In this paper, we discuss the experiences during the construction of the first LILW disposal facility in South Korea. In December 2005, the South Korean Government designated Gyeongju-city as a host city of Low- and Intermediate-Level Radioactive Waste (LILW) disposal site through local referendums held in regions whose local governments had applied to host disposal facility in accordance with the site selection procedures. The LILW disposal facility is being constructed in Bongilri, Yangbuk-myeon, Gyeongju. The official name of the disposal facility is called ‘Wolsong Low and Intermediate Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Center (LILW Disposal Center)’. It can dispose of 800,000 drums of radioactive wastes in a site of 2,100,000 square meters. At the first stage, LILW repository of underground silo type with disposal capacity of 100,000 drums is under construction expected to be completed by June of 2014. The Wolsong Low and Intermediate Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Center consists of surface facilities and underground facilities. The surface facilities include a reception and inspection facility, an interim storage facility, a radioactive waste treatment building, and supporting facilities such as main control center, equipment & maintenance shop. The underground facilities consist of a construction tunnel for transport of construction equipment and materials, an operation tunnel for transport of radioactive waste, an entrance shaft for workers, and six silos for final disposal of radioactive waste. As of Dec. 2012, the overall project progress rate is 93.8%.

Fennovoima is Finland’s third nuclear power company founded in 2007. Fennovoima will build a new nuclear power plant, Hanhikivi 1, in Pyhäjoki municipality located in Northern Finland. Currently Fennovoima is evaluating bids from reactor suppliers. Originally two suppliers, AREVA and Toshiba Heavy Industries were invited to bid for the plant but later also a bid from Rosatom were invited. The plant supplier will be selected in 2013. Platom is a Finnish company with extensive experience in radioactive waste management. In the beginning of 2008, Platom was assigned by Fennovoima as radioactive waste management consultant and to develop radioactive waste management strategy and to support Fennovoima in negotiations with plant suppliers in waste management aspects. Since Fennovoima has started, there have been some changes to the regulatory requirements which had to be taken into account while developing the strategy. One important change is due to the Government Degree 27.11.2008/736 which establishes a new waste category of very low-level waste following international development and the “new” IAEA waste classification. Other important change was introduced by the change 342/2008 to the Nuclear Energy Act allowing some nuclear waste to be delivered to another country for treatment. These and many more requirements had to be considered when developing the strategy. Early work by Platom was mostly done to support development of application for Decision-in-Principle. This was the first important licensing step for Fennovoima. Work started with studies and plans which were used by Fennovoima to gather the know-how required to draw up the application. Descriptions of waste streams and waste management technologies were developed as well as preliminary waste inventories and studies for final disposal, including preliminary dimensioning of the repository facilities. Based on these plans nuclear regulator’s preliminary safety assessment was performed. The work was successfully completed as in 2010 the Government of Finland granted Fennovoima a permit to build a new nuclear power plant. The work continued in 2012 when bids were received for EPR and ABWR type reactors. Plans developed earlier were elaborated into a detailed strategy and the proposed waste management solutions were evaluated. This allowed feedback from the bids into the strategy and to the bid specification and they both were developed. Also waste inventories were elaborated which allowed development of reactor design specific disposal strategies. The main objective of work has been to establish basis for safe and efficient radioactive waste management which meets all the relevant national and international recommendations, requirements and regulations, takes advantage of best available and state-of-art technologies and offers fit-for-purpose solutions. All the work was performed to accommodate requirement based management system.

The “Nuclear Materials and Radioactive Waste Management Act” (NMRWMA) in Taiwan has been in use since 2002. To promote further administrative efficiency and improve regulatory capacity, an amendment of the act has been initiated by the Atomic Energy Council (AEC). It is now being reviewed by outside experts and related communities so as to include the best understanding of risk management factors. For the future decommissioning challenges of nuclear facilities, the act is also being amended to comply with the regulatory requirements of the decommissioning mandates. Currently the Taiwan government is conducting government reorganization, and AEC will be reformed but will remain as an independent regulatory body. AEC will then be capable of improving the regulatory capacity for facilitating licensing and inspection, ensuring operational safety, environmental protection and public involvement, and giving a more flexible administrative discretion, such as expending the margin of penalty. The amendment is also required to provide a formal legal basis for the Nuclear Backend Fund, and to mandate the waste producers to take responsibility for any final debt repayment. In addition, this amendment promotes measures to prevent accidents or emergencies concerning radioactive materials and facilities and procedures to reduce the impact and effect of any unexpected events. Furthermore, this amendment intends to implement the concept of information transparency and public participation so as to meet the public needs. Finally, radioactive waste final disposal tasks have to be completed by waste producers under the supervision of the AEC.

