| Treatment
and conditioning |
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Canada:
In January 1999, Cameco Corporation received approval from
both Canadian and American authorities to begin shipment of
uranium-bearing materials from its uranium refining and conversion
plants in Ontario to the International Uranium Corporation
(IUC) mill in Utah for recovery of the uranium. Shipments
began immediately. These materials contain significant amounts
of uranium, but at too low a concentration to be recycled
within the refining and conversion plants. Recycling to IUC
permits recovery of the valuable uranium resource and eliminates
what would otherwise become a waste disposal problem.
France:
COGEMA continues to optimise solid waste management at
its La Hague plant, in order to reduce both radiotoxicity
and the volume of final residues. The latest project concerns
long-lived intermediate level waste: mostly hulls and end-pieces.
The new facility, referred to as ACC (Atelier de Compactage
des Coques, or Hulls Compaction Workshop) received on-site
tests which started at the end of 1998. The process reduces
the final residue volume by a factor of four. The construction
of the ACC began in March 1995 and completion is scheduled
for late 2000. Process waste will then account for less than
0.5 m3/ton of reprocessed fuel.
A new
plant called CENTRACO (see image below) - operated by SOCODEI
(a COGEMA - Electricité de France subsidiary)
has been constructed for the treatment of metallic and combustible
low level wastes. The first unit of the plant, which implements
the melting technology for short lived metallic waste, started
commercial operation on 3 February 1999. The second unit started
up on 19 April 1999 and incinerates the combustible technological
wastes (which include gloves and clothes) and liquid waste.
The incinerator design capacity is 3 500 t/year of solid waste
and 1 500 t/year of liquid waste.
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for large view
Germany:
A project to develop a facility for the vitrification
of the high level waste (HLW) concentrate from the Karlsruhe
Reprocessing Plant (WAK) is under-way on the site. The HLW
results from operation of the WAK from 1971 to 1990. Since
then, it has been stored in shielded, cooled tanks. The construction
of Karlsruhe Vitrification Facility (VEK) is expected to start
in 2000. The project of vitrification would then be completed
by 2005.
The construction
of the industrial pilot plant for demonstrating the conditioning
of spent fuel for disposal at Gorleben (PKA) will be completed
mid 1999. The operating license is expected this year. However,
it has not been decided when the plant will start its hot
operation. The plant allows the handling and conditioning
of spent fuel, high, intermediate and low level waste as well
as flask maintenance.
As a possible
alternative to the POLLUX-cask disposal concept, the conditioning
of fuel rods in a canister of the same diameter as the internationally
standardised high level waste canister is under development.
Italy:
A vitrification unit using French technology is being
designed for the conditioning of some 200 m3 of
the HLW and LLW currently stored at the EUREX plant (CORA
project). The contract for the project has been signed in
a joint-venture with the French SGN. The vitrification station
should begin operating in 2001.
Switzerland:
Since January 1999, ZWILAG (Zwischenlager Würenlingen
AG), the country's project for interim storage for
all categories of radioactive waste and for the incineration
and conditioning at Würenlingen (see image below) in
the canton of Aargau, celebrated near completion. Tests for
interim storage are expected to start before the end of 1999.
Together with a similar but smaller facility located at the
Beznau power plant called ZWIBEZ, this facility will provide
sufficient capacity to store all types of radioactive wastes
from all reactors plus radioactive wastes from medicine, research
and industry.
The federal
executive has yet to issue a specific licence for incineration
and conditioning. ZWILAG applied for this licence in late
1997. It has opted for a high-temperature plasma oven that
thermally decomposes or melts waste at temperatures up to
20 000°C. Melted organic and metallic wastes are made into
vitrified residues suitable for disposal.
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for large view
Armenia:
The dry spent fuel storage facility at the Metsamor nuclear
plant was completed in November 1998. The French government
provided the financial backing for the project. After licensing
by the Armenian Nuclear Regulatory Authority (ANRA), the new
facility will receive spent fuel from the Metsamor plant under
IAEA supervision and with the help of Framatome specialists.
According to the Armenian energy ministry, the licensing procedure
for the store is well under-way.
Canada:
All three nuclear utilities, Ontario Power Generation
(OPG), Hydro Quebec and New Brunswick Power, have approved
dry used fuel storage facilities at their reactor sites. However,
the approval of the environmental assessment for the expansion
of the site at OPG's Bruce Nuclear power Development is being
appealed in a court case brought by a local environmentalist
group.
Germany:
An interim storage facility for low level waste, at Lubmin,
near Greifswald, came into operation in March 1998.
