Thermal Treatment of Historical Radioactive Solid and Liquid Waste Into the CILVA Incinerator

Since the very beginning of the nuclear activities in Belgium, the incineration of radioactive waste was chosen as a suitable technique for achieving an optimal volume reduction of the produced waste quantities. Based on the 35 years experience gained by the operation of the old incinerator, a new industrial incineration plant started nuclear operation in May 1995, as a part of the Belgian Centralized Treatment/Conditioning Facility named CILVA. Up to the end of 2006, the CILVA incinerator has burnt 1660 tonne of solid waste and 419 tonne of liquid waste. This paper describes the type and allowable radioactivity of the waste, the incineration process, heat recovery and the air pollution control devices. Special attention is given to the treatment of several hundreds of tonne historical waste from former reprocessing activities such as alpha suspected solid waste, aqueous and organic liquid waste and spent ion exchange resins. The capacity, volume reduction, chemical and radiological emissions are also evaluated. BELGOPROCESS, a company set up in 1984 at Dessel (Belgium) where a number of nuclear facilities were already installed is specialized in the processing of radioactive waste. It is a subsidiary of ONDRAF/NIRAS, the Belgian Nuclear Waste Management Agency. According to its mission statement, the activities of BELGOPROCESS focus on three areas: treatment, conditioning and interim storage of radioactive waste; decommissioning of shut-down nuclear facilities and cleaning of contaminated buildings and land; operating of storage sites for conditioned radioactive waste.