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Development of nuclear criticality safety controls on intermediate-level waste packages

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 July 2018

T. W. Hicks ,
P. Wood ,
D. Putley  and
T. D. Baldwin
T. W. Hicks
Affiliation:
Galson Sciences Limited, 5 Grosvenor House, Melton Road, Oakham, Rutland LE15 6AX, UK
P. Wood
Affiliation:
NDA Radioactive Waste Management Directorate, Building 587, Curie Avenue, Harwell, Didcot, Oxfordshire OX11 ORH, UK
D. Putley
Affiliation:
Serco Technical Consulting Services, Thomson House, Warrington, Cheshire WA3 6GA, UK
T. D. Baldwin
Affiliation:
Galson Sciences Limited, 5 Grosvenor House, Melton Road, Oakham, Rutland LE15 6AX, UK
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Abstract

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Intermediate-level wastes (ILW) include substantial quantities of fissile material and controls are required to ensure that its storage, transport and disposal does not present a nuclear criticality hazard. This paper describes the Radioactive Waste Management Directorate's research to develop package fissile material limits (in the form of screening levels) for four different categories of ILW, defined according to uranium or plutonium composition: (1) irradiated natural and slightly enriched uranium (uranium containing up to 1.9 wt.% 235U); (2) low-enriched uranium (uranium containing up to 4 wt.% 235U); (3) high-enriched uranium (uranium containing up to 100 wt.% 235U); and (4) separated plutonium (plutonium containing up to 100 wt.% 239Pu).

The derivation of package screening levels was supported by neutron transport calculations that addressed conditions during waste package transport to a geological disposal facility (GDF), during the GDF operational phase and after GDF closure. The analysis included consideration of combinations of events and processes that could result in fissile material accumulation and concentration after GDF closure, when waste packages have deteriorated sufficiently for fissile material to be mobilized. The results of the calculations have provided input to Radioactive Waste Management Directorate's decision making on setting waste package screening levels.

Keywords

Ilw packagescriticality hazard
Type
Research Article
Information
Mineralogical Magazine , Volume 76 , Issue 8 , December 2012 , pp. 2949 - 2956
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
© [2012] The Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
Copyright © The Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland 2012

References

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