On 31 Januray 2013, ONDRAF/NIRAS, the Belgian Agency for Radioactive Waste and Enriched Fissile Materials, has introduced the construction and operation license application for the surface disposal facility for category A waste at Dessel. The objective of this paper is to present the development of this national programme. First the key milestones and their impact on the development of the project will be highlighted. This includes in particular: 1) the turning point in 1994, when ONDRAF/NIRAS converts its purely techno-scientific work method into an approach of participation that allows for societal aspects to be taken into account and 2) the decision of the government in 2006 in favour of the surface disposal of category A waste in Dessel. Then the paper presents the pillars of the long-term safety of a surface disposal and the principles for site selection and how they were applied to the surface disposal facility for category A waste at Dessel. The pillars of the long-term safety of a surface disposal are: (1) the passive confinement and isolation provided by the Engineering Barrier System, (2) the contribution to this passive isolation and confinement by the site, (3) the limitation of the radioactive source term, and (4) the control and monitoring measures.

In the United States (U.S.) the nuclear waste issue has plagued the nuclear industry for decades. Originally, spent fuel was to be reprocessed but with the threat of nuclear proliferation, spent fuel reprocessing has been eliminated, at least for now. In 1983, the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 [1] was established, authorizing development of one or more spent fuel and high-level nuclear waste geological repositories and a consolidated national storage facility, called a “Monitored Retrievable Storage” facility, that could store the spent nuclear fuel until it could be placed into the geological repository. Plans were under way to build a geological repository, Yucca Mountain, but with the decision by President Obama to terminate the development of Yucca Mountain, a consolidated national storage facility that can store spent fuel for an interim period until a new repository is established has become very important. Since reactor sites have not been able to wait for the government to come up with a storage or disposal location, spent fuel remains in wet or dry storage at each nuclear plant. The purpose of this paper is to present a concept developed to address the DOE’s goals stated above. This concept was developed over the past few months by collaboration between the DOE and industry experts that have experience in designing spent nuclear fuel facilities. The paper examines the current spent fuel storage conditions at shutdown reactor sites, operating reactor sites, and the type of storage systems (transportable versus non-transportable, welded or bolted). The concept lays out the basis for a pilot storage facility to house spent fuel from shutdown reactor sites and then how the pilot facility can be enlarged to a larger full scale consolidated interim storage facility.

In 2009, remediation was initiated for a non-operational fuel cycle facility previously used for government contract work located in Windsor, Connecticut, USA. Radiological contaminants consisted primarily of high enriched uranium (HEU). Other radionuclides encountered in relatively minor amounts in certain areas of the clean-up included Co-60, Cs-137, Ra-226, Th-232 and low enriched uranium (LEU). Between 2009 and the spring of 2011, remediation efforts were focused on demolition of contaminated buildings and removal of contaminated soil. In the late spring of 2011, the last phase of remediation commenced involving the removal of contaminated sediments from portions of a 1,200 meter long gaining stream. Planning and preparation for remediation of the stream began in 2009 with submittal of permit applications to undertake construction activities in a wetland area. The permitting process was lengthy and involved securing permits from multiple agencies. However, early and frequent communication with stakeholders played an integral role in efficiently obtaining the permit approvals. Frequent communication with stakeholders throughout the planning and remediation process also proved to be a key factor in timely completion of the project. The remediation of the stream involved the use of temporary bladder berms to divert surface water flow, water diversion piping, a sediment vacuum removal system, excavation of sediments using small front-end loaders, sediment dewatering, and waste packaging, transportation and disposal. Many safeguards were employed to protect several species of concern in the work area, water management during project activities, challenges encountered during the project, methods of Final Status Survey, and stream restoration.