Low level waste (LLW) from the former East German nuclear
power plants at Lubmin and Rheinsberg, both under decommissioning,
will be stored in seven buildings. The facility will also
be able to store LLW from other German nuclear plants, but
only as an interim measure for two years.
Lithuania:
Hot testing of spent fuel casks commenced in early 1999
for Ignalina RBMK NPP dry storage.
Poland:
A six month study was completed in September 1998 for
spent
fuel management at Swierk, in a partnership between BNFL,
Framatome and the Polish Atomic Energy Institute. Swierk,
which is owned by the National Atomic Energy Agency and operated
by the Atomic Energy Institute, has two research reactors.
One is currently being dismantled and the other is still in
operation. The study received joint funding from the DG XI
of the European Commission and the Polish Atomic Energy Agency.
It reviewed the concept of wet on-site storage, assessed current
requirements and recommended storage for at least 50 years.
Russia:
The Russian Federation, management of the Leningrad RBMK NPP
is considering several alternatives in order to have
a dry spent fuel storage facility in operation by 2003. Spent
fuel from the Leningrad plant is stored in pools, which have
enough capacity remaining for another 6 to 7 years.
Spain:
Santa Maria de Garona nuclear power plant completed the
extension, started in 1994, of its spent fuel storage
pool in September 1998. Based on expected output, the extra
capacity means that the plant can continue to store spent
fuel to 2015.
Sweden:
The state Nuclear Safety Inspectorate, SKI, gave final regulatory
approval in January 1999 for the extension of the country's
interim storage facility (CLAB) for spent nuclear fuel, located
at the Oskarshamn nuclear plant. SKI's approval is based on
a new safety standard for nuclear facilities which officially
takes effect in 1999.
Ukraine:
Energoatom announced that a spent-fuel storage facility
will be put into service at Zaporozhye nuclear power plant
by 2000. Construction is to begin this year and will proceed
in stages.
USA:
The US NRC issued a license to Virginia Electric and Power
Company in August 1998 to allow storage of spent
fuel from its North Anna power plant in an independent spent
fuel storage installation (ISFSI) on the plant site. The spent
fuel, which is currently in a storage pool at the site, will
be placed in casks on a concrete storage pad, surrounded by
a security fence. Thirty two assemblies can be loaded into
each cask and the facility will provide storage for approximately
1800 fuel assemblies. It is licensed for 20 years, with the
possibility of a license renewal. The total storage capacity
at North Anna is sufficient to provide storage of spent fuel
from the two units during their currently licensed operating
lives (ending in 2018 and 2020 respectively).
Canada:
Cameco Corporation received approval in late 1998 to convert
the Deilmann tailings facility at the Key Lake Operation
from subaerial to subaqueous tailings deposition. The mined-out
Deilmann pit has been in use for tailings disposal since 1996
with the tailings surface exposed to the atmosphere. The change
to subaqueous deposition first involves flooding the pit,
by reducing the rate of pumping water from the bottom drain.
The tailings will be injected into the tailings already in
place by means of a tremie pipe, technology used for underwater
placement of concrete. The advantages of the flooded system
are elimination of freezing of the tailings in the winter,
reduction of radiation emissions from the tailings and reduction
of erosion of the pit walls.
COGEMA
Resources received approval to do preliminary construction
of a tailings facility in the JEB pit at McClean Lake
in August 1998. Approval to complete the work was received
in March 1999, and operating approval for the McClean Lake
uranium mill was received in June 1999, allowing tailings
deposition in the pit to commence.
Finland:
Low level and intermediate level waste from the Loviisa plant
was received by the new on-site final repository in June 1998.
The Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority (STUK) completed
a review of the Final Safety Analysis Report (FSAR) in early
1998 and submitted its statement on Imatran Voima Oy (IVO)
application for the operating licence to the Ministry of Trade
and Industry. In April 1998, the government granted the license
for the repository. The repository is designed to host only
waste from Loviisa plant, but could also store some waste
from medical programmes as well. The repository is scheduled
to be sealed in 2055.
France:
The operating life of the Aube surface disposal facility
for LILW is likely to be doubled. The facility, commissioned
in 1992, has a capacity of 1 000 000 m3 which was
originally designed to receive about 30 000 m3
of LILW every year. Then, the operating life of the disposal
site was then expected to be about 30 years. Because of the
improvements made in reducing total waste volume, the volume
of wastes to the facility are far below expectations: now
half the predicted volumes. New treatment techniques, like
those to be implemented in CENTRACO plant, will further reduce
total volume of conditioned LILW. The expected volume of waste
packages to Aube by 2000 is around 13 700 m3 making
a 60 year operating period foreseeable. The former surface
disposal facility, Manche, closed in 1994, is currently in
the process of being granted the authorisation to pass into
the surveillance phase.
