Table Of ContentRadioactive Waste Management
2014
R
&D and Innovation Needs
for Decommissioning
Nuclear Facilities
NEA
Radioactive Waste Management
R&D and Innovation Needs
for Decommissioning of Nuclear Facilities
© OECD 2014
NEA No. 7191
NUCLEAR ENERGY AGENCY
ORGANISATION FOR ECONOMIC CO-OPERATION AND DEVELOPMENT
ORGANISATION FOR ECONOMIC CO-OPERATION AND DEVELOPMENT
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NUCLEAR ENERGY AGENCY
The OECD Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) was established on 1 February 1958. Current NEA
membership consists of 31 countries: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, the Czech Republic,
Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg,
Mexico, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, the Republic of Korea, the Russian Federation,
the Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the
United States. The European Commission also takes part in the work of the Agency.
The mission of the NEA is:
– to assist its member countries in maintaining and further developing, through
international co-operation, the scientific, technological and legal bases required for a
safe, environmentally friendly and economical use of nuclear energy for peaceful
purposes;
– to provide authoritative assessments and to forge common understandings on key issues,
as input to government decisions on nuclear energy policy and to broader OECD policy
analyses in areas such as energy and sustainable development.
Specific areas of competence of the NEA include the safety and regulation of nuclear
activities, radioactive waste management, radiological protection, nuclear science, economic and
technical analyses of the nuclear fuel cycle, nuclear law and liability, and public information.
The NEA Data Bank provides nuclear data and computer program services for participating
countries. In these and related tasks, the NEA works in close collaboration with the International
Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna, with which it has a Co-operation Agreement, as well as with
other international organisations in the nuclear field.
This document and any map included herein are without prejudice to the status of or sovereignty over any territory,
to the delimitation of international frontiers and boundaries and to the name of any territory, city or area.
Corrigenda to OECD publications may be found online at: www.oecd.org/publishing/corrigenda.
© OECD 2014
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FOREWORD
Foreword
The NEA Working Party on Decommissioning and Dismantling (WPDD) brings together
senior representatives of national organisations who have a broad overview of
decommissioning and dismantling issues through their work as regulators, implementers,
research and development experts or policy makers. The WPDD reviews the current
views of NEA member countries with the goal of strengthening the overall visibility of
decommissioning, an activity that is attracting growing attention.
The current labour-intensive approach to decommissioning and dismantling suggests
that research and development (R&D) aimed at more efficient, effective decommissioning
could bring significant benefits to current and future R&D projects. However, there is
little consensus on where R&D might be best directed. Part of the difficulty in evaluating
and co-ordinating R&D efforts is the nature of the decommissioning process itself, which
tends to be sporadic and isolated.
The WPDD established the Task Group on Future R&D and Innovation Needs for
Decommissioning to provide a forum to discuss these issues among interested specialists
from NEA member countries and to report on the outcomes.
This report provides an update on the challenges of current R&D and reports on the
WPDD consensus concerning priorities for future R&D and opportunities for collaboration
among organisations and NEA member countries.
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R&D AND INNOVATION NEEDS FOR DECOMMISSIONING NUCLEAR FACILITIES, NEA No. 7191, © OECD 2014
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Acknowledgements
The WPDD wishes to express its particular gratitude to Mr Harvey Farr (Radiation Safety &
Control Services, Inc., United States) and Mr Thomas S. LaGuardia (LaGuardia &
Associates, LLC, United States) for their important contributions to the drafting of this
report.
