Decommissioning of underground structures, systems and components

217 Pages·2006·2.662 MB·English

by  International Atomic Energy Agency

439
Technical Reports SeriEs No.
Decommissioning of
Underground Structures,
Systems and Components
DECOMMISSIONING OF
UNDERGROUND STRUCTURES,
SYSTEMS AND COMPONENTS
The following States are Members of the International Atomic Energy Agency:
AFGHANISTAN GREECE PANAMA
ALBANIA GUATEMALA PARAGUAY
ALGERIA HAITI PERU
ANGOLA HOLY SEE PHILIPPINES
ARGENTINA HONDURAS POLAND
ARMENIA HUNGARY PORTUGAL
AUSTRALIA ICELAND QATAR
AUSTRIA INDIA REPUBLIC OF MOLDOVA
AZERBAIJAN INDONESIA
ROMANIA
BANGLADESH IRAN, ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF
RUSSIAN FEDERATION
BELARUS IRAQ
SAUDI ARABIA
BELGIUM IRELAND
SENEGAL
BENIN ISRAEL
SERBIA AND MONTENEGRO
BOLIVIA ITALY
SEYCHELLES
BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA JAMAICA
SIERRA LEONE
BOTSWANA JAPAN
SINGAPORE
BRAZIL JORDAN
BULGARIA KAZAKHSTAN SLOVAKIA
BURKINA FASO KENYA SLOVENIA
CAMEROON KOREA, REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA
CANADA KUWAIT SPAIN
CENTRAL AFRICAN KYRGYZSTAN SRI LANKA
REPUBLIC LATVIA SUDAN
CHAD LEBANON SWEDEN
CHILE LIBERIA SWITZERLAND
CHINA LIBYAN ARAB JAMAHIRIYA SYRIAN ARAB REPUBLIC
COLOMBIA LIECHTENSTEIN TAJIKISTAN
COSTA RICA LITHUANIA THAILAND
CÔTE D’IVOIRE LUXEMBOURG THE FORMER YUGOSLAV
CROATIA MADAGASCAR REPUBLIC OF MACEDONIA
CUBA MALAYSIA TUNISIA
CYPRUS MALI TURKEY
CZECH REPUBLIC MALTA
UGANDA
DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC MARSHALL ISLANDS
UKRAINE
OF THE CONGO MAURITANIA
UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
DENMARK MAURITIUS
UNITED KINGDOM OF
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC MEXICO
GREAT BRITAIN AND
ECUADOR MONACO
NORTHERN IRELAND
EGYPT MONGOLIA
UNITED REPUBLIC
EL SALVADOR MOROCCO
OF TANZANIA
ERITREA MYANMAR
ESTONIA NAMIBIA UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
ETHIOPIA NETHERLANDS URUGUAY
FINLAND NEW ZEALAND UZBEKISTAN
FRANCE NICARAGUA VENEZUELA
GABON NIGER VIETNAM
GEORGIA NIGERIA YEMEN
GERMANY NORWAY ZAMBIA
GHANA PAKISTAN ZIMBABWE
The Agency’s Statute was approved on 23 October 1956 by the Conference on the Statute of
the IAEA held at United Nations Headquarters, New York; it entered into force on 29 July 1957.
The Headquarters of the Agency are situated in Vienna. Its principal objective is “to accelerate and
enlarge the contribution of atomic energy to peace, health and prosperity throughout the world’’.
TECHNICAL REPORTS SERIES No. 439
DECOMMISSIONING OF
UNDERGROUND STRUCTURES,
SYSTEMS AND COMPONENTS
INTERNATIONAL ATOMIC ENERGY AGENCY
VIENNA, 2006
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STI/DOC/010/439
IAEA Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Decommissioning of underground structures, systems and components. —
Vienna : International Atomic Energy Agency, 2006.
p. ; 24 cm. — (Technical reports series, ISSN 0074–1914 ; no. 439)
STI/DOC/010/439
ISBN 92–0–104405–4
Includes bibliographical references.