The US Department of Energy Office of Environmental Management (DOE-EM) oversees one of the largest and most technically challenging cleanup programs in the world. The mission of DOE-EM is to complete the safe cleanup of the environmental legacy from five decades of nuclearweapons development and government-sponsored nuclear energy research. Since 1995, Florida International University’s Applied Research Center (FIU-ARC) has supported the DOE-EM mission and provided unique research capabilities to address some of these highly technical and difficult challenges. This partnership has allowed FIU-ARC to create a unique infrastructure that is critical for the training and mentoring of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) students and has exposed many STEM students to “hands-on” DOE-EM applied research, supervised by the scientists and engineers at ARC. As a result of this successful partnership between DOE and FIU, DOE requested FIU-ARC to create the DOE-FIU Science and Technology Workforce Development Initiative in 2007. This innovative program was established to create a “pipeline” of minority STEM students trained and mentored to enter DOE’s environmental cleanup workforce. The program was designed to help address DOE’s future workforce needs by partnering with academic, government and private companies (DOE contractors) to mentor future minority scientists and engineers in the research, development, and deployment of new technologies and processes addressing DOE’s environmental cleanup challenges. Since its inception in 2007, the program has trained and mentored 78 FIU STEM minority students. Although, the program has been in existence for only six years, a total of 75 internships have been conducted at DOE National Laboratories, DOE sites, DOE Headquarters and field offices, and DOE contractors. Over 100 DOE Fellows have participated in the Waste Management (WM) Symposia since 2008 with a total of 84 student posters and 7 oral presentations given at WM. The DOE Fellows participation at WM has resulted in three Best Student Poster Awards (WM09, WM10, and WM11) and one Best Professional Poster Award (WM09). DOE Fellows have also presented their research at ANS DD&R and ANS Robotics Topical meetings and this year two Fellows will present at the International Conference on Environmental Remediation and Radioactive Waste Management (ICEM13) in Brussels, Belgium. Moreover, several of our DOE Fellows have already obtained employment with DOE-EM, other federal agencies, DOE contractors, commercial nuclear power companies, and other STEM industry (GE, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Johnson & Johnson, Beckman-Coulter, and other top companies). This paper will discuss how DOE Fellows program is training and mentoring FIU STEM students in Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management technical challenges and research. This training and mentoring has resulted in the development of well-trained and polished young scientists and engineers that will become the future workforce in charge of carrying on DOE-EM’s environmental cleanup mission. The paper will showcase FIU’s DOE Fellows model and highlight some of the applied research the DOE Fellows have conducted at FIU’s Applied Research Center and across the DOE Complex by participating in summer internship assignments.

After the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident, Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) was chosen by the national government to conduct decontamination pilot projects at selected sites in Fukushima prefecture. Despite tight boundary conditions in terms of timescale and resources, the projects served their primary purpose to develop a knowledge base to support more effective planning and implementation of stepwise regional remediation of the evacuated zone. A range of established, modified and newly developed techniques were tested under realistic field conditions and their performance characteristics were determined. The results of the project can be summarized in terms of site characterization, cleanup and waste management. A range of options were investigated to reduce the volumes of waste produced and to ensure that decontamination water could be cleaned to the extent that it could be discharged to normal drainage. Resultant solid wastes were packaged in standard flexible containers, labelled and stored at the remediation site (temporary storage until central interim storage becomes available). The designs of such temporary storage facilities were tailored to available sites, but all designs included measures to ensure mechanical stability ( e.g. , filling void spaces between containers with sand, graded cover with soil) and prevent releases to groundwater (impermeable base and cap, gravity flow drainage including radiation monitors and catch tanks). Storage site monitoring was also needed to check that storage structures would not be perturbed by external events that could include typhoons, heavy snowfalls, freeze/thaw cycles and earthquakes.

The safe management of a country’s radioactive substances in both the short and the long term implies a cost to its present society and necessitates financial resources to cover these costs. Once they are needed, these financial resources may prove to be insufficient or even completely lacking, leading to a nuclear liability. By virtue of article 9 of the Belgian law of 12th December 1997, the Belgian Government wishes to avoid the occurrence of such nuclear liabilities. This law charges ONDRAF/NIRAS, the Belgian Agency for Radioactive Waste and Enriched Fissile Materials with the mission to draw up a register of the localisation and the state of all nuclear sites and all sites containing radioactive substances, to estimate the costs of their decommissioning and remediation, to evaluate the existence and adequacy of the provisions for financing these future or current operations and to update the resulting inventory of nuclear liabilities on a five-yearly basis. This paper outlines the methodology put in place by ONDRAF/NIRAS to accomplish this assignment and highlights some of the results of this third inventory. It then focuses on the main recommendations ONDRAF/NIRAS made to the Belgian Government on the field of avoiding potential nuclear liabilities.

