Page 73 - Beyond Decommissioning

54 Beyond Decommissioning

Fig. 2.12 The experimental boiling water reactor (EBWR) at the Argonne National Laboratory
(ANL), IL, United States.
Courtesy of NRC.

The egg-shaped building of the Garching reactor (Section 6.5.8) and the Philippine
research reactor were certainly designed with a clear aesthetic vision. And, the spher-
ical shape of many first-generation reactors (e.g., Garigliano, Fig. 1.7, Dounreay,
Chapter 7.13, Dresden 1, EBWR, Fig. 2.12) has been certainly inspired by aesthetics,
besides being a sphere the optimal geometry for withstanding accidental overpressure
inside. However, an early authoritative voice (Munce, 1964) warned about the Yankee
Rowe reactor, United States that “The exciting structure of the steel sphere … is
impressive: it suffers a similar defect to Dounreay, however, in the massing conflict
which arises with the turbine hall, and to a lesser extent with the other ancillary build-
ings which are grouped around it …. The uninspired treatment of the associated build-
ings detracts from the drama of the steel-clad sphere.”
For sake of completeness, it is mentioned here the decommissioning of the beau-
tifully shaped EBWR at the Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) was completed in
February 1996. Then, the facility was converted into a waste storage facility. Pack-
aged transuranic waste drums were stored on the four levels of the facility and in
the former reactor cavity and spent fuel pool pending shipment for disposal at a
DOE facility. This reuse was estimated to produce cost savings of $2 million US dol-
lars (1996) (Boing, 1997).