Injection of Liquid Radioactive Waste Into Deep Geological Formations at the Final Waste Disposal Sites Tomsk and Krasnoyarsk

2001 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lutz R. Schneider ◽  
Christel Herzog ◽  
Michael Viehweg
Keyword(s):  
Radioactive Waste ◽  
Liquid Radioactive Waste ◽  
Specific Model ◽  
Assessment Model ◽  
High Level Waste ◽  
Final Disposal ◽  
Special Procedure ◽  
Eu Project ◽  
High Level ◽  
Geological Formations

Abstract A special procedure for final disposal of liquid radioactive waste (LLW, ILW, HLW) — injection into deep geological formations — was developed in the former USSR and employed since 1963. This procedure was practiced at the sites of the Research Institute for Reactor Engineering Dimitrovgrad and at radiochemical facilities in Tomsk-7 and Krasnoyarsk-26. The deposits (layers of sand, limestone) lie at depths below 200 m and are isolated from other ground water horizons and the surface by overlying layers with low permeability. At the Krasnoyarsk site a total of approx. 5 × 106 m3 of low- to high-level waste were disposed at depths of 180–280 m and 350–500 m; at the Tomsk site a total of approx. 3.7×107 m3 of liquid radwaste were disposed at depths of 180–280 m and 270–320 m. The EU-project for assessing the final disposal safety of the Tomsk and Krasnoyarsk sites resulted in the improvement of a database, the development of a generic assessment model for the injection sites, a site-specific model for the repositories, the assessment of the performance of the repositories and finally recommendations to safety authorities.

scholarly journals Magnesium Potassium Phosphate Compound for Immobilization of Radioactive Waste Containing Actinide and Rare Earth Elements

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sergey E. Vinokurov ◽  
Svetlana A. Kulikova ◽  
Boris F. Myasoedov
Keyword(s):  
Rare Earth ◽  
Radioactive Waste ◽  
Rare Earth Elements ◽  
Liquid Radioactive Waste ◽  
Hydrolytic Stability ◽  
Research Work ◽  
Dynamic Test ◽  
Potassium Phosphate ◽  
High Level Waste ◽  
High Level

The problem of effective immobilization of liquid radioactive waste (LRW) is key to the successful development of nuclear energy. The possibility of using magnesium potassium phosphate (MKP) compound for LRW immobilization on the example of nitric acid solutions containing actinides and rare earth elements (REE), including high level waste (HLW) surrogate solution is considered in the research work. Under the study of phase composition and structure of the MKP compounds obtained by the XRD and SEM methods, it was established that the compounds are composed of crystalline phases - analogues of natural phosphate minerals (struvite, metaankoleite). The hydrolytic stability of the compounds was determined according to the semi-dynamic test GOST R 52126-2003. Low leaching rates of radionuclides from the compound are established, including a differential leaching rate of 239Pu and 241Am - 3.5 × 10-7 and 5.3 × 10-7 g/(cm2∙day). As a result of the research work it was concluded that the MKP compound is promising for LRW immobilization and can become an alternative material combining the advantages of easy implementation of the technology like cementation and the high physical and chemical stability corresponding to a glass-like compound.

scholarly journals The Disposal of Radioactive Waste in Ice Sheets

1977 ◽  
Vol 19 (81) ◽  
pp. 607-617 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. Philberth
Keyword(s):  
Radioactive Waste ◽  
Ice Sheets ◽  
Ice Sheet ◽  
Climatic Changes ◽  
High Level Waste ◽  
Depth Range ◽  
The Stability ◽  
High Level ◽  
The Antarctic ◽  
Green Land

AbstractThe waste containers should be retrievable for a few centuries until further research has solved all problems and 90Sr and 137Cs have decayed to less than 0.1%. Safe and fairly cheap retrievability can be guaranteed without container mooring. The paper presents an example: The high-level waste of the whole world for the next 30 years could be put in to 3 × 107 spherical containers with 0.2 m radius and disposed of in an area with 15 km radius and a depth range of 20–100 m under the surface of either the Antarctic or the Green land ice sheet. The deposit does not affect the stability of the sheet. Even the most upsetting natural ice-sheet instabilities and/or climatic changes could not cause radioactive contamination.

Methodology of preliminary safety assessments in the site selection procedure in Germany

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wolfram Rühaak ◽  
Phillip Kreye ◽  
Eva-Maria Hoyer ◽  
Johanna Wolf ◽  
Florian Panitz ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Radioactive Waste ◽  
Site Selection ◽  
Reactive Transport ◽  
Selection Procedure ◽  
Transport Modelling ◽  
Safety Requirements ◽  
Safety Assessments ◽  
High Level ◽  
Geological Formations

