Industry challenges in waste and decommissioning Developing the civil nuclear supply chain Rheged Brokering Event: 12 th February 2014
Target areas for technology and processes R&D Topics Site restoration Waste Management Spent Fuels Nuclear materials Infrastructure Characterisation Waste conditioning Characterisation Characterisation Characterisation POCO Activities Waste packaging On going storage of fuel Conditioning wastes Condition Monitoring Decontamination Waste storage Fuel conditioning and storage Storage Maintenance and restoration Retrieval of materials Characterisation Condition monitoring Potential future use or disposal Decommissioning Sort and segregation Land and Buildings
Focus for the Future
Active Demonstrators in Decommissioning Some tanks and flasks found across the site have no record of use or contents 2 such tanks, 6 to 8 metres tall are housed in the first generation plant buildings in areas where access is straightforward. Are there any techniques available to measure and characterise contents? How do we deploy?
Areas of interest - Decontamination techniques Low volume clean up techniques Biological enzymes, etc Nano bubbles, kinetically active chemical systems Deployment remote access Chemical, physical processes
Remote decommissioning How to agitate remotely How to characterise the cell, the tank, its contents, progress during treatment The contents are a mix of solid and liquid. So are the solids mobile or set, How to decontaminate Finally do all this in cell either minimum radiation dose of 100Sv plus Cooling coils HAST vessel Jet ballast vessel
Treatment of nuclear wastes Many different waste forms need processing, so our needs are simple processes passive products volume reduction wide process envelope Applications across spectrum of ILW and LLW
Monitoring waste drum and packaging We store a variety of containers of waste including 200L and 500L drums of alpha bearing PCM (ILW) and both 500L drums and 3m 3 boxes of beta/gamma ILW. These have high radiation fields and so human intervention is to be avoided How can we remotely monitor drum integrity, identify at risk or failed waste packages?
Assessment of corrosion within pipe walls We see pitting corrosion within pipe wall in heat exchanger. We need to detect and monitor before pits break through the inner surface of the tube wall. The defects do not have sharp edges, but are "fuzzy", Photo is taken inside a tube and shows pitting which has broken through to the inside. We are looking for detector to be remotely deployed by lowering down inside tubes, via a camera inspection port at the top of the vessel.
Plant monitoring and characterisation Remote deployment of inspection tools and techniques into pipe work and vessels corrosion studies Field deployable characterisation techniques for waste Radiation hot spots in high radiation fields Testing for chemicals in high radiation areas
Aerial monitoring During decommissioning, demolition or an incident there is the risk of release of aerial contamination. How can we deploy simple monitoring equipment in say large buildings during decommissioning, or around a building during demolition or an incident? How would you deploy from a safe distance 10 sor 100 s metres? Alpha, beta and gamma detection in drones Can we deploy outside facilities if we have a release, what about miniature drones to measure radioactivity and act in swarms around the cloud to provide visual distribution of cloud
Innovation in Manufacturing Sellafield Ltd is engaged with the Nuclear Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC) to examine innovations in manufacturing to help drive increased productivity, improved quality and cost reduction. Projects currently under discussion: Innovative manufacturing techniques for large numbers of high quality stainless steel waste containers and boxes in a timely and cost effective manner Optimisation of manufacturing techniques for enhanced surface decontamination
Achievements of projects from TRL2/3 to 4/5 and beyond through previous TSB work Sellafield supported projects Viridian - Development of sampling tool for laser ablation ICP-MS Ceram - Geopolymers Costain and Tetronics - Concept waste treatment plant using plasma vitrification Laser cutting and deployment technology Leeds University and MMI sludge studies settlers and thickners Other nuclear partners in nuclear sector EDF National Nuclear Laboratory Rolls Royce
Enablers and this list is by no means exhaustive Technology Demonstration Alliance working with NNL and DCF on R&D implementation Innovus to support technology transfer Nuclear AMRC has expertise in design, advanced machining, welding, cladding, metrology, NDE, robotics and casting National Nuclear Laboratory, National Physical Laboratory and others to support delivery and integration of technology in the nuclear sector British Energy Coast and other comparable local enterprises around the UK who support commercial and social development in local areas
Concluding remarks The NDA SLCs have a lifetime plan dedicated to the clean up and remediation of the sites. This will require the deployment of a range of processes and technologies across a range of activities. These include: Characterisation Decommissioning Waste treatment Waste packaging and storage Land quality Management of plutonium Disposal