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TCM-Manchester99: Nuclear Graphite Waste Management

IAEA Technical Committee Meeting on "Nuclear Graphite Waste Management", held from 18-20 October 1999 in Manchester, United Kingdom

International Atomic Energy Agency, Vienna (Austria), TCM-Manchester99

Abstract

Graphite and carbon have been used as a moderator and reflector of neutrons in more than one hundred nuclear power plants, mostly in the United Kingdom (Magnox and AGRs), France (UNGGs), the former USSR (RBMK), the United States of America (HTR) and Spain. In addition many experimental and plutonium production reactors also use graphite as a neutron reflector or neutron moderator. Less frequently graphite is used for manufacturing fuel sleeves and other reactor core components. Many graphite reactors are relatively old, some of them have already been shut down. Therefore, dismantling, characterization and management of radioactive graphite waste are a problem for many IAEA Member States.

Radioactive graphite management is not yet covered in IAEA publications. Only very general and limited information is available in publications dealing with decommissioning of nuclear reactors. Recognising this fact and reflecting the needs of Member States, the IAEA decided to initiate a project on characterization, treatment and conditioning of radioactive graphite from nuclear power plants. The aim is to prepare a publication dealing with all aspects of radioactive graphite waste handling, conditioning and disposal.

The most significant scientific and technical information on the subject has been collected in a few countries operating nuclear power reactors with graphite components in the reactor core. Some other countries have recently been involved in an investigation of particular problems corresponding to their specific requirements. With the aim of collecting information available in various countries and reflecting it in a technical publication, the IAEA, in association with the British Nuclear Energy Society (BNES), convened a Seminar on Nuclear Graphite Waste Management. This publication contains presentations made during the seminar as well as a summary of the participants’ discussions.

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Articles

The uncertain future for nuclear graphite disposal: Crisis or opportunity?
A.J. Wickham, G.B. Neighbour, M. Dubourg

Technical assessment of the significance of Wigner energy for disposal of graphite wastes from the Windscale piles
R.M. Guppy, J. McCarthy, S.J. Wisbey

The description of Wigner energy and its release from Windscale pile graphite for application to waste packaging and disposal
P.C. Minshall, A.J. Wickham

Heat treatment of graphite and resulting tritium emissions
J. Wörner, W. Botzem, S.D. Preston

Pyrolysis and its potential use in nuclear graphite disposal
J.B. Mason, D. Bradbury

Technical development of graphite waste treatment in NUPEC
S. Saishu, T. Inoue

Inert annealing of irradiated graphite by inductive heating
W. Botzem, J. Wörner

Study on efficient methods for removal and treatment of graphite blocks in a gas cooled reactor
S. Fujii, M. Shirakawa, T. Murakami

A German research project about applicable graphite cutting techniques
D. Holland, U. Quade, F.W. Bach, P. Wilk

Thermal strain measurements in graphite using electronic speckle pattern interferometry
S. Tamulevicius, L. Augulis, R. Augulis, V. Zabarskas, R. Levinskas, P. Poskas

Investigation of graphite column bricks of Leningrad NPP unit 3 RBMK-1000 reactor after 18 years of operation
P.A. Platonov, O.K. Chugunov, Ya.I. Shtrombakh, V.M. Alekseev, N.S. Lobanov, V.N. Manevski, V.I Karpukhin, I.F. Novobratskaya, I.A. Frolov, V.M. Semochkin, V.A. Denisov, A.V. Borodin, A.A. Kalinnikov, D.E. Furkasov, Yu.V. Garusov, M.A. Pavlov, A.N. Ananiev, A.V. Makushkin, V.N. Rogozin, V.P. Aleksandrov, V.D. Baldin

Derivation of a radionuclide inventory for irradiated graphite-chlorine-36 inventory determination
F.J. Brown, J.D. Palmer, P. Wood

Radiochemical characterisation of graphite from Jülich experimental reactor (AVR)
B. Bisplinghoff, M. Lochny, J. Fachinger, H. Brücher

Radionuclide characterization of graphite stacks from plutonium production reactors of the Siberian group of chemical enterprises
A.V. Bushuev, Yu.M. Verzilov, V.N. Zubarev, A.E. Kachanovsky, I.M. Proshin, E.V. Petrova, T.B. Aleeva, A.A. Samarkin, B.G. Silin, A.M. Dmitriev, E.V. Zakharova, S.I. Ushakov, I.I. Baranov, Yu.I. Kabanov, E.N. Kolobova A.G. Nikolaev

Investigation of morphology and impurity of nuclear-grade graphite, and leaching mechanism of carbon-14
R. Takahashi, M. Toyahara, S. Maruki, H. Ueda, T. Yamamoto

Management of UKAEA graphite liabilities
M. Wise

Radioactive graphite management at UK Magnox nuclear power stations
G. Holt