Large Transport Containers for Decommissioning Waste

Summary

A study has been made of the types of large transport container which will be needed for bulky radioactive wastes which result from the decommissioning of nuclear power stations. The work was focussed on the wastes which arise from light water and gas-cooled reactors. Five reference power plants typical of those in the European Community were selected and their associated inventories of neutron activated and contaminated components were assessed. Details of more than 100 existing containers have been compiled and evaluated against a set of generic criteria. The factors affecting transport by road, rail and waterway, including National Legislation, Codes of Practice and International Agreements have been examined for their impact on the design of large containers. Transport costs have been estimated using information representative of Belgium and the United Kingdom. The work has led to the formulation of conceptual designs of Type Band Low Level Solids/Low Specific Activity containers. Such containers were then assumed to be transported from a reactor to a notional repository so that the health impact to the public could be assessed. As a result of the study recommendations are made for the next 5 year programme of the CEC.