Euradwaste '08 - EU Bookshop - Europa

The intense development in nuclear power generation, especially as a result of the first petroleum
crisis, led to a considerable stream of radioactive waste. In practice, only operating waste resulting
from the routine operation of NPPs, including used filters and resins, residues from the treatment of
chemical effluents containing radionuclides and all common maintenance items (rags, papers, small
tools, etc.) are considered as low-level short-lived radioactive waste. Their generally recognised
threshold corresponds to the half-life of caesium 137, which is slightly over 30 years. Stabilisation
and solidification processes have been developed and implemented on most nuclear-power generating
sites in order to compact solid waste into packages, to embed ion-exchange resins into an epoxy
matrix, to produce cemented waste or to bituminise sludges. Special facilities were built for the
disposal of such waste. Hence, safety is ensured by the design itself from the very beginning of the
waste-disposal operations thanks to the cumulated effects of the respective characteristics of package
stability, their protection guaranteed by structures and facilities, as well as the control of potential
discharges by the properties of the sites, namely with regard to hydrogeology.
Rather than multiplying the number of disposal facilities and the associated safety demonstrations,
many countries have preferred a centralised approach. Power generators who dispose directly of
their own waste will have focused their investigations on the reactor sites themselves. Such is the
case of the underground repositories located in Forsmark, in Sweden, and Olkiluoto, in Finland. In
the most favourable cases, site characteristics were specified. In combination with relatively simple
structures, the overall safety functions of the repository may be fulfilled, as in the case of the
French and Spanish surface disposal facilities, located at the Centre de l’Aube and El Cabril, respectively,
as shown in Figure 2.
Figure 2: (left) The Centre de l’Aube Disposal Facility, France,
and (right) the El Cabril Disposal Facility, Spain
Since both facilities have a national vocation, they also receive short-lived radioactive waste resulting
from medical, research and industrial activities. The volume of such residues remains small and
represents slightly over 3% of all low-level short-lived waste produced in France.
A special note should also be made about new projects under construction, notably a surface disposal
facility on the Mol-Dessel Site, in Belgium, and the shallow disposal facility at Bátaapáti, in
Hungary. In both cases, the sites were selected after holding a consultation process in the vicinity
of nuclear facilities.
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