Norway:
The governmental organisation Directorate of Public Construction
and Property has completed the radioactive waste facility
at Himdalen, near Oslo. The facility, with a capacity of 10
000 drums, is expected to receive all low level and intermediate
level wastes generated in Norway until 2030. The Institute
for Energy Technology (IFE) has been granted licence by the
government to operate the facility which consists of four
caverns constructed in a hard rock formation, with through
a tunnel which has about 50m rock coverage above. The waste
will be placed in concrete cells. IFE currently operates a
facility at Kjeller where wastes produced by the research
reactors and other applications are treated and stored. These
wastes are in the process of being retrieved and shipped to
the new Himdalen facility: an operation that will last until
2000.
Sweden:
In November 1998, the prime minister officially opened the
SKB canister laboratory, the first facility in the world associated
with the encapsulation of spent nuclear fuel for direct disposal,
which will test SKB's R&D plan for high level waste management.
This pilot plant has been built in order to verify and demonstrate
the processes and equipment that will be used to encapsulate
spent fuel in SKB's Fuel Encapsulation Plant (FEP). The FEP
design has been developed following five years' work with
particular focus on remote handling processes. The SKB's KBS-3
package is copper-clad iron. Tests will focus on the welding
of the packages and on material stress.
Switzerland:
Following substantial research in granite host rock, for
the disposal of high level waste (HLW), NAGRA is completing
the feasibility for a HLW repository in a sedimentary environment.
The study is due to be completed in 2001. In addition the
utilities are interested in international repository projects
for HLW, which in their view offer considerable advantages
to mitigate proliferation concerns and cost.
USA:
The first containers from DOE Los Alamos National Laboratory
were placed in the WIPP (see image below) underground
repository four days after a judicial decision on 22 March
1999 to authorise shipments of TRU non-hazardous waste. Final
RCRA permit from the state of New Mexico for all waste is
expected in October 1999. In the meantime, shipments from
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) should arrive
on a weekly basis until all 17 transports are completed. In
addition, Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory's
(INEEL) first shipment to WIPP occurred on 27 April 1999.
Waste is conditioned in drums, sealed for transportation into
special vessels and bolted to the truck flatbed.
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for large view
State
regulators plan to re-license Envirocare of Utah Inc.'s low
level waste disposal facility following a review of
public comments. The public comments were received mid-June
1998 after a series of public hearings in the county where
the facility is located. Under state regulations, the facility
has to be relicensed every five years but Envirocare can operate
under its existing licence until a new one is issued.
Tunnelling
at Yucca Mountain (see image below), started in February 1998
is now complete. The new excavation is known as cross-drift
and is an extension of the Exploratory Studies Facility (ESF)
and forms a large, five-mile-long tunnel cut into the mountain,
allowing experiments for site characterisation to take place.
The NRC is developing site specific regulations for the disposal
of high level waste and spent fuel at Yucca Mountain, in preparation
for implementing standards being developed by Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA). In May 1999, industry representatives
discussed a new concept for the management of US utility spent
fuel with the Senate Energy Committee. The concept proposes
the complete abandonment of the interim storage facility that
has been the centre-piece of industry efforts for the past
few years. Instead, the concept would allow DOE to accept
waste at Yucca Mountain in advance of its opening, currently
scheduled for 2010.
Both the
Rocky Flats Environmental Technology Site (RFETS), Colorado
and
the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory
(INEEL), have met all programme requirements to characterise,
certify and ship transuranic waste to the Waste Isolation
Pilot Plant (WIPP). Authorisations were obtained in June 1998
for RFETS's to ship debris waste, and INEEL's to ship both
debris and solidified TRU waste forms. Authorisations were
obtained following audits performed by the DOE, the Environmental
Protection Agency, the Defence Nuclear Facilities Safety Board,
the New Mexico Environment Department, the New Mexico Environmental
Evaluation Group and other organisations. RFETS and INEEL
are the second and third DOE sites to gain authorisation to
ship wastes to WIPP. Los Alamos National Laboratory received
the first authorisation in September 1997.
| Transboundary
movements & other transport |
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Belgium:
Technical details relating to the first return shipment of
vitrified residues have been finalised. However, transportation,
importing licences and agreements for the shipments have yet
to be granted by the competent authorities.
