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Conference Article: Graphite waste incineration in a fluidized bed

Abstract

French gas-cooled reactors belonging to the Atomic Energy Commission (CEA), Electricite de France (EDF), Hifrensa (Spain), etc., commissioned between the 1950s and 1970s, have generated large quantities of graphite wastes, mainly in the form of spent fuel sleeves. Furthermore, some of these reactors scheduled for dismantling in the near future (such as the G2 and G3 reactors at Marcoule) have cores consisting of graphite blocks. Consequently, a fraction of the contaminated graphite, amounting to 6000 t in France for example, must be processed in the coming years. For this processing, incineration using a circulating fluidized bed combustor has been selected as a possible solution and validated. However, the first operation to be performed involves recovering this graphite waste, and particularly, first of all, the spent fuel sleeves that were stored in silos during the years of reactor operation. Subsequent to the final shutdown of the Spanish gas-cooled reactor unit, Vandellos 1, the operating utility Hifrensa awarded contracts to a Framatome Iberica SA/ENSA consortium for removing, sorting, and prepackaging of the waste stored in three silos on the Vandellos site, essentially graphite sleeves. On the other hand, a program to validate the Framatome fluidized bed incineration process was carried out using a prototype incinerator installed at Le Creusot, France. The validation program included 22 twelve-hour tests and one 120-hour test. Particular attention was paid to the safety aspects of this project. During the performance of the validation program, a preliminary safety assessment was carried out. An impact assessment was performed with the help of the French Institute for Protection and Nuclear Safety, taking into account the preliminary spectra supplied by the CEA and EDF, and the activities of the radionuclides susceptible of being released into the atmosphere during the incineration.

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Reference:

Specialists meeting on graphite moderator lifecycle behaviour. Bath (United Kingdom). 24-27 Sep 1995.

International Atomic Energy Agency, Vienna (Austria)

IAEA-TECDOC--901, pp:193-203