For over five decades the Sellafield Site has been central to the UK’s nuclear programme. Now operated by Sellafield Ltd, under the management of Parent Body Organisation Nuclear Management Partners (NMP), a consortium of URS Washington Division, AMEC and AREVA is focussed on the decommissioning of historical facilities. When Decommissioning commenced in the late 1980’s the site focus at that time was on commercial reprocessing and waste management. Now through the implementation of a company change programme, emphasis has shifted towards accelerated risk and hazard reduction of degraded legacy plants with nuclear inventory whilst ensuring value for money for the customer, the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority. This paper will describe the management success by the Site owners in delivering a successful change programme. The paper will explain how the site has transitioned to the INPO Standard Nuclear Performance Model (SNPM) and how through the use of a change maturity matrix has contributed to the accelerated reduction in high risk high hazard nuclear facilities. The paper will explain in detail how the Decommissioning Programme Office has facilitated and coordinated the Governance and assured delivery of the change plan and how successful application of visual management has aided the communication of its progress. Finally, the paper will discuss how the Delivery Schedules have proved critical for presenting the change plan to Key Stakeholders, Government Owners and Powerful Regulators. Overall, this paper provides an insight into how a massive change programme is being managed within one of the world’s highest regulated industries.

In an era of budget cuts and declining resources, an increased need exists for government agencies to develop formal and informal partnerships. Such partnerships are a means through which government agencies can use their resources to accomplish together what they cannot accomplish on their own. Interagency partnerships may involve multiple government agencies, private contractors, national laboratories, technology developers, public representatives, and other stakeholders. Four elements of strong and healthy interagency partnerships are presented as well as three needs that must be satisfied for the partnership to last. A diagnostic tool to measure the strength of these building blocks within an existing partnership is provided. Tools, techniques, and templates to develop these fundamental elements within a new partnership or to strengthen those within an already existing partnership are presented. This includes a comprehensive template for a partnership agreement along with practical suggestions as membership, operations, and decisions-making.

The paper relates to the determination of the amount of nuclear material contained in a closed, concrete lined vault at the Aktau fast breeder reactor in Kazakhstan. This material had been disposed into the vault after examination in an experimental hot cell directly above the vault. In order to comply with IAEA Safeguards requirements it was necessary to determine the total quantities of nuclear materials — enriched uranium and plutonium — that were held with Kazakhstan. Although it was possible to determine the inventory of all of the accessible nuclear material — the quantity remaining in the vault was unknown. As part of the Global Threat Reduction Programme the UK Government funded a project to determine the inventory of these nuclear materials in this vault. This involved drilling three penetrations through the concrete lined roof of the vault; this enabled the placement of lights and a camera into the vault through two penetrations; while the third penetration enabled a lightweight manipulator arm to be introduced into the vault. This was used to provide a detailed 3D mapping of the dose rate within the vault and it also enabled the collection of samples for radionuclide analysis. The deconvolution of the 3D dose rate profile within the vault enabled the determination of the gamma emitting source distribution on the floor and walls of the vault. The samples were analysed to determine the fingerprint of those radionuclides producing the gamma dose — namely 137 Cs and 60 Co — to the nuclear materials. The combination of the dose rate source terms on the surfaces of the vault and the fingerprint then enabled the quantities of nuclear materials to be determined. The project was a major success and enabled the Kazakhstan Government to comply with IAEA Safeguards requirements. It also enabled the UK DECC Ministry to develop a technology of national (and international) use. Finally the technology was well received by IAEA Safeguards as an acceptable methodology for future studies.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Environmental Management (EM) conducts international collaboration activities in support of U.S. policies and objectives regarding the accelerated risk reduction and remediation of environmental legacy of the nations’ nuclear weapons program and government sponsored nuclear energy research. The EM International Program supported out of the EM Office of the Associate Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary pursues collaborations with foreign government organizations, educational institutions and private industry to assist in identifying technologies and promote international collaborations that leverage resources and link international experience and expertise. In fiscal year (FY) 2012, the International Program awarded eight international collaborative projects for work scope spanning waste processing, groundwater and soil remediation, deactivation and decommissioning (D&D) and nuclear materials disposition initiatives to seven foreign organizations. Additionally, the International Program’s scope and collaboration opportunities were expanded to include technical as well as non-technical areas. This paper will present an overview of the on-going tasks awarded in FY 2012 and an update of upcoming international activities and opportunities for expansion into the remainder of FY 2013 and beyond.

