Waste Management and Treatment of Decommissioned Radioactive Combustible Waste

Abstract

Abstract : A large quantity of radioactive waste was generated during the decommissioning of the KRR and UCF. Theradioactive waste was packed into 200 liter drums and 4m 3 containers and these were temporarily stored onsiteuntil their final disposal in the national repository facility. Some of the releasable waste was freely released andutilized for non-nuclear industries. The combustible wastes were treated by the utilization of an incinerator witha capacity of on average 20 kg/hr. Keywords: Waste Management, Decommissioning Waste, Volume Reduction, Incineration 1. INTRODUCTION Decontamination and decommissioning (DD it also brings significantcost as it must be maintained and monitored indefinitelyin secure storage. The high cost of either disposal or storagerequires that the volume of this material be minimized. Twodecommissioning projects have been carried out due tothe retiring of nuclear research facilities such as KRR-1& KRR-2 and a uranium conversion plant (UCP).Particularly for the decommissioning of the UCP, mostof the internal components and system piping have beendismantled and the building was refurbished for reuse asanother type of experimental facility. Through the abovetwo projects, decommissioning wastes were generated,as shown in Table 1. Through the decommissioning ofthe TRIGA MARK II and UCP, more than 55 tons ofradioactive combustible waste were generated [1].Decommissioning waste can be divided into radioactivewaste and releasable waste. In the case of the KRRs, theclassification value is 0.4 Bq/g. The specific activity levelof radioactivewaste is more than 0.4 Bq/g and the specif-ic activity level of releasable waste is less than 0.4 Bq/g.A total of 295 tons of radioactive waste and 2,185 tonsof releasable waste were generated. Prompt countermea-sures should be taken to deal with combustible wastesgenerated by decommissioning projects. For the purposeof volume reduction for decommissioned combustiblewastes generated by the dismantling of retired KoreaResearch Reactors 1 & 2(KRR-1 & 2) and the uraniumconversion plant (UCP), incineration treatment technolo-gy has been selected for the treatment of metal and com-bustible wastes. Among the decommissioning waste,volume reduction of the combustible wastes throughincineration has merits from the view point of decreasein the amount of waste to be disposed of; this reductionwill result in a reduction of the disposal cost.Incinerationis generally accepted as a method of reduc-ing the volume of radioactive waste. Incineration tech-nology is an effective treatment method that containshazardous chemicals as well as radioactive contamina-tion [2]. The incinerator burns the waste at high tempera-tures. Incineration of a mixture of chemicallyhazardousand radioactive materials, known as “mixed waste,” hastwo principal goals: to reduce the volume and to reducethe total chemical toxicity of the waste. Incineration