1. Underground nuclear power plants. — Decommissioning.
2. Underground storage tanks — Decommissioning. I. International
Atomic Energy Agency. II. Technical reports series (International
Atomic Energy Agency) ; 439.
IAEAL 06–00431
FOREWORD
A large number of operational and shut down nuclear installations have
underground systems, structures and components such as pipes, tanks or vaults.
This practice of incorporating such features into the design of nuclear facilities
has been in use for an extended period of time during which decommissioning
was not perceived as a serious issue and was rarely considered in plant design
and construction. Underground features can present formidable
decontamination and/or dismantling issues, and these are addressed in this
report. Decommissioning issues include, among others, difficulty of access, the
possible need for remotely operated technologies, leakage of the contents and
the resulting contamination of foundations and soil, as well as issues such as
problematic radiological characterization.
Although to date there have been more than 40 IAEA publications on
decommissioning, none of them has ever addressed this subject. Although
cases of decommissioning of such facilities have been described in the technical
literature, no systematic treatment of relevant decommissioning strategies and
technologies is currently available. It was perhaps assumed that generic
decontamination and dismantling approaches would also be adequate for these
‘difficult’ facilities. This may be only partly true due to a number of unique
physical, layout and radiological characteristics. With growing experience in
the decommissioning field, it is timely to address this subject in a systematic
and comprehensive fashion.
Practical guidance is given in this report on relevant decommissioning
strategies and technologies for underground features of facilities. Also
described are alternative design and construction approaches that could
facilitate a smoother path forward through the decommissioning process. The
objective of this report is to highlight important points in the decommissioning
of underground systems, structures or components for policy makers,
operators, waste managers and other parties, drawing on the collective
experience of some Member States. Following the preliminary drafting, a series
of consultants meetings was held to review and amend this report, which
included the participation of a number of international experts. The IAEA
officer responsible for this publication was M. Laraia of the Division of Nuclear
Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology.
EDITORIAL NOTE
Although great care has been taken to maintain the accuracy of information
contained in this publication, neither the IAEA nor its Member States assume any
responsibility for consequences which may arise from its use.
The use of particular designations of countries or territories does not imply any
judgement by the publisher, the IAEA, as to the legal status of such countries or territories,
of their authorities and institutions or of the delimitation of their boundaries.
The mention of names of specific companies or products (whether or not indicated
as registered) does not imply any intention to infringe proprietary rights, nor should it be
construed as an endorsement or recommendation on the part of the IAEA.
CONTENTS
1. INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.1. Purpose and scope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.2. Structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2. PAST PRACTICE VERSUS CURRENT STANDARDS . . . . . . . . 4
2.1. Relevant factors in past practice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2.2. Relevant practices in current design and construction . . . . . . 6
3. STRATEGIES AND PLANNING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
3.1. Strategy development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
3.1.1. Future use of a site. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
3.1.2. Site cleanup criteria/end state specification . . . . . . . . . . 11
3.1.3. Entombment decisions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
3.2. Detailed planning and engineering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
3.2.1. Inputs to project planning. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
3.2.2. Key engineering issues. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
3.2.3. Implementation aspects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
3.2.4. Feedback. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
3.2.5. Project baseline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
3.3. Selection of optimum decommissioning strategy . . . . . . . . . . . 22
3.4. Uncertainties in the transition from planning to execution . . . 23
4. DECOMMISSIONING EXPERIENCE AND