The Gunnar Mine and mill site was the largest of some 38 now-abandoned uranium mines that were developed and operated in Northern Saskatchewan, Canada, during the Cold War years. During their operating lifetimes these mines produced large quantities of ore and tailings. The Gunnar mine (open pit and underground) produced over 5 million tonnes of uranium ore and nearly 4.4 million tonnes of mine tailings during its operations from 1955 through 1963. An estimated 2.2 to 2.7 million m 3 of waste rock that was generated during the processing of the ore abuts the shores of Lake Athabasca, the 22 nd largest lake in the world. After closure in the 1960s, the Gunnar site was abandoned with little to no decommissioning being done. The Saskatchewan Research Council has been contracted to manage the clean-up of these abandoned northern uranium mine and mill sites. The Gunnar Mine, because of the magnitude of tailings and waste rock, is subject to an environmental site assessment process regulated by both provincial and federal governments. This process requires a detailed study of the environmental impacts that have resulted from the mining activities and an analysis of projected impacts from remediation efforts. The environmental assessment process, specific site studies, and public involvement initiatives are all now well underway. Due to the many uncertainties associated with an abandoned site, an adaptive remediation approach, utilizing a decision tree, presented within the environmental assessment documents will be used as part of the site regulatory licensing. A critical early task was dealing with major public safety hazards on the site. The site originally included many buildings that were remnants of a community of approximately 800 people who once occupied the site. These buildings, many of which contained high levels of asbestos, had to be appropriately abated and demolished. Similarly, the original mine head frame and mill site buildings, many of which still contained the original machinery and equipment, also had to be dismantled. Remediation options for the accumulated demolition debris have been assessed, as have remediation options for the waste rock and tailings, all of which form part of the environmental assessment. The regulatory requirements include the environmental assessment processes, a complex public involvement strategy, and licensing from the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) with the long-term goal of releasing the property in a remediated and stable state to the Province of Saskatchewan. Prescribed environmental and land-use endpoints will be determined based on the environmental assessment studies and remediation options analyzed and implemented. Ultimately, the site will be released into an institutional controls program that will allow long-term government management and monitoring.

In the UK the Office for Nuclear Regulation and the Environment Agency developed the Generic Design Assessment process in response to a request from the UK Government. The process allows the regulators to jointly assess new nuclear reactor designs, in advance of any site-specific proposals to build a nuclear power station. Two reactor types are currently being assessed within Generic Design Assessment: • AREVA and Electricite´ de France’s UK EPR ® ; • Westinghouse Electric Company’s AP1000 ® . This paper will present the outcome of the assessment of radioactive waste management within the Generic Design Assessment process. One aspect of particular interest is the management of spent fuel from proposed new reactors as the assessment is based on an assumption that it will be sent for disposal. Therefore the paper will specifically consider the management of spent fuel and how this affects the regulatory decisions. The paper will look at four aspects. The first of these is to give a short overview of the Generic Design Assessment process. This will be followed by a summary of the Generic Design Assessment Radioactive Waste Management assessment on the acceptability of: • The types of waste and spent fuel. • The plans for conditioning of the wastes. • The safety issues associated with short-term storage. • The safety issues associated with long-term storage. • The issues associated with the disposal of the wastes. • The safety issues associated with decommissioning the reactors. The third aspect will be to look at the work commissioned by the Office of Nuclear Regulation in support of the Generic Design Assessment of radioactive waste management and how this has affected the regulatory decisions. This work has looked at the long-term stability of spent fuel in storage and the potential faults associated with the storage and handling of the spent fuel. The paper will end with the main conclusions of the radioactive waste management assessment within Generic Design Assessment. Looking at how storage of spent fuel can affect transport, disposal and decommissioning and how work by licensees could alter these conclusions.

