Regulatory Review of Preliminary Safety Assessment for the Baˇit¸a-Bihor Repository, Romania

Abstract

In the framework of a PHARE project DBE TECHNOLOGY GmbH carried out a regulatory review of the Preliminary Safety Assessment Report (PSAR) for the near surface LILW repository Baˇit¸a-Bihor, Romania. During the review process several shortcomings of the PSAR from the regulatory point of view were identified. Main findings concerned shortcomings in regard to the operational safety, especially in the field of mining safety. Other points of criticism were connected with the post-closure part of the PSAR. From the regulatory point of view, the long-term calculations appeared to lack a sufficient level of conservatism and the necessary clarity and traceability that would be required to allow a proper evaluation of the concept used for calculating the long-term radionuclide migration and the particular results of the PSAR. Respective recommendations were drafted for the Romanian regulator about the changes that should be implemented in the next version of the Safety Assessment Report. Another focus of this project was an investigation on the potential implementation of the Hydraulic Cage Concept for Baˇit¸a-Bihor. This concept, which originally was developed by DBE TECHNOLOGY GmbH for implementation at the Richard Repository, Czech Republic, helped to decrease the potential future radiological impact for the Richard repository. As the geological situation and the condition of the waste packages are similar for the two repositories, the Hydraulic Cage Concept or some adaptation of it seemed to be an obvious choice to improve the safety of the Baˇit¸a-Bihor repository should that turn out to be necessary. During execution of the review, it became clear that without prejudging the outcome of the next version of the Safety Assessment Report it is likely that some kind of measure will be needed to reduce the potential radiological impact. According to the outcome of the project, an adapted simplified Hydraulic Cage System would be a significant improvement to limit the potential future radiological impact.