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ISAC II Active Sump
Standard procedure is for the ISAC-II sump to be assayed before being drained. Since commissioning there has been no activity found during the assays, so for now, until further notice, the contents can be drained without an assay.
By Joe Mildenberger, June 20, 2007
Now that ISAC II is commissioned as an experimental facility, the ISAC II active sump must be assayed prior to releasing the water into the sanitary sewer system. The sump has a capacity of 576 ft3, at which point it starts to overflow into the sanitary sewer system. There are two alarm settings, both well below the overflow point: The "sump full" alarm occurs at 192 ft3, and the "high level" alarm occurs at 256 ft3. Since the sump is ~10 ft deep, the water level when the "high level" alarm first starts going off is less that 1/2 way, or about 5ft, from the bottom of the sump.
[Edit: Paragraph concerning a faulty sprinkler system, which has since been repaired has been edited out here.]
If either of the "sump full" or "high level" alarm levels are reached, operators should call an RPG surveyor to perform an assay on the sump water, after which it can be released if levels of radioactive nuclides are sufficiently low. [Edit: Sentence here also related to the sprinkler system failure mentioned above also has been edited out.]
UPDATE FROM NOV.19/2013:
Given the following: - SCRF labs require an outlet for their process water - The only convenient drains in the area go to the ISAC-II active sump - The ISAC-II active sump has never in its history seen any active water - There are presently no known sources of active water that could conceivably end up going there - Performing gamma assays of known non-active water is a waste of time We are *temporarily* declaring the ISAC-II active sump to be "non-active". The implication of this designation is that until further notice, IOPS has permission to drain the sump at their convenience without first requiring a sample of the water to be assayed by the RPG. This designation will continue until either the SCRF processes requiring use of the sump have been completed, *or* conditions change such that there is a reasonable chance that active water could actually end up in the sump. Please refer all questions about this temporary policy change to me. Joe _________
