Annual Meeting of LABONET Network - International … Meeting of LABONET Network 10-12 December 2013, IAEA, Vienna Rapporteur’s Report Leo van Velzen (NRG, Netherlands) and Kapila

Annual Meeting of LABONET Network

10-12 December 2013, IAEA, Vienna

Rapporteur’s Report

Leo van Velzen (NRG, Netherlands) and Kapila Fernando (ANSTO, Australia)

Annual Meeting of LABONET Network 10-12 December 2013

Outline

– Workshop overview

– Driving forces in waste characterisation

– Some common challenges and needs

– New developments

– Emerging/new trends


Workshop overview

– 27 Participants

– 21 member states

– 4 IAEA staff

– 4 steering committee members

– 27 presentations over 2.5 days

– 2 meeting rooms


Workshop Summary

– Why to characterize? Reasons vary from “prior to

decommissioning”, demonstrating compliance, disposal

options, drum content & condition, historical waste,

QA\QC, scaling factors, ….. In total about 18 different

motivations have been given by the different participants

(for details see slides 8 – 11).


Workshop Summary

– Some challenges and needs. The member states present

in this annual meeting form a good representation of less

and more developed countries in the field of radioactive

waste characterization. This can be concluded out of the

challenges and needs extracted from the given

presentations. Examples of presented challenges and

needs are: Characterization of historical waste, bulk

materials, how to address uncertainties, how to apply key-

nuclides for different types of waste, scaling factors, etc. In

total about 36 different challenges and needs have been

presented by the different participants (for details see

slides 12 – 19).


Workshop Summary

– New developments. The presented “new developments”

by the member states are covering a wide area from

sampling to fast measurement NDA techniques based on

gamma detection but also active and passive neutron

techniques, DA techniques for radiochemical analyses and

special developments for e.g. C-14, increasing use of ICP-

MS for Tc-99, I-129, modeling, measuring the diffusion of

Cs-137 through cement barrier, etc. In total about 29 new

developments have been presented by the different

participants (for details see slides 20 – 24).


Workshop Summary

– Emerging/new trends. The presentations are also

analyzed on this topic. About 16 new trends could be

extracted from presentations of the Member states

participating in this Annual Meeting of LABONET (for

details see slides 25 – 27).


Why characterise ? (1) – Decommissioning waste (not free release)

– Decommissioning of legacy and current (nuclear) facilities –

China, Italy JRC, South Africa

– Characterization to support decommission planning – Serbia

– Prior to decommissioning in order to estimate the cost of

decontamination and decommissioning – Serbia

• Estimate the waste volumes and treatment options from

research activities (e.g. ESS) – Sweden

– Demonstrate compliance with the Safeguards requirements /

WAC / resolve anomalies in declared content of fissile

material - Italy JRC, Netherlands, South Africa


Why characterise ? (2) – Determine disposal options

–Alpha not allowed in near surface disposal facilities – China

–Free release – Australia , Korea, Sweden

–Determine compatibility with repository WAC – Korea

–Predict waste to be classified as LW/ILW – Sweden

– Determine / reconcile the fate of critical nuclides such as C-14

in waste streams – Sweden

– Drum condition visual (photo) – Netherlands

– Drum content verification by physical inspection – South Africa

– Emergency management

–Recovery of Cs-137 from steel powder and soil - Mexico


Why characterise ? (3) – Environmental management

– Recovery of liquid organic radioactive waste from soil – Mexico

– Free release of decommissioning and operational waste

– Decommissioning waste - Czech republic (JRP ENV09-

MetroRWM)

– Operational waste - Australia

– Gamma spectroscopy supporting radiochemical analyses – Canada

– Improve the knowledge of the radiological inventory of

disposal sites

– Waste retrieved from legacy trenches – Argentina, Italy

– Verify part of declaration – South Afica


Why characterise ? (4) – Reduce the volume of waste going to LILW disposal – UK

– Request of regulator for special nuclides – Hungary

– QA\QC

• Support for utilities – Korea

• Super control - France

– Scaling factors

– Determine scaling factors for characterization of bulk waste –

Korea


Some challenges and needs (1) – Characterisation and conditioning of historical waste

