Waste Technology Section

Waste Predisposal


Transferring technologies for the predisposal of radioactive waste

Responsible Officer : Zoran DRACE

Predisposal management of radioactive waste includes several organizational and technical components, such as waste collection, waste segregation and characterization, selection of appropriate treatment and conditioning options to meet acceptance criteria for waste transportation, storage and disposal. This includes also consideration of quality requirements at all processing stages and quality assurance for the final waste product. Important consideration for appropriate technology selection is the identification of waste characteristics, capacities and limitations of particular techniques and quality requirements for waste product. These considerations should be taken into account to develop and maintain an integrated and efficient waste management (waste processing) system.

Within this project, four reports are close to the publishing stage.

One report deals with management of low and intermediate level radioactive wastes with regards to their chemical toxicity. Treatment, conditioning and disposal of this waste focuses primarily on potential hazards caused by radioactivity. However, in addition to the radioactivity, such waste may consist of chemical compounds with high toxicity, which may be relatively unstable or may persist with time. Growing attention is given, therefore, to potential hazards of chemically toxic compounds and elements contained in such radioactive waste. This requires efforts to harmonize safety concepts and particular technical solutions for radioactivity and chemical toxicity, which historically have been developed rather independently, and to establish appropriate waste management systems, which consider both chemical and radioactive toxicity present in waste.

The objective of this report is to provide Member States with reasonable understanding of the potential for chemically toxic components in radioactive waste and the role that waste treatment and conditioning options can play in supporting safe waste disposal. By bringing these issues to the attention of the radioactive waste management community at this time, this technical report should contribute to improve efforts of Member States in their operation and regulation of waste management facilities. Based on the present practices of Member States the report, therefore, intends to identify the nature of chemical toxicity contained in radioactive waste, discuss technical options, performance requirements and regulatory aspects in dealing with the chemical toxicity, and present current technical information on applicable waste processing and disposal technologies.

Another report under preparation addresses planning, organizational and management aspects for waste containing carbon-14 (14C) and tritium (3H). These radioisotopes are produced as by-product isotopes by all nuclear reactor systems. Because of their long half-life, high isotopic exchange rate and the ease of assimilation into living matter, the release of carbon-14 and tritium may pose a health hazard to both present and future generations, although the associated risk is relatively small compared to other risks. One common property of these isotopes is that both are difficult to assay, since they are weak beta-emitters and do not emit gamma radiation. Another common property is that neither of these isotopes is present in wastes in a sufficiently reproducible manner to allow their concentrations to be derived from non-destructive assay measurements.

The consequence of these factors and other specific properties of carbon-14 and tritium requires these isotopes to be considered as problematic isotopes in radioactive waste management. Specific consideration is needed for management of radioactive wastes containing these isotopes, and also specific regulatory concern when establishing release requirements and waste disposal acceptance criteria for waste containing these particular radioisotopes.

The objective of this report is to review and analyse the existing information on organizational principles and technical options for management of radioactive wastes and effluents containing carbon-14 and tritium, including waste collection, separation, treatment, conditioning, storage and/or disposal. This objective is achieved by reviewing different sources and characteristics of waste streams containing the concerned radioisotopes, and by analyzing of methods for processing, storage, and/or disposal of these wastes, both well proven and at the advanced stage of development.

The third report addresses integrated approach in radioactive waste management. As any multistage process, management of radioactive waste requires careful consideration and application of all necessary steps and related components. The scale a complexity of the waste management programme is defined by the inventory and characteristics of radioactive waste production. From another hand, the implementation of waste management objectives, namely to ensure current and long term safety for operational personal, the public and the environment is defined by the existing regulations, technology selection and appropriate implementation of all components of the waste management system.

Practical application of the internationally accepted principles and standards in establishing an effective waste management system requires an integrated approach, e.g. logical and preferably optimised strategy used in the planning and implementation of waste management programme as a whole from waste generation to waste disposal. Systematic interpretation of these principles and considerations of appropriate technologies would serve as a powerful mechanism for identifying, developing and operating an effective and comprehensive waste management system. The purpose of this report is to provide Member States, their decision makers and operators with information relating to development of such a system, to underline its important components and their interdependencies and to illustrate the general idea of integration in waste management by particular examples from existing practices in Member States.

Much information is currently available about a number of waste management technologies, processes and their technical alternative designs. Selection among these technologies and processes can be done based on a technical preference or experience or following an optimisation procedure. Because of the costs involved and necessity to assure appropriate performance, selection of waste processing technologies in countries with limited amounts of waste generation should be adequate to amount and characteristics of this waste. In many cases sophisticated technologies are not necessary and are not affordable in countries with limiter waste production. In this case rather simple, robust and reliable technologies might be applied to reach required and sufficient level of safety and appropriate level of efficiency. Recognizing the importance of this subject for many developing Member States the IAEA initiated preparation of the report on selection of efficient options for processing and storage of radioactive waste in countries with limited waste generation. The report recommends some practical measures for establishing legal, organizational and technical structures and capabilities for processing and storage of radioactive waste from different nuclear applications, which should be adequate to the scale and characteristics of waste generated and would correspond to modern performance and safety requirements.

More reports are initiated in 2003 including reports on

In a Technical Co-operation area several national and regional projects are implemented on predisposal management of radioactive waste both from nuclear energy sector and from different nuclear applications in medicine, industry and research.