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

Session 4-5 Abstracts
ing the remediation and decommissioning. Fundamental to the issues is the overriding concern of a lack of clarity and increased
liability in the regulatory structure of the grey area that is low activity radioactive wastes. This paper explores the current efforts
by the United States and <strong>International</strong> regulatory community to better define low activity radioactive waste and to provide effective
and protective waste management and disposal policies and strategies.
7) STRATEGY AND PRACTICE IN SPENT SEALED SOURCES MANAGEMENT IN BELGIUM - 16335
Vincent De pooter, NIRAS/ONDRAF (Belgium);
Marnix Braeckeveldt, David Vanleeuw, Gunter Van Zaelen, NIRAS/ONDRAF (Belgium)
Radioactive sources are used for a variety of purposes, e.g. in medical treatment and diagnosis, research applications, measurement,
testing, detection and calibration in industry, educational activities in colleges and universities etc. As part of its mission,
ONDRAF/NIRAS, the Belgian Radioactive Waste Management Agency, draws up an inventory of all radioactive substances and
nuclear installations on the Belgian territory. In recent years this inventory has been used to launch specific campaigns for the collection
of different types of radioactive sources. In addition to this, the Royal Decree of 23 May 2006 concerning the transposition
into Belgian law of the Spent High Activity Sealed Sources and the Management of Orphan Sources Directive of the EU
(2003/122/EURATOM) has led to an increase in the number of requests addressed to ONDRAF/NIRAS for the collection of these
types of radioactive waste and to an intensified collaboration between ONDRAF/NIRAS and the Belgian Safety Authority
FANC/AFCN towards an effective management of orphan sources. Specific properties of these spent sources such as their activity,
external dose rate, weight, size and/or their invalid special form certificate may complicate the transport and final treatment and
conditioning of this type of waste and that is why these operations require careful attention. An overview of the radioactive sources
already collected as radioactive waste or still present in the nuclear installations, different cases and problems encountered are presented
in this paper, as well as the waste management options adopted by ONDRAF/NIRAS to deal with this type of waste.
8) IMPROVEMENT OF THE MANAGEMENT OF INSTITUTIONAL
RADIOACTIVE WASTE IN SLOVENIA – 16092
Marija Fabjan, Agency for Radwaste Management, SI-1000 (Slovenia);
Jože Rojc, RŽV- Mine Žrovski vrh, (Slovenia); Koen Lenie, Leniko, (Belgium); Yves Niels, IRE, (Belgium);
GasperTavar, Matjaž Stepišnik, Institut “Jožef Stefan” (Slovenia)
<strong>The</strong> Central Storage Facility (CSF) in Brinje is the only storage facility for institutional radioactive waste in Slovenia.
<strong>The</strong> storage has been in operation since 1986. Since the year 1999, operation of the CSF in Brinje and managing of institutional
radioactive waste in Slovenia has been under the control of Agency for Radwaste Management (ARAO).
At the time of taking over the CSF, the waste in store was not fully characterised and in some cases the available data did not
match records and inventories. Besides this, some shielded containers and drums were degraded, which creates a potential risk of
uncontrolled spread of contamination.
In addition, in 1999 the Slovene Nuclear Safety Administration (SNSA) requested the ARAO to perform refurbishing works
in the CSF in order to reinforce and tighten the building on the one hand, and characterise and condition radioactive waste in store
on the other.
In order to improve the existing situation ARAO lunched considerable assistance and know-how transfer through training and
other technical cooperation within the IAEA and the EC projects.
In this context, several projects have been carried out in the period between 1999 and 2007.
However, these projects only addresses one third of the total inventory of radioactive waste.
In particular, the radioactive waste in the form of bulky material, which occupies a significant surface of the CSF, will not be
processed.
SESSION 5 - LLW CHARACTERIZATION, TREATMENT & PACKAGING DEVELOPMENTS - PART 1 OF 2
1) TREATMENT OF IRRADIATED CORE COMPONENTS FROM BWR
AND PWR NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS - 16043
Joerg Viermann, Joerg Radzuweit, Andreas Friske, GNS Gesellschaft fuer Nuklear-Service mbH (Germany)
During Operation of Nuclear Power Plants Components inside the reactor core are exposed to neutron radiation. Removable
Components like control rods, flow restrictor assemblies or water channels are replaced from time to time to prevent a higher activation.
<strong>The</strong>se components are then stored in the fuel pond.
For disposal the components have to be cut to size in order to fit into flasks or containers suitable for a repository. For cutting
of core components GNS operates different under water shears, one of them a combination with a 700 tonnes compactor. Over a
period of more than 20 years core components have been treated at a number of NPP (PWR as well as BWR). Since 1996 GNS has
also been operating a hot cell facility for treatment of irradiated core components as a joint venture with the Research Centre Karlsruhe.
<strong>The</strong> presentation will give an overview of the different facilities, describe the processes, experiences and lessons learned.
2) CHARACTERIZATION OF NORM SOURCES IN PETROLEUM COKE CALCINING PROCESSES - 16314
Ian Hamilton, Donald Halter, Matthew Arno, Foxfire Scientific (USA); Robert Berry, Foxfire Scientific, Inc. (UK)
Petroleum coke, or “petcoke,” is a waste by-product of the oil refining industry. <strong>The</strong> majority of petcoke consumption is in
energy applications; catalyst coke is used as refinery fuel, anode coke for electricity conduction, and marketable coke for heating
cement kilns. Roskill has predicted that long-term growth in petroleum coke production will be maintained, and may continue to
increase slightly through 2012.
Petcoke must first be calcined to drive off any undesirable petroleum by-products that would shorten the coke productlife cycle.
As an example, the calcining process can take place in large, rotary kilns heated to maximum temperatures as high as approximately
1400-1540°C. <strong>The</strong> kilns and combustion/settling chambers, as well as some cooler units, are insulated with refractory bricks and
other, interstitial materials, e.g., castable refractory materials, to improve the efficiency of the calcining process. <strong>The</strong> bricks are typ-
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