Radioactive Waste and Nuclear Spent Fuel Management
Objectives:
- Research & development programs for radioactive waste management and spent fuel, including disposal;
- Research programs for environmental impact assessment of radioactive waste and spent fuel storage and disposal;
- Accounting of all radioactive waste inventory in the management process, in order to ensure an appropriate radiological security for professional exposed workers, population and environment;
- Research for continual improvement of nuclear and radiological security performances in the field of radioactive waste and spent fuel storage and disposal.
Research perspectives:
- Development of treatment and conditioning technologies for all radioactive waste generated in the nuclear fuel cycle and from other nuclear applications;
- Characterization of the radioactive waste generated during Cernavoda Nuclear Power Plant operation and stored at the intermediate storage facility;
- Design, build and testing of the spent fuel storage and transfer cask;
- Preliminary safety assessment and design of the low and intermediate level radioactive waste disposal facility;
- Conceptual design of spent fuel final disposal facility;
- Long term behavior of the spent fuel under disposal conditions;
- Researches for treatment and conditioning of spent sealed radioactive sources for final disposal.
Main results of research:
- Technologies for radioactive waste treatment and conditioning:
- Treatment technology of beta-gamma active liquid effluents resulted from the TRIGA reactor through evaporation and conditioning of the yielded concentrate for final disposal;
- Treatment technology of liquid wastes contaminated with natural uranium, with recovery of uranium and reutilization in the nuclear fuel manufacturing cycle;
- Treatment and conditioning technology for spent ion exchangers at the TRIGA reactor (pilot-plant scale);
- Technology for treatment of liquid radioactive waste from decontamination center of Cernavoda NPP;
- Treatment and conditioning technology of 14C gaseous radioactive waste from Cernavoda NPP;
- Treatment and conditioning technology of spent ion exchangers contaminated with 14C resulted from Cernavoda NPP operation;
- Treatment and conditioning technology of organic liquid wastes (oils, solvents and scintillation cocktail) from Cernavoda NPP;
- Conditioning technology for spent sealed radioactive sources.
- Sampling equipment and systems:
- Portable equipment for tritium sampling by air bubbling;
- Equipment for continuous sampling of radioactive aerosols, tritium and radioiodine, type CAS-1;
- Equipment for continuous sampling of SO2 and H2S, type CAS-GP;
- Equipment for continuous monitoring of tritium concentration from NPP liquid effluents;
- Portable equipment for 3H and 14C sampling in Cernavoda NPP rooms, „bubbler” type;
- Radiometer for determination of the alpha sources activity with zinc (silver) sulphide scintillator;
- Equipment for alpha contamination assessment of Cernavoda NPP fuel.
Contact: CS I Ion V. POPESCU;
e-mail: ion.popescu@nuclear.ro
Last update: 22.04.2010 |