Ongoing experimental work has been underway at selected nuclear sites in the Russian State Atomic Energy Corporation (ROSATOM) during the past two years to determine the effectiveness, reliability, application and acceptability of high technology polymers for liquid radioactive waste solidification. The long term project is funded by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Initiatives for Proliferation Prevention (IPP) program. IPP was established in 1994 as a non-proliferation program of DOE / National Nuclear Security Administration and receives its funding each year through Congressional appropriation. The objectives of IPP are: • To engage former Soviet nuclear weapons scientists, engineers and technicians, currently or formerly involved with weapons of mass destruction, in peaceful and sustainable commercial activities. • To identify non-military, commercial applications for former Soviet institute technologies through cooperative projects among former Soviet weapons scientists, U.S. national laboratories and U.S. industry. • To create new technology sources and to provide business opportunities for U.S. companies, while offering commercial opportunities and meaningful employment for former weapons scientists. Argonne National Laboratory provides management oversight for this project. More than 60 former weapons scientists are engaged in this project. With the project moving toward its conclusion in 2012, the emphasis is now on expanding the experimental work to include the sub-sites of Seversk (SCC), Zheleznogorsk (MCC) located in Siberia and Gatchyna (KRI) and applying the polymer technology to actual problematic waste streams as well as to evaluate the prospects for new applications, beyond their current use in the nuclear waste treatment field. Work to date includes over the solidification of over 80 waste streams for the purpose of evaluating all aspects of the polymer’s effectiveness with LLW and ILW complex waste. Waste stream compositions include oil, aqueous, acidic and basic solutions with heavy metals, oil sludge, spent extractants, decontamination solutions, salt sludge, TBP and other complex waste streams. Extensive irradiation evaluation (up to 270 million rad), stability and leach studies, evaporation and absorption capacity tests and gas generation experimentation on tri-butyl phosphate (TBP) waste have been examined. The extensive evaluation of the polymer technology by the lead group, V.G. Khlopin Radium Institute, has resulted in significant discussion about its possible use within the ROSATOM network. At present the focus of work is with its application to legacy LLW and ILW waste streams that exist in a variety of sectors that include power plants, research institutes, weapons sites, submarine decommissioning and many others. As is the case in most countries, new waste treatment technologies first must be verified by the waste generator, and secondly, approved for use by the government regulators responsible for final storage. The polymer technology is the first foreign sorbent product to enter Russia for radioactive waste treatment so it must receive ROSATOM certification by undergoing irradiation, fire / safety and health / safety testing. Experimental work to date has validated the effectiveness of the polymer technology and today the project team is evaluating criteria for final acceptance of the waste form by ROSATOM. The paper will illustrate results of the various experiments that include irradiation of actual solidified samples, gas generation of irradiated samples, chemical stability (cesium leach rate) and thermal stability, oil and aqueous waste stream solidification examples, and volume reduction test data that will determine cost benefits to the waste generator. Throughout the course of this work, it is apparent that the polymer technology is selective in nature; however, it can have broad applicability to problematic waste streams. One such application is the separation and selective recovery of trans-plutonium elements and rare earth elements from standard solutions. Another application is the use of polymers at sites where radioactive liquids are accidently emitted from operations, thus causing the risk of environmental contamination.

For over five decades the Sellafield Site has been central to the UK’s nuclear programme. Sellafield Ltd is managed by NMP (Nuclear Management Partners), a consortium of URS, AMEC and AREVA and is focussed on the decommissioning of historical facilities. When the activity of Decommissioning commenced in the late 1980’s the site focus at that time was on commercial reprocessing and waste management. Now through the implementation of an integrated company change programme, emphasis has shifted towards accelerated risk and hazard reduction of degraded legacy plants with nuclear inventory whilst ensuring value for money for the customer, the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA). This paper will describe the management approach that is being taken and the planning tools that are being applied by the Site owners in delivering an integrated change programme across the Decommissioning Directorate. The paper will explain how the management approach to change uses Peer Assist, Rapid Improvement Events, Organisational Review Self Evaluation, Value Stream Analysis and Accelerated Improvement Events as improvement tools. Use of these has enabled downsizing of the organisation, driven out hundreds of man day efficiencies within the maintenance and asset management areas, improved the management of spares reducing annual costs by £1000’s, improved Commercial practices by fast tracking the preparation of invitations to tender for critical contracts, rolled back radiological control areas and enabled quicker access to the workface at a reduced cost. This paper will explain in detail how the Decommissioning Directorate Programme Office has implemented planning tools such as governance, identification of opportunities, benefit evaluation and prioritisation and sanction of the optimum improvements and how through the use of a balanced scorecard, delivery of the improvements has been measured ensuring that the targets are met. Finally, the paper will discuss how the Performance Improvement Action Plan has proved to be critical for presenting the change plan and its delivery to key stakeholders, Government owners and powerful regulators. Overall, this paper provides an insight into how a massive change programme is being managed within one of the world’s highest regulated industries.

