The ORNL Nuclear Operations team has made several accomplishments for the first half of this calendar year.
The Molten Salt Reactor Experiment team successfully completed all phases of startup review requirements and will soon begin transitioning to the new Continuous Purge System, allowing for a better and more sustainable program.
Buildings 2600 and 7961 storage facilities have gone through various stages of upgrades and maintenance to provide improved operations. During this process, the facilities remained in service and continued to support the High Flux Isotope Reactor and broader ORNL science missions.
To help ensure UCOR and ORNL programs remain environmentally safe, the water treatment facility, Building 3608, safely processed over 40 million gallons of water in the first 6 months of 2026. This includes over 500 tanker deliveries from sites such as the Oak Ridge Reservation Landfill, Environmental Management Waste Management Facility, and Heritage Center.
Additionally, the team coordinated three Liquid Low-Level Waste transfers (LLLW) from the Radiochemical Engineering Development Center and 8 LLLW tanker transfers from Building 7935 in support of UT-Battelle. This effort demonstrates the team’s collaboration and readiness to support critical site missions.
Workers operating and maintaining these various facilities/equipment have reduced the liquid waste for future disposal through multiple evaporator campaigns and treated six batches of LLLW through the pretreatment facility at Building 3517. This brings the facility’s lifetime total to over 47 batches.
“The individuals who complete these activities and many more are what it takes to successfully maintain 24/7 operations,” said James Wheeler, ORNL Nuclear Operations Area Project Manager.
The Nuclear Operations team plans to continue similar achievements in the back half of 2026 by keeping focus on UCOR’s safety culture and finding innovative solutions.
