The Use of the Submerged Demineralizer System at Three Mile Island

The Submerged Demineralizer System (SDS) has been used at Three Mile Island-Unit 2 (TMI-2) to process more than 1.5 million gallons of water contaminated as a result of the March, 1979 accident. The SDS has processed approximately 315,000 gallons of water accumulated in tanks in the Auxiliary Building, approximately 650,000 gallons of water that existed in the Reactor Containment Building basement, approximately 90,000 gallons of primary reactor coolant (processed in a bleed and feed mode) and approximately 169,000 gallons of water used in the large scale decontamination of the Reactor Building. During its operation, the SDS has immobilized approximately 340,000 curies of the principal fission products 137Cs, 134Cs and 90Sr on inorganic media (zeolite). Processing summaries and performance evaluations are presented.