<p><span>In Germany, the site selection for a repository for radioactive waste in deep geological formations was (re-) started in 2017 with the Repository Site Selection Act coming into force. The Site Selection Act envisages preliminary safety assessments as a measure to ensure the safety of a considered site.</span></p><p><span>The focus of the presentation will be the methodology of the preliminary safety assessments as it is derived from the legal requirements. In this context, the Federal Ministry for Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety published the draft of the regulation on the safety requirements for the disposal of high-level radioactive waste in summer 2019. Article 2 of this regulation contains the requirements for the implementation of preliminary safety assessments in the site selection procedure. One essential aspect is the systematical identification and characterization of uncertainties. We will discuss the key features of the handling of uncertainties in the site selection procedure, especially with regard to numerical reactive transport modelling. The German Site Selection Act is divided into several steps with increasing level of detail. The identification and quantification of uncertainties plays a major role to improve quality and plausibility in each step. Well-prepared explorations for instance, need to be addressed in a way to minimise data uncertainties. In addition, the handling of uncertainties in safety assessments on an international level is evaluated. </span></p>

Impact of Advanced Fuel Cycles on Geological Disposal

2009 ◽  
Vol 1193 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan Marivoet ◽  
Eef Weetjens
Keyword(s):  
Radioactive Waste ◽  
Cooling Time ◽  
High Level Waste ◽  
Waste Streams ◽  
Geological Disposal ◽  
Fuel Cycles ◽  
Thermal Output ◽  
Advanced Fuel ◽  
High Level ◽  
The Impact

AbstractIn recent years the increasing oil prices and the need for carbon-free energy to limit global warming have resulted in a revival of interests in nuclear energy. Advanced nuclear fuel cycles are being studied worldwide. They aim at making more efficient use of the available resources, reducing the risk of proliferation of nuclear weapons, and facilitating the management of the resulting radioactive waste. Recently, the Red-Impact project has investigated the impact of a number of representative advanced fuel cycles on radioactive waste management, and more specific on geological disposal. The thermal output of the high-level waste arising from advanced fuel cycles in which all the actinides are recycled is reduced with a factor 3 for a 50 years cooling time and with a factor 5 for a 100 years cooling time in comparison with the spent fuel arising from the once-through fuel cycle. This reduction of the thermal output allows for a significant reduction of the length of the disposal galleries and of the size of the repository. Separation of Cs and Sr drastically reduces further the thermal output of the high-level waste, but it requires a long-term management of those heat generating separated waste streams, which contain the very long-lived 135Cs. Recycling all the actinides strongly reduces the radiotoxicity in the waste, resulting in significantly lower doses to an intruder in the case of a human intrusion into the repository. However, the reduction of radiotoxicity has little impact on the main safety indicator of a geological repository, i.e. the effective dose in the case of the expected evolution scenario; for disposal in clay formations, this dose is essentially due to mobile fission and activation products. The deployment of advanced fuel cycles will necessitate the development of low activation materials for the new nuclear facilities and fuels and of specific waste matrices to condition the high-level and medium-level waste streams that will arise from the advanced reprocessing plants.

scholarly journals PREDICTION OF THE TECTONIC PROCESSES AT A SELECTED AREAS FOR DISPOSE RADIOACTIVE WASTE

2007 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 70
Author(s):  
Vladislav Morozov ◽  
Sergey Belov ◽  
Ilya Kolesnikov ◽  
Victor Tatarinov
Keyword(s):  
Radioactive Waste ◽  
Underground Water ◽  
Tectonic Block ◽  
Tectonic Processes ◽  
Time Space ◽  
Geodynamic Processes ◽  
Heated Debate ◽  
High Level ◽  
Geological Formations ◽  
Hlw Repository

The possibility of using deep geological formations to dispose of high-level radioactive waste (HLW) is a subject raising heated debate among scientists. In Russia, the idea of constructing HLW repository in the Niznekansky granitoid massif (NKM) in Krasnoyarsk area is widely discussed. To solve this problem we are elaborating a technology associated with time - space stability prediction of the geological environment, which is subject to geodynamic processes evolutionary effects. It is based on the prediction of isolation properties stability in a structural tectonic block of the Earth’s crust for a given time. The danger is in the possibility that the selected structural block may be broken by new tectonic faults or movements on a passive fault may be activated and thus underground water may penetrate to HLW containers. 

scholarly journals Tectonic Processes Modeling For High-Level Radioactive Waste Disposal

2015 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 9
Author(s):  
Vladislav Morozov ◽  
Victor Tatarinov ◽  
Ilya Kolesnikov ◽  
Alexander Kagan ◽  
Tatiana Tatarinova
Keyword(s):  
Radioactive Waste ◽  
Underground Water ◽  
Radioactive Waste Disposal ◽  
Tectonic Block ◽  
High Level Radioactive Waste ◽  
Time Space ◽  
Geodynamic Processes ◽  
Heated Debate ◽  
High Level ◽  
Geological Formations

The possibility of using deep geological formations to dispose of high-level radioactive waste (HLW) is a subject raising heated debate among scientists. In Russia, the idea of constructing HLW repository in the Niznekansky granitoid massif (NKM) in Krasnoyarsk area is widely discussed. To solve this problem we are elaborating a technology associated with time – space stability prediction of the geological environment, which is subject to geodynamic processes evolutionary effects. It is based on the prediction of isolation properties stability in a structural tectonic block of the Earth’s crust for a given time. The danger is in the possibility that the selected structural block may be broken by new tectonic faults or movements on a passive fault may be activated and thus underground water may penetrate to HLW containers.

