The 12th International Conference on Environmental ... - Events

Session 48-49 Abstracts
<strong>The</strong> most common method of treatment of such waste streams is the solidification in a solid matrix with additional inactive
material like cement, polymer etc. In the past good results have been achieved and the high concentration of radioactivity can be
reduced by adding the inactive material. On the other hand, under the environment of limited space for interim storage and the
absence of a final repository site, the built-up of additional volume has to be considered as very critical. Moreover, corrosive effects
on cemented drums during long-term interim storage at the surface have raised doubts about the long-term stability of such waste
products.
<strong>The</strong> paper will discuss alternative treatment options by means of drying and compaction in order to achieve volume reduction
and high quality waste products.
8) THE INFLUENCE OF SORPTION PROPERTIES OF THE ADMIXTURE WASTE FORM
ON THE MIGRATION OF RADIONUCLIDE FROM SALIGNY REPOSITORY - 16255
Daniela Dogaru, National Commission for Nuclear Activities Control (Romania);
Ortenzia Niculae, National Agency for Radioactive Waste (Romania); Gheorghita Jinescu, Politehnica University of
Bucharest (Romania); Octavian G. Duliu, University of Bucharest (Romania); Gheorghe Dogaru, National Institute of
Reserch & Development for Physics and Nuclear Engineering-Horia Hulubei (Romania)
<strong>The</strong> paper describes the results obtained in the laboratory investigations on the mechanical and sorption properties of the
cement-based radioactive waste form containing two kinds of sludge in different concentrations. One of them simulates the sludge
obtained by treatment of liquid radioactive effluents using an anionic polyelectrolyte named PA-type, and the other one simulates
the sludge obtained by decontamination of contaminated surfaces using a hydrogel named pNaAc- type. <strong>The</strong> influence of the concentration
of sludge on the compressive as well as on bending strength of the cement-based radioactive waste forms was studied.
<strong>The</strong> sorption properties of two radionuclides were studied.
SESSION 49 - L/ILW WASTE ANALYSIS TECHNOLOGIES - PART 3 OF 3
1) RADIOLOGICAL MONITORING SYSTEMS FOR WASTE CHARACTERISATION IN THE ENVIRONMENT OF
OUR DECOMMISSIONING SOLUTIONS - 16013
Marina Sokcic-Kostic, Roland Schultheis, NUKEM Technologies GmbH (Germany)
Decommissioning and dismantling of nuclear sites is an increasing business in Europe and worldwide. New methods and
instruments are demanded to perform it effectively and economically. NUKEM Technologies has accepted this challenge and has
shown that there is a specific solution for each task.
Nukem monitoring systems include Bridge Monitors for incoming radwaste, Sorting Monitors to separate low, intermediate
and high level waste, Drum/Container Monitors mainly for outgoing waste, Monitors for Room Clearance Measurements and High
Throughput Free Release Measurement Systems. <strong>The</strong> last monitor was designed for a 100% measurement of soil or building material
with up to 50.000 kg waste throughput per hour.
2) MGAV10: THE LATEST EVOLUTION IN THE MULTI-GROUP ANALYSIS CODE - 16248
Stephen Croft, Andrey Bosko, Canberra Industries Inc. (USA); Ray Gunnink, Consulant (USA);
Sasha Philips, Joe Lamontagne, Canberra Industries Inc. (USA); Markku Koskelo, Canberra Albuquerque Inc. (USA);
Robert McElroy, Canberra Industries Inc. (USA)
At many points in the safe and transparent handling of plutonium materials the relative isotopic composition of the principle
isotopes needs to be known. Sometimes this information may be of primary interest - such as in the verification of safeguard declarations
or in the confirmation of the reactivity of mixed oxide fuel. At other times, e.g., for radioactive waste characterization, the
isotopic composition may be needed to calculate specific thermal power or specific spontaneous fission rates for the item under
study, which can subsequently be combined with calorimetric and correlated neutron counting measurements, respectively, in order
to make quantitative assessments of the mass of Pu and associated nuclides that are present in an item.
<strong>The</strong> Multi-Group Analysis code MGA is a highly regarded and widely used computer code for the analysis of high resolution
gamma ray spectra in order to extract the relative isotopic composition of plutonium for a diversity of items with minimal prior
information. It has been honed over many years to give reliable results for a broad range of measurement scenarios commonly
encountered in the fuel cycle. <strong>The</strong> nuclear industry is not dormant however and the demands on such codes continue to shift as a
combination of technology and necessity open up new application areas. For example, while MGA had its origins in the analysis
of clean spectra on product material principally for nuclear safeguards applications taken with germanium detectors having good
low-energy resolution, it is now widely applied to the characterization of drummed waste forms and the complex spectra from such
items acquired with much larger volume and poorer resolution detectors often used in such applications for the dual use of quantitative
assay of the many gamma-emitters.
This new domain of operational experience resulted in the need to enhance MGA to deal with spectra of poor statistical quality
and also to cope with some of the complications that arise in the analysis of unusual spectra. Together with some additional
changes made to incorporate feedback since the release of version 9.63 (which had minor revisions denoted by the letters A through
H) of the code this has resulted in the creation of MGA v10.
In this paper we shall outline the main changes to the code explaining why they were conceived and implemented. We illustrate
what kinds of measurement problems can now be addressed over and above the previous capabilities which have been preserved
and verified by the same set of regression tests that have been applied to previous generation of the code.
3) USE OF A WASTE TRACKING SYSTEM AS A WASTE MANAGEMENT TOOL - 16302
Karan North, Magnox South Ltd (UK)
As the Magnox Reactor Sites transitioned from electricity generation into decommissioning, the quantity, types and generation
rate of waste changed. Most of the existing waste management systems were developed to support managing operational wastes;
not those generated from decommissioning activities. Safe handling, proper onsite management and offsite disposal of waste
requires information tracking in an integrated database that is capable of providing detailed reports.
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