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General Atomics - TRIGA Mark F

1.0 Site Identification

2.0 Site Status Summary

The main General Atomics (GA) campus is located on a 120-acre site in San Diego, California, approximately 15 miles north of downtown's San Diego International Airport, mostly via Interstate 5. GA's main facilities contain over one million square feet of engineering and test facilities, precision manufacturing installations, and advanced technology laboratories. Areas adjacent to the TRIGA facility included a building that contained a hot cell for fuel examination and other work, and a radioactive waste tank area. These facilities were decommissioned and the NRC license terminated in 2000.

The Mark F TRIGA was built at GA in 1960. This reactor was designed to provide controlled, instantaneous pulses of intense neutron and gamma radiation for research studies where high neutron flux and narrow pulse widths were required. The licensee has dismantled the Mark F reactor to the extent possible. It ceased operation in 1995. Decommissioning activities at General Atomics (GA) are currently on hold pending the transfer of fuel to DOE. To complete decommissioning activities on the Mark F reactor, the licensee needs to dismantle parts of the building in which the Mark I and Mark F reactors are located.

3.0 Major Technical or Regulatory Issues

The licensee has completed all decommissioning activities it can until the fuel is removed from the site. DOE has concerns about accepting the fuel because it is owned by GA, making it commercial fuel. DOE feels that accepting this RTR fuel could adversely impact its current management of other commercial fuel. Following discussions between NRC and DOE, GA and DOE entered negotiations to define terms under which DOE could accept the fuel.

4.0 Estimated Date For Closure

01/01/2019

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Thursday, April 16, 2009