Thermal conditions of load-bearing elements of radioactive waste storage facilities

Optimization of radioactive waste storage.

In several countries, low-level radioactive wastes are treated and stored awaiting construction and operation of a final repository. In some cases, interim storage may be extended for decades requiring special attention regarding security issues. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) recommends segregation of wastes that may be exempted from interim storage or ultimate disposal. The pap...

Evaporation and Storage of Liquid Radioactive Waste

The liquid wastes produced during the processing of radioactive materials at the Savannah River Site were initially stored in large underground tanks constructed of carbon steel. These liquid wastes were generated from the Purex process (for producing plutonium) and the HM process (for producing tritium). The liquid wastes were designated as high-level wastes and lowlevel wastes. As the product...

Robotic Inspection of Nuclear Waste Storage Facilities

Introduction Safe disposal of nuclear waste is a difficult problem. Long-term plans are to house nuclear waste permanently in underground facilities. In the near-term however, nuclear waste is stored in temporary storage facilities at various sites around the country. Federal and state regulations require periodic inspection of these storage facilities to insure storage vessel integrity and ver...

Methods for the Minimization of Radioactive Waste from Decontamination and Decommissioning of Nuclear Facilities METHODS FOR THE MINIMIZATION OF RADIOACTIVE WASTE FROM DECONTAMINATION AND DECOMMISSIONING OF NUCLEAR FACILITIES

Geologic storage of radioactive waste: field studies in Sweden.

Access to a granitic rock mass in an iron ore mine in Sweden provided a unique opportunity for underground experiments related to the geologic disposal of radioactive waste. These field tests demonstrated the importance of hydrogeology and the difficulties in predicting the thermomechanical behavior of fractured granitic rocks. To characterize a site fully, measurements made from the surface mu...