Radioactive waste management in PWR technology: some technical solutions for liquid radioactive media processing systems of the “nuclear island”

Abstract

The present research is aimed at solving an urgent practical problem – to minimize the volume of the radioactive waste from nuclear power plants in the place of their generation. The modernization of the complexes for handling water streams containing radionuclides seems to be the most acceptable solution. The systems developed in the 1960s for the chemical support of the safe operation of the reactor plant and the radioactively contaminated water processing no longer meet the established requirements, primarily in terms of the volume and quality of radioactive waste subject to “eternal” isolation. The search for a reasonable compromise between the amount of waste generated during the operation of systems to ensure the safe operation of nuclear power plants and the theoretically achievable volume of radioactive waste can be considered as the current agenda. The ratio between these indicators will shift as the material and technical base of the available materials and devices is steadily improving, the base itself has significantly expanded over the past time. In this regard, the most urgent is the change in methodological approaches to the organization of chemical technological systems of NPP. First of all, this refers to the advisability of abandoning universal systems in favor of specialized ones adapted to the chemical composition of the processed “raw material”. Separate collection of liquid radioactive waters basing on the principle of chemical composition similarity will allow to use low productivity systems. In this case, local systems can be used only once. The article presents some approaches to the organization of systems capable of providing a radical reduction in the intake of ballast salts in the composition of radioactive waste.