–Poor/lack of available information on historical waste – Italy JRC

– Characterisation of historical waste – Brazil, Italy JRC, Netherlands

– Characterising to demonstrate compliance with repository WAC

•Wide range of measurements (100 to 10 MBq/kg for Co-60) Czech

republic (JRP ENV09-MetroRWM)

•DTM nuclide activities are several orders lower than common

nuclides - Hungary

•Already conditioned in cement, so NDA gamma measurements are

difficult

•Non radiological hazardous substances – France


Some challenges and needs (2) – Determine acceptability of waste in near surface disposal

facilities - Belgium

– Environmental mobility of nuclides - Ukraine

– Exhume and characterise historical waste

–Bituminised waste - China, Italy JRC

–Solid wast – Argentina, China, Greece

–Raw waste – Netherlands, South Africa

– Estimation of total waste volumes prior of the life-time of a

facility – Sweden

– Finding standard reference drums for round robin tests that

can be used in various countries in Europe (NRG /ENTRAP)

– Hazardous chemical inventory – Korea


Some challenges and needs (3) – High throughput / handling bulk volumes under industrial

conditions

– Large volumes of free release waste need to be measured -

Australia, Czech republic, Mexico, South Africa, in general

applicable to all decommissioning projects

– How to act on anomalies (e.g. in fissile content) between

declared inventory and what is available in drums site – Italy

JRC, South Africa

– How to address uncertainties – South Africa

– How to apply key-nuclides, scaling factors – Argentina, Korea


Some challenges and needs (4) – Increase of waste characterization requirements (by

regulator)

– Increase of number of nuclides to be analyzed / declared -

Argentina

– More information expected on historical waste / post disposal

- Argentina

– Need to characterize waste immobilized in concrete - Brazil,

France, Germany

– Limited information for nuclide inventory verification on

compacted waste – Germany

– Manufacturers of instruments

• Inadequate vendor support in maintaining equipment -

Australia, Argentina, South Africa, Netherlands

• How to validate manufacturers specs - Australia


Some challenges and needs (5) – Managing conflicting priorities / interests

• Cost optimisation strategies by contractors might lead to

higher total waste management cost – Italy JRC

– MDA’s

• Minimum detectable fissile mass needs to be reduced - Italy

JRC

• How to calculate MDA’s as function of matrix - Australia

– Measurements of graphite made in the past (late 90‘s)

failed to measure Tc-99 and I-129. - Spain

– National and international acceptance and recognition of

analyzed results, performed validations, compliance – Canada, China, Czech Republic, Italy JRC


Some challenges and needs (6) – Proficiency tests – Argentina, Hungary

– Project duration e.g. >30 years – Italy JRC

– Post accident characterization of radioactive contaminated

materials – Ukraine

– Record keeping and archive – Italy JRC, Netherlands

– How to implement in a cost effective way (critical) redundancies – Australia, Netherlands

– Recovery and remediation operations need modification /

adaptation of existing characterising methods - Mexico

– Remediate or not to remediate ? – Mexico


Some challenges and needs (7) – Reporting on DTM nuclides

• DTM nuclide activities are in general several orders lower in activity

than key nuclides - Hungary

• Radiochemical methods are expensive and time consuming -

Canada, Hungary

• Methods need to be developed and implemented – Mexico

Representative sampling and sample preparation (in general) – Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Korea

– QA/QC-system (well developed) – Canada, China, Italy JRC

– Scan of large volume (bulk) waste from excavation - UK

– Training, sharing information – Argentina, Hungary, South Africa


Some challenges and needs (8) – Uncertainty on characterisation requirements

• Not to be too conservative in waste characterisation

• Lack of disposal requirements / WAC not available - Italy JRC

Ispra, Australia, Germany…..

• Guidance on clearance / validating requirements not available.

multiple standards used for clearance - Australia ,Greece, Sweden

– Understand the quantity and nature of C-14 uptake on Spent IX

resin - Sweden

– WAC: How to define “your own” WAC based on BAT – Italy JRC


New developments (1)

