What Will We Do With the Low Level Waste From Reactor Decommissioning?
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What Will We Do With the Low Level Waste From Reactor Decommissioning? Dr Adam R Meehan, Dr Stephen Wilmott, Miss Glenda Crockett and Dr Nick R Watt Magnox Electric Ltd, Berkeley Centre, Berkeley, Gloucestershire, GL13 9PB, UK. ABSTRACT The decommissioning of the UK’s Magnox reactor sites will produce large volumes of low level waste (LLW) arisings. The vast majority of this waste takes the form of concrete, building rubble and redundant plant containing relatively low levels of radioactivity. Magnox Electric Ltd (Magnox) is leading a strategic initiative funded by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) to explore opportunities for the disposal of such waste to suitably engineered facilities that might be located on or adjacent to the site of waste arising, if appropriate and subject to regulatory acceptance and stakeholder views. The strategic issues surrounding this initiative are described along with an update of progress with stakeholder consultations in relation to the proposed licensing of the first such facility at Hinkley Point A, which could be viewed as a test case for the development of similar disposal facilities at other nuclear sites in England and Wales. INTRODUCTION In March 2007 a new Government policy on the long-term management of the UK’s solid LLW was published [1]. The policy calls for waste producers to carry out comprehensive and consultative option studies into the disposal of LLW arising at their sites, including consideration of a wide range of options. In anticipation of such a non-prescriptive, high level policy being adopted, Magnox undertook a series of studies into the options for the disposal of the LLW that will arise during the first phase of clean-up at Hinkley Point A, Bradwell, Sizewell A and Dungeness A. This options assessment process included the following site-specific components: • a consultation-based ‘multi-attribute decision analysis’ (‘MADA’); • a review of all relevant local and national Government planning policies; • the collation of other issues relevant to any decision raised at a stakeholder workshop; • consideration of compatibility with preferred site end-uses; • a review of conventional (non-radiological) worker safety; • a review of international practice for LLW disposal; and • consideration of matters of proportionality i.e. the balance between risks and costs. Government policy aims, for example to reserve remaining capacity at the UK’s national LLW Repository (LLWR), as well as the NDA’s aspirations were also taken into account. This paper describes this options assessment process, along with interim outcomes, for Hinkley Point A, which is the lead site in Magnox’s programme of LLW disposal option studies. OPTIONS ASSESSMENT Multi-attribute decision analysis Given the wide range of potentially complex issues affecting the selection of a disposal route for LLW, multi-attribute decision analysis (MADA) with wide stakeholder engagement
was selected as part of the overall options assessment process. Environment Agency guidance [2] was followed to help t
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