The ZWILAG Interim Storage Plasma Plant: Technology to Handle Operational Waste From Nuclear Plants

The first processing of low level radioactive wastes from Swiss nuclear power plants marks the successful completion of commissioning in March 2004 of a treatment facility for low and intermediate level radioactive wastes, which is operated with the help of plasma technology. The theoretical principles of this metallurgy-derived process technology are based on plasma technology, which has already been used for a considerable period outside of nuclear technology for the production of highly pure metal alloys and for the plasma synthesis of acetylene. The commercial operation of the Plasma Plant owned by Zwischenlager Wuerenlingen AG (ZWILAG) has also enabled this technology to be used successfully for the first time in the nuclear field, especially in compliance with radiation protection aspects. In addition to a brief presentation of the technology used in the plant, the melting process under operating conditions will be explained in more detail. The separation factors attained and volume reductions achieved open interesting perspectives for the further optimisation of the entire process in the future.