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Conference Article: Technical development of graphite waste treatment in NUPEC

S. Saishu, T. Inoue

Abstract

. In Japan, Tokai Power Station, which is Gas Cooled Reactor and is used graphite as moderator, was ceased the operation at the end of March in 1998 and it is planned to transfer to decommissioning stage. In this decommissioning stage it is very important to be able to treat and dispose the graphite waste in order to carry out the decommissioning safely and economically. NUPEC has been developing the graphite treatment and disposal technology since 1997 and we introduce the outline of the technical development. For the technology on high density packing into disposal container, the high density packing method and the assessment method on nuclide leaching characteristics were developed, and the cementing test for graphite powder by using Tokai spare graphite was performed and the hydrophobic characteristics between graphite and cement was grasped and the accelerator candidature for affinity was selected. From the view point of economical treatment, the incinerating technology was selected as candidature, and the methods for incinerating graphite and treating off gas are developed. The method of collecting C-14 in off gas was selected for reducing the off gas radiation level. The applicability of actual graphite treatment technology was considered from the view point of safety, economic and preparation of technical standard, the technical theme was appeared, the developing planning items was established, and the detailed and actual scale tests will be carried out according to the planning.

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key words: Gas Cooled Reactor, Nuclear Technology
Reference:
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, pp:85-91