Dry Storage of Spent Research Reactor Fuel in Castor BR3® Casks at Belgoprocess in Belgium

2001 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marnix Braeckeveldt ◽  
Luc Ooms ◽  
Gustaaf Geenen
Keyword(s):  
Radioactive Waste ◽  
Nuclear Research ◽  
High Level Waste ◽  
Spent Fuel ◽  
Fuel Rods ◽  
Dry Storage ◽  
Nuclear Site ◽  
Test Reactor ◽  
Intermediate Storage ◽  
High Level

Abstract The BR3 reactor (10.5 MWe) at the Nuclear Research Center SCK•CEN was the first PWR plant installed in Europe and has been shut down in 1987. The BR3 reactor is from 1989 in a decommissioning stage and most of the spent fuel is presently still stored in the deactivation pool of the BR3 plant and has to be evacuated. The BR3 was used as a test-reactor for new fuel types and assemblies (Mixed Oxide (MOX) fuel, fuel rods containing burnable poison (Gd2O3) and other types of fuels). Some fuel rods, having undergone a destructive analysis, are stored in different laboratories at the SCK•CEN. In total, the BR3 spent fuel comprises the equivalent of almost 200 fuel assemblies corresponding to some 5000 fuel rods. Beside the spent BR3 fuel, a limited number of spent fuel rods, with equivalent characteristics as the BR3 fuel but irradiated in research reactors outside Belgium and stored in other buildings at the SCK•CEN nuclear site, were added to the inventory of spent fuel to be evacuated. Various options such as reprocessing and intermediate storage awaiting final disposal were evaluated against criteria as available techniques, safety, waste production and overall costs. Finally the option of an AFR (away-from-reactor) intermediate dry storage of the BR3 and other spent fuel in seven CASTOR BR3® casks was adopted. As the SCK•CEN declared this spent fuel as radioactive waste, NIRAS/ONDRAF, the Belgian radioactive waste management agency became directly involved and the decision was taken to construct a small building at the Belgoprocess nuclear site for storing the CASTOR BR3® casks. Loading at the SCK•CEN followed by transport to Belgoprocess and storage is scheduled to take place at the end of 2001. The CASTOR BR3® cask weighing some 25 tonnes, consists of a monolithic body and has two independent lids with metal seals guaranteeing the long term leak-tightness of the cask. The CASTOR BR3® cask is designed for transport and the intermediate storage of at least 50 years. Although a defect of the leaktightness of a CASTOR BR3® cask is very unlikely to occur, an intervention scenario had to be developed. As no pool is present at the Belgoprocess nuclear site to unload the fuel, an innovative procedure is developed that consists of transferring the basket, containing the spent fuel, into another CASTOR BR3® cask. This operation can be performed in the hot cell of the existing storage building for high level waste at the Belgoprocess site.

Study on Performance Assessment for HLW Repository in China

2009 ◽  
Author(s):  
Weiming Chen ◽  
Ju Wang ◽  
Rui Su ◽  
Yunfeng Li
Keyword(s):  
Radioactive Waste ◽  
Performance Assessment ◽  
Assessment Model ◽  
Design Parameters ◽  
Beishan Granite ◽  
High Level Radioactive Waste ◽  
High Level ◽  
Sensitive Parameters ◽  
Beishan Area ◽  
Hlw Repository

This paper presents the latest achievements of performance assessment (PA) for high level radioactive waste (HLW) repository in China. The first PA model, taking Beishan granite site as an example, is established with GoldSim and is verified by comparison with Japanese PA model. Then the behaviors of granite repository in Beishan area are simulated. The results from these simulations show that the engineered barrier is the most important part inside the repository, especially its bentonite plays a key role in the retardation of repository after the nuclide is released from the vitrified waste. Five sensitive parameters are identified and two design parameters are optimized. As a result, it has been proved that performance assessment model is a necessary tool to understand the behaviors of repository, to identify sensitive parameters, and to optimize design parameters.

Shared, Regional Repositories: Developing a Practical Implementation Strategy

2009 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ewoud Verhoef ◽  
Charles McCombie ◽  
Neil Chapman
Keyword(s):  
Radioactive Waste ◽  
Nuclear Fuel ◽  
Basic Concept ◽  
Implementation Strategy ◽  
Spent Nuclear Fuel ◽  
Action Plan ◽  
High Level Waste ◽  
Practical Implementation ◽  
Strategic Action ◽  
High Level

The basic concept within both EC funded SAPIERR I and SAPIERR II projects (FP6) is that of one or more geological repositories developed in collaboration by two or more European countries to accept spent nuclear fuel, vitrified high-level waste and other long-lived radioactive waste from those partner countries. The SAPIERR II project (Strategic Action Plan for Implementation of Regional European Repositories) examines in detail issues that directly influence the practicability and acceptability of such facilities. This paper describes the work in the SAPIERR II project (2006–2008) on the development of a possible practical implementation strategy for shared, regional repositories in Europe and lays out the first steps in implementing that strategy.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document