ROCK ISLAND ARSENAL, Ill.-- Nestled on Rock Island Arsenal in Illinois, the unassuming Morris Consolidation Facility (MCF) hosts a team of Joint Munitions Command (JMC) health physicists who safely execute processing and packaging of radioactive components coded for disposal. The disposal process is exact, methodical, and reflects the high standards set by JMC.
The MCF consolidates excess military commodities containing low-level radioactive materials from around the world. Many of those commodities are various instruments containing tritium, which provides illumination of dials for low-light conditions.
"Not many people know what we do, or how we do it. We manage the end of the life cycle of military items that contain radioactive material for the Army, and most of the Department of Defense," said Calvin Brownlow, health physicist and radiation safety officer at the MCF.
Mission-driven, the MCF works to safely and compliantly manage, consolidate, volume reduce, and dispose of or recycle radioactive materials for DOD. Items processed include common military radioactive commodities like compasses, chemical agent detectors, optical lenses and smoke engine components. Considering most items are standard for service members and military facilities, the mission is not dangerous by design.
Each item the team receives is carefully tracked and listed in a database, right down to the National Stock Numbers, radioactivity and storage location at the facility -- making accountability an integral part of the MCF's mission. The MCF team must be a one-stop shop when working to separate radioactive components. They have expertise on virtually all military items with radioactive components and know what it takes to safely remove those components to reduce waste volume.
The team also recognizes when it is best to recycle or dispose of a component. MCF team members are trained, tested and retrained as needed, before taking on the task of processing shipments.
"Before working with licensed material, individuals receive initial radiation safety training commensurate with assigned duties and specific to the radiation safety program. Training is also provided when there are significant changes in duties, regulations, terms or conditions of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission [NRC] license [governing this facility]," said Brownlow.
MCF's initial survey and inspection of a shipment verifies that no unusual radiation exposure levels or external contamination on containers exist. MCF also validates that all instructions are followed by the shipper as required by federal and state regulations, he said.
The MCF has an array of handheld and laboratory instrumentation to detect all types of radiation. These tools allow the team to assess the contamination threats during in-processing.
"RADMAT [Radioactive Materials] is the database we use to track radioactive items into and out of the MCF, monitor activities of stored commodities, and track in real time a list of what's in storage at the facility," said Brownlow.
Consequently, the database helps satisfy NRC recordkeeping requirements. With no room for error, the MCF must pass strict regulatory inspections. Currently the facility has a NRC-specific license, valid for a 10-year span, allowing the MCF to accept just about any radioactive item they would need to process.
Further satisfying NRC standards, all items stored at the MCF must be easily identified at all times and listed in the RADMAT database. NRC inspectors randomly examine the facility to confirm license
regulations are followed. The NRC also sets limits for the amount of low-level radioactive materials the MCF stores and processes.
Once the facility reaches, or nears its licensed storage capacity, time is of the essence to process, pack and schedule movement of a shipment for final disposal.
"A solid two to three weeks of preparation goes into each shipment. We have to be accountable for everything that comes here," said Brownlow.
For him, this two-to three-week process is the most labor-intensive aspect of the work done at MCF. Once items are consolidated for shipment, they leave the MCF bound for one of six other approved facilities for final disposal. Extracting radioactive components is the most unique part of the job, according to MCF Health Physicist Thomas Gizicki.
"Demilitarization is a challenge," he said. "This can take 10 to 20 minutes per item, which also includes inventory and National Stock Number documentation. We are required to notify the NRC of these items, and there is a lot of data manipulation involved."
While tedious, demilitarization work is a cost-effective way to volume reduce disposed items the
MCF receives, and saves the government money. Although work is time intensive, challenging and technical, JMC has successfully executed the MCF's mission since 1992 and plans to continue providing this important service into the future.
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Joint Munitions Command (JMC) operates a nationwide network of conventional ammunition manufacturing plants and storage depots, and provides on-site ammunition experts to U.S. combat units wherever they are stationed or deployed. A subordinate command of U.S. Army Materiel Command, JMC provides for customers from U.S. forces of all military services, other U.S. government agencies and allied nations.
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