Waste handling repositories

TRU are those containing isotopes, like 241Am and 243Am, that follow uranium in the periodic table and whose half-lives are >20 years. If their level of activity was more than 100 nanocuries of alpha-emitters per gram of waste material (up from 10 nanocuries/g in 1982), the waste could be disposed of by shallow burial. Otherwise, the waste had to be placed in retrievable storage for eventual transfer to a permanent repository. TRUs generally have low levels of radioactivity, generate very little heat, and can be handled by ordinary means without remote control (Eisenbud 1987 Murray 1994). 

One of EPA s responsibilities has been to develop public health and safety standards for the two major U.S. nuclear waste storage and disposal facilities. The Wa.ste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico stores transuranic wastes. They range from slightly contaminated clothing to barrels of waste so radioactive that it can only be handled with remote control equipment. The proposed Yucca Mountain repository is designed to store high-level radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel. 

AR237 The handling of timescales in assessing post-closure safety of deep geological repositories. Radioactive Waste Management, Workshop proceedings, Paris, 16-18 April 2002. 

After the fuel is irradiated in the reactor, there are two divergent paths proposed to handle the used fuel. The first is to package it and dispose of it in a geologic repository as high-level nuclear waste. The alternative is to reprocess it to extract the remaining uranium and also recover the plutonium that was produced during irradiation. The waste from this process is the fission products. As seen in Chapter 14, there are several processes that can be used to preserve the useful uranium and plutonium. 

WIPP received the first shipment of TRU on March 26, 1999. The material was shipped from Alamos. The firsf panel in the mine was filled in 2003. The final shipment from the DOE Rocky Flats site was received in 2005 and panel 2 of the mine was filled. In 2007, the shipment of RH-TRU (Remote Handled TRU) was begun and emplacement of this material in the repository was started. By the end of 2014, WIPP had received 11,894 shipments and emplaced 90,983.42 million cubic feet of waste. 

So far as the Scope was concerned, some aspects were resolved at least for a preliminary draft, but not without considerable discussion. For example, it was agreed that the Convention should cover all materials whether liquid, gaseous or solid form, and that it should apply to the safety of wastes deliberately released to the environment as discharges as well as those disposed of into repositories. The scope would also cover all activities in the definition of radioactive waste management, namely handling, pretreatment, treatment, conditioning, storage and disposal. 

Early deployment of ENHS reactors could provide a reasonable solution to the spent LWR fuel that will enable to handle all the high level waste to be accumulated in the USA in a single high-level waste repository - Yucca Mountain. 

Intermediate Eevel Waste (ILWL which will comprise mainly adsorption and filter media from gaseous and liquid radwaste treatment. Following appropriate pre-treatment, the ILW will be encapsulated in cement (to immobilise radionuclides) and stored on site (prior to future consignment to an off-site repository facility). A BAT assessment for management of ILW is presented in a Radioactive Waste Management Case Evidenee Report (Reference 14.21). All lEW solid waste streams will be handled in internal areas and not exposed to the external environment. 

Eow Level Waste (LLWL which will comprise mixed wastes resulting from plant operations. Following appropriate pre-treatment, LLW will be packed into dmms, with full drums placed into half height ISO containers (HHISO). The HHISO will be stored on-site prior to consignment to the LLW repository (LLWR) near Drigg in Cumbria (or a successor national repository). The LLW will be collected/accumulated and treated within the Radwaste building. All LLW solid waste streams will be handled in internal areas and not exposed to the external environment. 

In the Czech Republic, there are two nuclear power plants Dukovany and Temelin (with 6 blocks) producing highly-active nuclear waste. The waste has to be handled in a long run well to guarantee it will not be misused anytime anyway and— in the same time—to minimize risks for biotopes. Preparation-work and the future realization of such a Safe Nuclear Waste DGR has been carried by the Deep Geological Repository Authority of the Czech Republic (SURAO)—www.surao.cz. 

See Appendix I for a more detailed set of requirements. Specific issues include mission requirements, potential burnup criteria, heat rejection, economic resources, environmental impact, safety, technology development risk, completion schedule, repository issues, social and political acceptance, and diversion and proliferation. In addition to these issues, others that need to be considered include plutonium handling, waste disposal, environmental regulations, safety regulations and analysis, safeguards and security, technology development, economic analysis, and government and public policies. A variety of reactor concepts exists, and each concept has unique and specific concerns. The intent is not to present a complete set of requirements, but to briefly discuss a few selected issues. 

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