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Name: Hot Cell Complex
Other Names:
Address:
Location: Pelindaba
Website:
Phone Number:
Subordinate to: AEC
Size: The facility consists of 25 hot cells which are within 3 large high density concrete (HDC) caves and 22 smaller lead cells. The average shielding capability of the lead cells are 200-250 mm Pb equivalent and the concrete cells are 1100 mm HDC equivalent.
Primary function: The facility is dedicated to the "post irradiation examination of locally produced Pressurized Water Reactor (RWR) fuel. Nine hot cells are dedicated to Molybdenum-99 production comprising of 2 fully independent production lines of four cells each plus a shared cell for packaging and shipment. I-131 production is performed in a dedicated production line of four hot cells with a fifth cell always on standby for backup. A further three hot cells plus one glove box is used for production of P-32 and S-35."
Description: The facility, constructed in the late 1980s, has decontaminated and reapplied the cells for isotope production purposes since the completion of the fuel investigation program.
The facility includes the following:
A control room for monitoring the status of the plant
- glove boxes
- emergency backup electrical supply systems
- decontamination facilities
- liquid waste storage facilities for low (120 m³), medium (60 m³) and high active (36m³) liquid waste
- two 1500 m³ stainless steel lined pools with an associated water treatment system incorporating filtration, anion/cation exchange purification systems and heat exchangers
- three air locks for access to radiological control zones from the outside of the facility
- four ventilation and off-gas systems serving the various radiological control zones
- dedicated filtration systems for aerosols, noble gases and iodine with associated monitoring equipment
- an array of handling and transport systems
- workshop for repair of manipulators and other contaminated equipment
[Key Sources: "NTP Facilities: Hot Cell Complex," Nuclear Technology Products, <http://www.radioisotopes.co.za>].
Name: Beva Plant
Other Names:
Address:
NECSA Ltd.
Nuclear Technology Products Division
PO Box 582, Building G1, BEVA
Pelindaba, Pretoria
1 South Africa
Location: Pelindaba
Website:
Phone Number: (012) 305-4412
Subordinate to: AEC/NESCA Ltd. (South African Nuclear Energy Corporation)
Size: 100 tHM/a
Primary function: The facility produced LEU fuel elements for Koeberg power reactors.
Description: The facility, which closed in 1995, included a front-end nuclear fuel production plant.
[Key Sources: No Key Sources].
Name: MTR (Material Test Reactor) Fuel Fabrication
Other Names:
Address:
Location: Pelindaba
Website:
Phone Number:
Subordinate to: AEC
Size:
Primary function: The facility produces fuel elements for the SAFARI-1 research reactor.
Description: The spent MTR fuel elements from the SAFARI-1 research reactor are stored in a retrievable dry pipe store at the Thabana waste disposal facility.
[Key Sources: No Key Sources].
Name: Zirconium Tubing Plant
Other Names:
Address:
Location: Pelindaba; near Hartbeespoort Dam west of Pretoria
Phone Number:
Subordinate to:
Size:
Primary function: The facility produced cladding for fuel assemblies used in Koeberg reactors and produces zirconium tubing that sheaths fuel for nuclear reactors.
Description: The facility was constructed in the 1960s, closed in 1993, sold to China in 1997, and reportedly shipped to China in 1998. South Africa secretly sold the R200 million facility, crucial to the production of nuclear fuel, to China for R20 million. The agreement to sell the plant was finalized in February 1997, three months before President Nelson Mandela announced that South Africa would break diplomatic ties with Taiwan.
[Key Sources: "China: Nuclear," Asia Economics, 15 December 1997, <http://www.chinainformed.com/Archive/x9712/971215.html>].
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Updated April 2004 |
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 This material is produced independently for NTI by the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Monterey Institute of International Studies and does not necessarily reflect the opinions of and has not been independently verified by NTI or its directors, officers, employees, agents. Copyright © 2007 by MIIS.
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