In 2008 UK Nuclear Waste Management Ltd (UKNWM) became the Parent Body Organisation (PBO) at the Low Level Waste Repository (LLWR) in the UK. LLWR is the primary disposal facility for the UK’s LLW, supporting a wide range of industries across the nuclear power generation, reprocessing, defence, healthcare, education, and oil and gas sectors. One of the key tasks following the appointment of the new PBO was to work with the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) to develop a national strategy for LLW generated in the UK, predominantly in the NDA estate. The new National Strategy for LLW was required to address the gap between the forecast waste arisings and predicted capacity at LLWR. The National Strategy for LLW Management was published in August 2010 following an 18 month development period. The main focus of the strategy is on three areas: • Application of the waste management hierarchy to extend the life of LLWR and ensure waste is managed in a risk-based, fit-for-purpose manner; • Making best use of existing assets such as transport, packaging, treatment and disposal facilities; • Opening up new fit-for-purpose waste management routes to divert waste away from LLWR. Developing a robust strategy is vital to provide strategic direction to Government, waste producers, regulators, and stakeholders. Once the strategy is developed and approved, the key challenge is then to implement the strategy on a national scale in an efficient and cost-effective manner that delivers maximum value for money to the UK taxpayer. As well as developing the strategy, LLWR has been actively working to develop the enablers to implement the strategy. Since the publication of the strategy in August 2010 LLWR has been re-organised to reflect the shift in focus, from strategy development to implementation and delivery of the strategy. New resources have been brought in with international waste management experience to help integrate delivery with waste producers. This paper covers the changes in focus required from developing the strategy to how this is implemented. This includes the development of metal recycling, incineration, VLLW disposal, characterisation, packaging transport services. These services have been developed to allow the key aims in the strategy to be achieved, and the cultural changes that both LLWR and the customers have had to adapt to, as well as future developments in waste services.

The government of Iraq, through the Ministry of Science and Technology (MoST) is decommissioning Iraq’s former nuclear facilities. The 18 former facilities at the Al-Tuwaitha Nuclear Research Center near Baghdad include partially destroyed research reactors, a fuel fabrication facility and radioisotope production facilities. These 18 former facilities contain large numbers of silos and drums of uncharacterized radioactive waste and approximately 30 tanks that contain or did contain uncharacterized liquid radioactive wastes. Other key sites outside of Al Tuwaitha include facilities at Jesira (uranium processing and waste storage facility), Rashdiya (centrifuge facility) and Tarmiya (enrichment plant). The newly created Radioactive Waste Treatment Management Directorate (RWTMD) within MoST is responsible for Iraq’s centralized management of radioactive waste, including safe and secure disposal. In addition to being responsible for the uncharacterized wastes at Al Tuwaitha, the RWTMD will be responsible for future decommissioning wastes, approximately 900 disused sealed radioactive sources, and unknown quantities of NORM wastes from oil production in Iraq. This paper presents the challenges and progress that the RWTMD has made in setting-up a radioactive waste management program. The progress includes the establishment of a staffing structure, staff, participation in international training, rehabilitation of portions of the former Radioactive Waste Treatment Station at Al-Tuwaitha and the acquisition of equipment.

As the nuclear industry continues to grow throughout the world, we find that support from government officials, local business leaders and the general public is becoming more and more important. In order to help raise awareness and inform these various publics, AREVA expanded upon a best practice from its worldwide operations and recently established a Community Advisory Council in the United States. The member organizations represent a variety of grassroots and minority organizations from across the United States and are active in various ways in local, state and federal arenas. AREVA’s objective for the Council is simple — listen to concerns, engage in dialogue and raise awareness about the intrinsic link existing between energy, CO2 emissions, global warming, and economic growth, so these same people can make decisions when it comes to energy sources in the future. We want our members to help us better understand their communities, listen to their concerns and answer their questions openly and honestly. AREVA understands that this outreach and education are just the first steps toward helping clean energy sources grow. We must maintain regular dialog and operate in a safe manner, because in the long run, it is these community members who will ensure energy security for the country. And it is only by working together as an industry that we can ensure a safe, clean air future for generations to come, no matter where in the world we live.