TECHNOLOGIES FOR UNDERGROUND PIPING . . . . . . . . . . 24
4.1. Characterization of physical,
radiological and hazardous materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
4.1.1. Geophysical characterization objectives. . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
4.1.2. Geophysical characterization techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
4.1.3. Non-destructive testing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
4.1.4. Radiological characterization. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
4.1.5. Characterizaion of hazardous constituents. . . . . . . . . . . 36
4.2. Cutting and removal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
4.2.1. Preparations for work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
4.2.2. Thermal cutting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
4.2.3. Mechanical cutting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
4.2.4. Technique evaluation and selection. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
4.3. Selected experience in dismantling of piping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
4.4. Worker protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
5. DECOMMISSIONING EXPERIENCE AND
TECHNOLOGIES FOR UNDERGROUND TANKS . . . . . . . . . . 53
5.1. Physical and radiological characterization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
5.1.1. Physical characterization. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
5.1.2. Radiological characterization. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
5.2. Dismantling techniques for underground tanks . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
5.2.1. Methods for cutting of metallic components . . . . . . . . . 59
5.2.2. Concrete structures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
5.3. Selected experience with tank waste removal projects . . . . . . . 62
5.3.1. Waste removal in the USA. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
5.3.2. Waste removal from the A-1 nuclear power plant
in Slovakia. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
5.3.3. Waste removal from Magnox power stations
in the UK. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
5.3.4. Waste removal from Garigliano nuclear power plant
in Italy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
5.4. Entombment of underground tanks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
6. SELECTED DECOMMISSIONING EXPERIENCE
FOR VAULTS AND TUNNELS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
6.1. Waste removal, decontamination and dismantling projects . . . 72
6.1.1. Energy Technology Engineering Center,
Canoga Park, California . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
6.1.2. Idaho chemical processing plant, Idaho Falls. . . . . . . . . 73
6.1.3. Fort St. Vrain nuclear power plant, Colorado . . . . . . . . 73
6.1.4. Garigliano nuclear power plant, Italy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
6.1.5. Phase separator pit, Los Alamos, New Mexico . . . . . . . 75
6.1.6. Hot cells in Building A59, Winfrith, UK. . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
6.1.7. Map Tube facility, Argonne, Illinois. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
6.1.8. Lucens experimental power reactor, Switzerland . . . . . 76
6.1.9. Vandellós 1 graphite vaults, Spain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
6.2. Vault entombment projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
7. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
REFERENCES. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
ANNEXES I–IX: EXAMPLES OF NATIONAL EXPERIENCE. . . . . . 95
ANNEX I: DECOMMISSIONING OF A SECTION OF A
DISCHARGE LINE IN BELGIUM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
ANNEX II: SITUATION OF UNDERGROUND COMPONENTS IN
THE NUCLEAR RESEARCH INSTITUTE
AT ŘEŽ, CZECH REPUBLIC. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
ANNEX III: DECOMMISSIONING AT VANDELLÓS 1
NUCLEAR POWER PLANT, SPAIN: EMBEDDED
AND UNDERGROUND COMPONENTS . . . . . . . . . . . 115
ANNEX IV: DECOMMISSIONING AND SITE RESTORATION
OF THE SWISS UNDERGROUND EXPERIMENTAL
POWER REACTOR AT LUCENS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
ANNEX V: RECENT EXPERIENCE IN DECOMMISSIONING
DRAINS AND UNDERGROUND DUCTS, UK. . . . . . 137
ANNEX VI: OPERATING EXPERIENCE WITH
DECOMMISSIONING OF UNDERGROUND
COMPONENTS, USA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
ANNEX VII: RECENT EXPERIENCE IN DECOMMISSIONING
OF UNDERGROUND TANKS AT THE JASLOVSKÉ
BOHUNICE A-1 NUCLEAR POWER PLANT,
SLOVAKIA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
ANNEX VIII: EXPERIENCE WITH UNDERGROUND PIPELINES
AND DUCTS AT THE CIRUS REACTOR, INDIA. . . 162
ANNEX IX: STRATEGY FOR DECOMMISSIONING OF
UNDERGROUND PIPES AT THE NATIONAL
INSTITUTE OF ONCOLOGY AND
RADIOBIOLOGY IN HAVANA, CUBA . . . . . . . . . . . . 171