– Characterisation of DTM (including volatile) nuclides such as Cl-

36, Tc-99 and I-129 in Graphite – Spain

– Custom designed/built free release measurement facilities - Czech

republic

– Development of hardware – Argentina, Serbia

– Developed of own software/control systems for instruments not

supported by manufacturers - Argentina

– Diffusion of Cs-137 through cement barriers - Spain

– Expansion of summer school for D&WM - JRC Ispra

– Gamma excavation monitor – GEM & HIRAM - UK

– Improvements in active/passive neutron counting methods – China,

Italy JRC



– High energy imaging (9 Mev / 25 Mev unit) of waste encapsulated

in cement - France

– Improved radiochemical analytical methods e.g. to reduce

time/costs, interfering nuclides, homogeneity – Brazil, Canada

– New programs to characterise conditioned /legacy / waste post

disposal - Argentina

– Improvements in active/passive neutron counting methods – China,

Italy JRC

– Increasing use of ICP-MS for Tc-99 and I-129 – Canada, Spain

– Increased use of modelling and numerical techniques to predict

the volume and nuclide profile of waste – Germany, Sweden



– Increased recognition of the role of waste characterisation plan

and quality assurance in waste characterisation – JRC Ispra

– Instrument to determine fissile mass by thermal neutron induced

fission – JRC Ispra

– Liquid scintillation counters to differentiate between gammas, fast

and thermal neutrons using pulse shape discrimination - JRC Ispra

– Various measurement methods have been developed for non-

intrusive detection of some DTM’s and in-situ measurement using

custom designed/built detector systems and modelling – Serbia

– Modelling the response of detectors prior to use for identification of

activity – Serbia



– Non-intrusive characterisation system developed for historical

waste in Petten – superimpose activity over the visual image – NRG/Netherlands

– NDA gamma scanner (HIRARCHI) for segregating raw waste,

based on detected nuclide specific data, in different waste

categories according to existing WAC – NRG/Netherlands

– Optimum conditions for leaching out some isotopes from irradiated

graphite have been determined - Spain

– Reference materials for bulk free release measurement in combi

with FRMF - Czech republic

– Round robin test between ENRESA and CIEMAT – Spain

– R&D activities needed to quantify DTM’s – Spain



– Sampling tools:

• Hand sampler for homogeneous material sand, graphite – Brazil

• Dry coring sampler – France

• Hot cell cutting tool - France

– SGS-gamma system (VINISH) for waste drums up to 10 TBq Co-

60 – Netherlands

– Thermal treatment of graphite to meet WAC for LL&ILW

repositories – Spain

– Transportable neutron measuring instruments – France, JRC

– Transportable JRC passive neutron drum Monitor for 220 L drums

using 148 He-3 tubes - JRC Ispra

– 200 L drum with line sources has been developed for round robin

tests in waste characterisation tests (NRG /ENTRAP).


Emerging/new trends (1)

– Advancements in measuring fissile content through various

neutron courting methods

– Better characterisation could help to reduce the inventory

under safeguards

– Characterisation leading development of methods for remediation &

recovery operations

– Characterisation is more than just taking measurements, it involves

modelling and even investigations of the lifecycle of key isotopes

– Characterisation is interwoven with safety assessment of waste

disposal facilities



– Identification of new research programs to support decommissioning

– Innovative technologies

– Standardisation

– Training and education

– Information dissemination

– Increase of amounts of waste to characterised (in the past 3-5% now

increasing and often already requested 100%)

– Increasing interest in:

• Medium and long lived DTM nuclides (e.g. Cl-36 and I-129)

• Post accident characterization

– Large volumes of materials (e.g. coming from decommissioning)

needs to be assessed for free release – increased accuracy, low

detection limits and high throughput is sought



– Need for methods to assess chemical toxicity / hazards in waste.

– Regulatory requirements increase waste characterization

requirements, more nuclides to be analysed in historical waste –

some even after disposal

– Quality assurance and control on measurements, demonstrate

uncertainty and confidence level in measurements, procedures

etc.

– Strong interest in taking part in the waste characterisation round

robin test developed by ENTRAP.

– Support from instrument suppliers is poor outside key market

regions

– The ‘old school’ thinking that waste is a inconvenient by-product of

a useful process is slowly dissolving


Suggestions for the next meeting

– More time for round table discussion

– Combining with a technical visit

– Have it in Australia or Belgium or Italy …… ?

– Volunteer(s)?


Documents

Annual Meeting of LABONET Network - International … Meeting of LABONET Network 10-12 December 2013, IAEA, Vienna Rapporteur’s Report Leo van Velzen (NRG, Netherlands) and Kapila