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R&D AND INNOVATION NEEDS FOR DECOMMISSIONING NUCLEAR FACILITIES, NEA No. 7191, © OECD 2014
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Table of contents
Executive summary ........................................................................................................................9
1. Introduction ...............................................................................................................................11
Background .................................................................................................................................11
Overall scope and objectives ....................................................................................................13
Method of working .....................................................................................................................14
Structure of the report ..............................................................................................................14
Summary of common decommissioning practices ..............................................................15
Challenges for decommissioning and dismantling of nuclear facilities ...........................17
2. Characterisation and survey prior to dismantling .............................................................23
Theme overview .........................................................................................................................23
Suggested additional research and development .................................................................31
Suggested areas of future collaboration .................................................................................58
3. Technologies for segmentation and dismantling ...............................................................61
Theme overview .........................................................................................................................61
Suggested additional research and development .................................................................71
4. Decontamination and remediation .......................................................................................85
Theme overview .........................................................................................................................85
Suggested additional research and development .................................................................88
Suggested areas of future collaboration ...............................................................................136
5. Materials and waste management ......................................................................................137
Theme overview .......................................................................................................................137
Suggested additional research and development ...............................................................141
Suggested areas of future collaboration ...............................................................................186
6. Site characterisation and environmental monitoring .....................................................187
Theme overview .......................................................................................................................187
Suggested additional research and development ...............................................................193
Suggested areas of future collaboration ...............................................................................239
7. Conclusions ..............................................................................................................................241
References .....................................................................................................................................243
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
List of figures
1.1 Number of nuclear power plants in permanent shutdown ......................................12
1.2 Number of reactors in permanent shutdown as of May 2012 ..................................13
2.1 Repeated EURSSEM/MARSSIM applications of the data quality
objectives process ...........................................................................................................24
2.2 Graphical conceptualisation of the characterisation process ..................................25
2.3 Core sectioning and labelling used for United States decommissioning
facility ...............................................................................................................................36
2.4 SCS main structure and core drilling apparatus ........................................................38
2.5 SCS in retracted position and automated sampler assembly ..................................39
2.6 LRAD detection principle ...............................................................................................40
2.7 Plot of hot cell facility ratios at the Risø DTU site in Denmark ................................46
2.8 Contour maps of 241Am gamma fluence from outer surfaces of OSB NT19S ..........47
3.1 Schematic of plasma arc torch......................................................................................63
3.2 MDM cutting under a gas control hood .......................................................................65
3.3 EDM cutting......................................................................................................................65
3.4 HPAG cutter......................................................................................................................66
3.5 Circular milling cutter ....................................................................................................67
3.6 Diamond wire saw ..........................................................................................................67
3.7 Pipe milling cutter ...........................................................................................................68
3.8 Brokk attachment for pipe cutting ...............................................................................68
3.9 Rancho Seco steam generator cutting with a diamond wire saw ............................69
3.10 Brokk machine.................................................................................................................69
3.11 CEA robot Maestro with end effectors .........................................................................73
3.12 IWT pipe laser cutting and laser concrete scabbling .................................................74
3.13 West Valley, NY ARTISAN robotic arm ........................................................................75
3.14 Refurbished ROV for Hinkley Point A ...........................................................................75
3.15 Arc saw cutting head ......................................................................................................76
3.16 Arc saw in cutting configuration ..................................................................................77
3.17 Remote cutting by mobility fibre laser .........................................................................81
4.1 Heat treatment removal of 60Co in concrete constituents ........................................92
4.2 OSH 80 laser paint stripper ............................................................................................98
4.3 CleanLaser CL1000 Q-switched .....................................................................................98
4.4 Concrete floor covered with 12-year-old epoxy paint after EWI
laser stripping ..................................................................................................................99
4.5 2005 reported laboratory test results on laser cutting of concrete ........................103
4.6 Recovery of elements by water containing super critical CO into
2
polyether – OP-7 and -hydroperfluoropropionic acid ...........................................107
4.7 Bochvar Research Institute size distribution of particles produced
ώ
during cleaning of stainless steel ...............................................................................109
4.8 Trawsfynydd RDA and end effectors for tank de-sludging and clean-out ...........113
4.9 Quince being tested at disaster city rubble pile the week before the
Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant accident ...................................................117
4.10 Illustration of microbial capture from Birmingham University .............................123
4.11 Illustration of microbial calcite clogging from Birmingham University ...............124
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4.12 Functional nano-sized pore within a SAMMS™ .......................................................127
5.1 Wastes from the Windscale Pile 1 fire, often sharp-edged and metallic,
could be stored safely by polymer encapsulation ....................................................144
5.2 FBSR sodium aluminosilicate (NAS) waste form dual processing flow sheet ......150
5.3 THOR® technology for processing spent ion exchange resins...............................151
5.4 The Arvia® Titan on site at Trawsfynydd .................................................................153
5.5 Portsmouth (Ohio) depleted uranium cylinder storage yard ..................................156
5.6 Schematic of Mactec Orion ScanSort Conveyor .......................................................161
5.7 OrionScan sort layout at Plum Brook .........................................................................162
5.8 Harwood team’s ligand for binding actinides ...........................................................163
5.9 United Kingdom forecast of decommissioning LLW ...............................................167
5.10 United Kingdom forecast of decommissioning VLLW .............................................167
5.11 NaI PDA and electronics mounted on excavator boom ...........................................169
5.12 Steel plate welded in bucket creates uniform soil thickness for sodium
iodide monitoring .........................................................................................................169
5.13 Gamma detectors perform gross gamma screening of trench material ...............170
5.14 NUPEC concrete aggregate recycling ..........................................................................170
5.15 NUPEC cobalt and nickel oxidative decontamination process ...............................171
5.16 Total gamma counting chain (TGMC) ........................................................................171
5.17 Metric tonnes of graphite waste .................................................................................173
5.18 SiC/UO /graphite ...........................................................................................................175
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5.19 Application of low-pH cement to seal rock fractures ..............................................183
5.20 Legend of Taneko Eh-pH diagrams ............................................................................185
6.1 Radiation pathways during decommissioning closing and decommissioning ...187
6.2 Critical value and null hypothesis underpinning MARSSIM and EURSSEM .........195
6.3 Results of kriging estimation displayed in VSP ........................................................196
6.4 Kriging estimation and course-over-ground traces displayed in VSP ...................197
6.5 Kriging variance and course-over-ground traces displayed in VSP .......................198
6.6 Conceptual model of hydrogeologic/engineered features affecting
groundwater ..................................................................................................................199
6.7 Spatial analysis and decision assistance for subsurface modelling: 2-D ..............200
6.8 Data can also be visualised in true 3-D ......................................................................201
6.9 Graphic depiction of ASCEM prediction of contaminant fate and transport .......202
6.10 PFLOTRAN simulator depicting an unstructured hexahedral mesh .....................204
6.11 Isosurfaces of the uranium plume at the SRS F area seepage basin .....................204
6.12 137Cs concentrations in the watershed of the Chernobyl cooling pond .................206
6.13 90Sr concentrations in the watershed of the Chernobyl cooling pond ..................207
6.14 The Pioneer robot developed for Chernobyl .............................................................208
6.15 Fukushima Daiichi Unit 3 first floor reactor building results of robotic surveys ......210
6.16 Gamma camera images of Fukushima Unit 3 reactor building first floor ............211
6.17 TAO2000 controller software architecture ................................................................213
6.18 PAC robotic long-reach manipulator, 3-D control and monitoring .......................214
6.19 Long-reach snake arm PAC robot assembly view ....................................................215
6.20 Introduction in the cell and pipe avoidance during inspection .............................215
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6.21 Deposited carbon on bottom limiter of Tore Supra; laser ablation and
vacuum design ..............................................................................................................216
6.22 AIA robot inspection in Tore Supra Tokamak during air operation and
window view during operation under vacuum and at temperature .....................216
6.23 Bridge-transported bilateral servo manipulator system installed in RHEM. .......217
6.24 RecoRob robotic system as hardware and mapped virtual reality ........................218
6.25 Sensor system components installed on an Aeroscout B1-100 helicopter. ..........222
6.26 Hanford’s prototype 90Sr monitor and 99Tc pump and treat process monitor ......224
6.27 Adcon Telemetry real-time soil moisture monitoring system ...............................227
6.28 FDTAS-tritium analysis system in surface and groundwater in near
real time .........................................................................................................................227
6.29 Sol-gel indicators for process and environmental measurements ........................228
6.30 EMRAS II working groups .............................................................................................232
List of tables
2.1 Guidance documents for pre-dismantling characterisations ...................................27
2.2 241Am photons with 1% or greater yield .......................................................................47
2.3 Other activation products potentially important to waste classification ...............54
2.4 NUREG/CR-4968 comparison of nickel and cobalt ranges in reactor
internals alloys ................................................................................................................56
3.1 Guidance documents for segmentation and dismantling ........................................61
3.2 Comparison of cutting technologies ............................................................................63
4.1 Guidance documents for decontamination and remediation ..................................86
4.2 Initial feasibility assessments for gaseous centrifuge 14C separation
from off-gas .....................................................................................................................93
4.3 NEA review comparison performance of wall shaving systems ............................101
4.4 Specifications of the DetriLaser set-up ......................................................................110
5.1 Waste management issues ..........................................................................................137
5.2 Guidance documents on materials and waste management .................................139
6.1 Guidance documents for license termination surveys and modelling .................190
6.2 NAS prioritised groundwater and soil remediation research and
development gaps .........................................................................................................201
6.3 IAEA NORM study models used for hypothetical scenarios ...................................232
6.4 DCGL multiplication factors for Fukushima-related nuclides hot spots of
varying sizes ..................................................................................................................235
6.5 Numerical benchmarks proposed for protection of populations expressed
in terms of dose rate .....................................................................................................237
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