The Zwilag Plasma Facility: Five Years of Successful Operation

This paper is about a treatment facility for low level radioactive wastes that operates with plasma technology. The first processing of low-level radioactive wastes from Swiss nuclear power plants marked the successful completion of the commissioning of this facility in March 2004. This process technology is derived from metallurgy. Its theoretical principles are based on plasma technology, which has been applied for quite some time outside the field 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 Zwilag Zwischenlager Wu¨renlingen AG (Zwilag) has also enabled this technology to be used successfully for the first time in the nuclear field in a way that addresses the issue of radiation protection. In addition to a brief presentation of the technology used in the plant, the paper explains in detail how the process works under operating conditions. The plasma facility has been operating now for five years and was granted an unrestricted operating license in September 2009.