Nuclear Fuel Cycle & Waste Technology

Waste Technology Section

Radioactive Waste Management Information Systems

Radioactive Waste Management Registry (RWMR)

The Radioactive Waste Management Registry (RWMR) software is a computerized tool for recording and processing of information on radioactive waste management activities, tracking licensees, generators, and facilities, and providing a means for radioactive waste inventory tracking. It has been developed to assist Member States in the better implementation of their Quality Assurance (QA) programme. A brief introduction to the latest version of the RWMR software is given below.

Introduction:

The Radioactive Waste Management Registry – RWM Registry is a software application developed by the International Atomic Energy Agency to assist Member States in keeping track of and better control their own radioactive waste. RWM Registry deals primarily with the management and recording of reliable information on radioactive waste during its life cycle (i.e., from generation to disposal). It deals with solid and liquid waste and disused sealed sources. From the processing point of view, information on batching, pretreatment, treatment and conditioning is included. The system is also able to track history of waste records. The quality control of the waste product and the quality assurance programme involved are addressed. The RWM Registry is structured to allow, as much as possible, a high degree of flexibility. There is a set of customized tables to be prepared by the users according to their requirements and needs.

The RWM Registry is also a managerial tool and offers an immediate overview of the various waste management steps and needs. This facilitates planning, optimizing of resources, monitoring of related data, disseminating of information, taking actions and making decisions. The RWM Registry is structured taking into account different sizes and complexity of waste management organizations in different Member States. The output from the system could be useful as a component of the national waste management report, as requested by the Joint Convention on the Safety of Spent Fuel Management and the Safety of Radioactive Waste Management.

An integral part of a QA programme is recording of data methodically. Recorded information should be kept in a secure and durable environment for the next generations. The RWMR software facilitates the data entry and processing of entered data.

General Description:
The RWMR software is installed on top of the highly customizable web application RAIS 3.2 also developed by the IAEA. It has a comprehensive help file that can be activated at any time during any application. Being a web based application, RWMR can be installed locally or on a remote computer. It can be installed centralised for a whole country or Region and supports access restrictions for users on a Facility level. Some of its features are summarized below:

1. Initiatory steps:

RWMR needs a running installation fo RAIS based on IIS and SQL Server 2008 R2 (free version). The setup process of RWMR automatically creates a backup of the existing data and supports uninstallation. Automated data migration from the MS Access based RWMR version 2 is supported using SQL Server 2008 Enterprise edition. The System administrator is capable of setting up the software to best fit to local conditions by organizing the predetermined tables. Data security is provided by different types of privileges, which are managed by the system administrator. Each privilege owner has different level of capabilities.

2. First records:

When a radioactive material is declared as waste, first record in RWMR is created. That waste might be received from another facility or historical, which means that its origin is not known. Starting from this first record, up to its eventual disposal, all information about the applied processing steps (pre-treatment, treatment, conditioning, etc.) are recorded. All available information on each step can be tracked back, retrieved and processed at a later time.

3. Records of processing steps:

Pre-treatment (segregation, dismantling, etc.), treatment (chemical precipitation, compaction, etc.), conditioning (encapsulation, immobilization, packaging, etc.) are some of the processing steps introduced by the system. Secondary waste (might be produced during processing) is recorded and connected to actual step of the processing chain, which may contain many child and mother records. Quality parameters of materials used during processing can also be recorded.

If the waste is released from regulatory control, transferred to another facility or disposed; then the relevant waste record is archived and Closed to any further changes. Only those records, referring to waste items that are physically exist within the facility, are kept as Open records, which the users are allowed to edit.

Final waste product is either a package or Overpack, which may contain various conditioned waste. Storage locations of each final product as well as each raw waste can be recorded specifically.

4. National inventory:

The RWMR software can be used independently in different cities/institutes of a country. The data from those different origins can be combined in order to form a complete national information pool. Annother approach is to run RWMR centrally hosted and accessed remotely. Keeping all records for different facilities in on place simplifies reporting on National inventory.

5. Reports:

Numerous reports options are available in the RWMR software. They contain filtered information defined by the users. The reports can be transferred into Excel environment, where the users can further change their format, language and make statistical evaluations.

Availability:

Currently, RWMR Version 3.2 is available upon request.

Request letters should clearly indicate the following information:

1. The name and contact details of the System Administrator for the utilization of RWMR.

2. The name of organization where RWMR will be used.

Request letters should be addressed to:

International Atomic Energy Agency
Waste Technology Section
Division of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology
Department of Nuclear Energy
Wagramer Strasse 5, P.O. Box 100,
A-1400 Vienna, AUSTRIA

Contact:

All your opinions, comments and questions about RWMR software should be directed to the following e-mail address. (RWMR@iaea.org)

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