the opinion of more experts and you usually get to the truth of the matter. I will pass on the information as soon as I get it back.

The correspondence Mr. Krizanc sent concerning the potential for a criticality accident confirms the point I was making at the meeting in Patuanak on October 15, 2012; there is enough plutonium in the spent fuel to cause a criticality (fissile reaction).

I asked Mr. Krizanc if the web structure keeping the fuel rods separated inside the canister could be compromised by the effects of the canister’s contents. He called over Alec Blythe PhD, the Section Manager of Used Fuel Geosciences, who admitted he wasn’t an expert but would try to answer my questions. As it turned out, he knew very little about it.

He assured me the carbon steel composition of the web could not be affected by the contents of the canister. When he asked the reason I was concerned about the integrity of the web, I responded that if the fuel rods were allowed to come together, it would increase the potential for a criticality. He said there was no chance that natural uranium could go critical. I agreed, but had to inform him that it was no longer natural uranium inside the fuel rods. I told him that some of the U238 was converted to plutonium inside the reactor and that it required far less plutonium to achieve a criticality that with uranium. He argued that even so, there was only a very small amount of plutonium and not enough to cause a criticality. I assured him there was enough.

As the correspondence Mr. Krizanc sent me proves, there is enough plutonium to cause a criticality. The plutonium would have to separate from the rest of the material and concentrate in one place to do so. Mr. Krizanc’s experts claim this would be a very unlikely event.

According to other scientists, due to the fact that plutonium has a lower melting point and boiling point than uranium, it is possible (if the temperatures become elevated) for the plutonium to fractionally distill off from the mixture and condense in a cooler part of the canister. I sent Mr. Krizanc a request to ask his experts about this.

The average person would have believed the false information Alec Blythe was trying to give to me. I’m not accusing him of lying. He just didn’t know what he was talking about. It’s very disturbing that NWMO is putting out false information about a project with such potentially dangerous consequences. Residents of Saskatchewan deserve much better than this.

I received another letter from NWMO this afternoon. I will respond to it tomorrow.

Pat McNamara