DIAMOND: Decommissioning, Immobilisation And Management Of Nuclear wastes for Disposal
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Leeds
Department Name: Inst of Particle Science & Engineering
Abstract
Legacy waste treatment and disposal, as well as decommissioning and site remediation, from the last 60 years of the UK's civil nuclear program are conservatively estimated at a cost of 70B for the UK taxpayer. The diversity of issues that must be addressed in tackling this problem is immense and requires a wide range of innovative solutions drawn from an equally wide range of technology discipline areas. The proposed research program is divided into three work packages (WPs): (1) Environment, Migration and Risk; (2) Decommissioning, the Historic Legacy and Site Termination; and (3) Materials - Design, Development and Performance.WP 1: Environment, Migration and RiskCleaning up contaminated land is a substantial component of nuclear site restoration. The range of radioactive contaminants present, and the potential for mixed contamination, represents a major challenge. In particular, the potential for migration of soluble and colloidal species in the subsurface is a key uncertainty in defining site end points. Currently, most cleanup is expected to be through invasive technologies; hence, we will explore more cost-effective in situ technologies such as barrier treatment systems. Many of the uncertainties and technical challenges associated with geological disposal of immobilised radioactive wastes are critically dependent on the rate of release from the engineered facility, and on the subsequent behaviour of the radionuclides in the disturbed zone and the far field. Work Package 2: Decommissioning, the Historic Legacy and Site TerminationHeterogeneous wastes present in fuel storage and handling facilities are a key target of the consortium. These wastes comprise irradiated fuel, contaminated materials and corrosion products. Total volumes and compositions (both chemical and radioactive) are poorly known, although there are believed to be several hundred m3 in each of the main storage ponds. Improved and accurate characterisation is therefore a priority, and novel technologies for retrieval and treatment are proposed here. In addition, historical activities have created small volumes of orphan wastes for which no clear management route exists; their diversity requires new and versatile treatment methods which will be developed in this programme. We also focus on the quantification of radionuclide inventories, contaminant transport through engineered pathways and waste retrieval as areas where we can make a further contribution.Work Package 3: Materials- Design, Development and PerformanceGeological disposal has been accepted by Government as the best available approach for the long term management of UK radioactive wastes, supported by a robust programme of interim storage . The focus of research in this WP is therefore to address key knowledge gaps in the conditioning, storage and disposal of wastes in order to underpin future decision making in waste management. Research is based on three key themes, aimed at: 1) understanding the effects of radiation and radiolysis on the stability of nuclear ceramics during interim storage; 2) understanding the corrosion mechanisms of spent nuclear fuels, steel packaging and HLW glasses under conditions of storage and disposal; 3) development of new materials and processing routes with the flexibility to immobilise a spectrum of wastes, including fuel debris and graphite, in a form suitable for storage and disposal. A further aspect of this WP will be development of new synthetic routes to advanced inert matrix fuels.
Organisations
Publications
Protchenko AV
(2012)
A stable two-coordinate acyclic silylene.
in Journal of the American Chemical Society
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Ab initio study of intrinsic defects in zirconolite
in Physical Review B
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Adsorption and diffusion of strontium in simulated rock fractures quantified via ion beam analysis
in Mineralogical Magazine
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Advances in Materials Science for Environmental and Nuclear Technology
Thorpe CL
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Alkaline Fe(III) reduction by a novel alkali-tolerant Serratia sp. isolated from surface sediments close to Sellafield nuclear facility, UK.
in FEMS microbiology letters
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All-electron CASPT2 study of Ce(?8-C8H6)2
in Comptes Rendus. Chimie
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Ambient Temperature Drying Shrinkage and Cracking in Metakaolin-Based Geopolymers
in Journal of the American Ceramic Society
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(2011)
An ab initio study of the effect of charge localization on oxygen defect formation and migration energies in magnesium oxide
in Proceedings of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences
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An acoustic backscatter system for in situ concentration profiling of settling flocculated dispersions
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in Journal of Nuclear Materials
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Behaviour of radionuclides in the presence of superplasticiser
in Advances in Cement Research
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Biosensing for the environment and defence: aqueous uranyl detection using bacterial surface layer proteins.
in Sensors (Basel, Switzerland)
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Calibration of the scanning Kelvin probe force microscope under controlled environmental conditions
in Electrochimica Acta
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Charge localization on the hexa-interstitial cluster in MgO.
in Journal of physics. Condensed matter : an Institute of Physics journal
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in Dalton transactions (Cambridge, England : 2003)
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Constraints on the functional form of the critical deposition velocity in solid-liquid pipe flow at low solid volume fractions
in Chemical Engineering Science
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Continuous Flow Stirred Cell Microfiltration of Ion Exchange Media to Determine Mass Transfer Kinetics and Equilibrium Data
in Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research
Holdich R
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Continuous Membrane Emulsification with Pulsed (Oscillatory) Flow
in Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research
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Control of drying shrinkage in magnesium silicate hydrate (m-s-h) gel mortars
in Cement and Concrete Research
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(2011)
Crystallisation of a simulated borosilicate high-level waste glass produced on a full-scale vitrification line
in Journal of Non-Crystalline Solids
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Development of low pH cement systems forming magnesium silicate hydrate (M-S-H)
in Cement and Concrete Research
Hyatt N
(2011)
Diamond: A New Research Programme to Support UK Decommissioning, Immobilisation and Management of Nuclear Wastes for Disposal
in MRS Proceedings
Schmidt R
(2012)
Effects of sintering temperature on the internal barrier layer capacitor (IBLC) structure in CaCu3Ti4O12 (CCTO) ceramics
in Journal of the European Ceramic Society
Zou B
(2015)
Effects of velocity and concentration on diffusive transport in low permeability geological systems
in Applied Geochemistry