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The carbon-14 IPT: an integrated approach to geological disposal of UK wastes containing carbon-14

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

David Lever  and
Sarah Vines
David Lever*
Affiliation:
AMEC, Building 150, Thomson Avenue, Harwell Oxford, Didcot, Oxfordshire OX11 0QB, UK
Sarah Vines
Affiliation:
Radioactive Waste Management Limited, Building 587, Curie Avenue, Harwell Oxford, Didcot OX11 0RH, UK
*
*E-mail: david.lever@amec.com
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Abstract

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Carbon-14 is a key radionuclide in the assessment of the safety of a geological disposal facility because of the calculated assessment of the radiological consequences of gaseous carbon-14-bearing species. Radioactive Waste Management Limited has established an Integrated Project Team (IPT) in which partners are working together to develop an holistic approach to carbon-14 management in the disposal system. We have used an 'AND' approach to structure and prioritize our technical work. For a waste stream to be of concern, there has to be a significant inventory, AND carbon-14-bearing gas has to be generated, AND this gas has to be entrained by bulk gas, AND it has to migrate through the engineered barriers, AND it has to migrate through the overlying geological environment (either as gas or in solution), AND there have to be consequences in the biosphere. We are also using this approach to consider alternative treatment, packaging and design options.

Keywords

carbon-14geological disposalradioactive wasteIntegrated Project TeamIPT
Type
Research Article
Information
Mineralogical Magazine , Volume 79 , Issue 6 , November 2015 , pp. 1641 - 1650
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
Copyright © The Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland 2015. This is an open access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (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 2015

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