France:
The third shipment (see image below) of vitrified residues
reached Japan on 13 March 1998. A fourth shipment, aboard
the Pacific Swan, left Cherbourg harbour on 25 February 1999
and arrived on schedule at Mutsu-Ogarawa harbour in Japan
on 15 April 1999.
Click
for large view
Germany:
The industry expects that the following the ban imposed since
May 1998 of the transport of spent fuel from German
nuclear power plants to foreign reprocessing facilities, and
of vitrified high level waste from reprocessing in La Hague,
to the Gorleben storage facility, will restart in 1999.
USA:
The DOE's programme to return US origin spent fuel from foreign
research reactors, as part of the non-proliferation campaign,
has restarted. In July 1998 a ship carrying irradiated fuel
elements from South Korea sailed under San Francisco's Golden
Gate Bridge. Final destination is the DOE's Idaho Falls facility.
The success in DOE's return of foreign spent fuel shipments
may also have a positive effect for the future domestic transportation
of spent fuel.
Belgium:
ONDRAF/NIRAS produced a study for low level waste disposal,
as a result of which the government decided that a waste management
strategy should be developed that is flexible and reversible,
and can become progressively permanent. In order to assist
in the choice between shallow land and deep disposal, ONDRAF/NIRAS
was requested by the government to research the land at the
existing four nuclear sites, as well as some other areas.
ONDRAF/NIRAS effectively started their research in 1998, which
is expected to last about three years. The aim is to present
a report on the suitability of radioactive waste disposal
for each area allowing the government to make a properly informed
choice. The agency aims to have a LLW disposal site in operation
by 2005.
A new
R&D contract for the disposal of medium and high active
waste in the Boom clay layer, to be carried out between early
1998 and the end of 2003 has been established between ONDRAF/NIRAS,
SYNATOM - the company responsible for the management of the
Belgium nuclear fuel cycle - and the country's main wastes
producers. The programme also includes studies regarding conditioned
spent fuel disposal. The contract is part of a more global
initiative aiming to provide the authorities with a preliminary
Safety Analysis Report for the establishment of a deep repository
in clay, for about 2011. Meanwhile, SYNATOM is preparing a
feasibility study for a spent fuel conditioning plant to present
to the government. The study will take technical, economical,
safety, environmental and safeguards aspects into consideration.
In conjunction, ONDRAF/NIRAS was requested to study the feasibility
of conditioned spent fuel disposal in Belgium. The government
requested that the involved parties (SYNATOM and ONDRAF/NIRAS)
present a complementary progress report at the end of 1999.
China:
In the northwest, geological studies are under-way to select
an underground disposal site for high level waste,
in a co-operative project between the Chinese and the IAEA.
Czech
Republic: Since 1998 the Radioactive Waste Repository
Authority (RAWRA), established in 1997, has been coordinating
responsibility for the development of a geological repository
for high level waste. A conceptual design of the deep geological
repository in a reference, non-specified site, has been completed.
Also, an environmental impact assessment, time schedule and
budget has been completed. In February 1998, eight sites were
selected for further investigations.
Finland:
Detailed site investigations have been completed for the
final disposal of spent fuel from Loviisa and Olkiluoto (encapsulation
plant and repository). Environmental impact assessments (EIA)
were carried out at all the municipalities under site investigation:
Eurajoki, Kuhmo, Loviisa and Âänekoski. The EIA
report and the updated safety assessment were submitted in
Spring 1999 for approval to the Ministry of Trade and Industry
(KTM) and the Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority (STUK).
The safety assessment found that all four sites had suitable
bedrock for a geological repository. Other factors such as
social impacts and transportation requirements pointed to
Eurajoki as the most suitable site.
Posiva
applied to the government for a policy decision on building
the final repository in Olkiluoto (see image below) in May
1999.
Click
for large view
The next
step is a comprehensive review of the EIA report and Posiva's
application. The EIA principle allows people from the municipalities
involved to bring up specific questions regarding the proposal.
Once the KTM has submitted its own statement on the EIA report,
the application will be delivered for public hearings in the
proposed municipality. The policy decision of the government
is expected in 2000, though the decision then requires ratification
by the parliament. Construction of the final repository could
begin after the 2010 and could be commissioned in 2020.
Germany:
Pending a governmental decision regarding further exploration
of the site, progress has so far underlined the suitability
of the Gorleben salt dome as a repository for all categories
of waste, in particular spent fuel and high level waste from
reprocessing.
UK:
In 1998, the Radioactive Waste Management Advisory Committee
(RWMAC) published a report outlining its recommendations
on the scope and content of the future core scientific research
programme into the disposal of Intermediate Level Waste.
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