The diverse range of long-lived radioactive wastes without significant heat output specified for deep geological disposal (here termed TRU) pose challenges that are potentially more serious than those from vitrified high-level waste and spent fuel. Despite this, the latter tend to be the focus of R&D in national programmes. Such challenges are particularly severe for the case for countries that are not considering evaporite host rocks or have a volunteering approach to siting and for those with inventories of TRU resulting from reprocessing of spent fuel. While there is little doubt that safe disposal of TRU is feasible, it is tricky to develop a convincing safety case for a site during early stages of characterisation as, compared to HLW/SF, less credit can be taken for robust, long-term performance of current designs of the engineered barrier systems. In order to improve this situation and increase flexibility with respect to host rock properties, two different options are available — improving the conditioning of particular waste streams or improving the overall repository safety concept. Although the former has been a focus for work in some countries (particularly Japan), much less effort has been invested in the latter and hence this will be illustrated by some examples. These options are compared in terms of their pros and cons with respect to practicality of implementation, environmental impact and cost. Additionally, the ease with which the resulting safety case can be supported by demonstrations of key arguments will be discussed, which may indicate the likely degree of acceptance by stakeholders.
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ASME 2010 13th International Conference on Environmental Remediation and Radioactive Waste Management
October 3–7, 2010
Tsukuba, Japan
Conference Sponsors:
- Nuclear Engineering Division and Environmental Engineering Division
ISBN:
978-0-7918-5453-2
PROCEEDINGS PAPER
Repository Engineering and Demonstration: Special Challenges for TRU
Ian G. McKinley,
Ian G. McKinley
McKinley Consulting, Baden/Da¨ttwil, Switzerland
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Hiroyasu Takase
Hiroyasu Takase
Quintessa Japan, Yokohama, Japan
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Ian G. McKinley
McKinley Consulting, Baden/Da¨ttwil, Switzerland
Hiroyasu Takase
Quintessa Japan, Yokohama, Japan
Paper No:
ICEM2010-40304, pp. 527-532; 6 pages
Published Online:
April 5, 2011
Citation
McKinley, IG, & Takase, H. "Repository Engineering and Demonstration: Special Challenges for TRU." Proceedings of the ASME 2010 13th International Conference on Environmental Remediation and Radioactive Waste Management. ASME 2010 13th International Conference on Environmental Remediation and Radioactive Waste Management, Volume 2. Tsukuba, Japan. October 3–7, 2010. pp. 527-532. ASME. https://doi.org/10.1115/ICEM2010-40304
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