Safe management of radioactive waste is challenging to waste producers and waste management organisations. Deployment of thermal treatment technologies can provide significant improvements: volume reduction, waste passivation, organics destruction, safety demonstration facilitation, etc. The EC-funded THERAMIN project enables an EU-wide strategic review and assessment of the value of thermal treatment technologies applicable to Low and Intermediate Level waste streams (ion exchange media, soft operational waste, sludges, organic waste, and liquids). THERAMIN compiles an EU-wide database of wastes, which could be treated by thermal technologies and documents available thermal technologies. Applicability and benefits of technologies to the identified waste streams will be evaluated through full-scale demonstration tests by project partners. Safety case implications will also be assessed through the study of the disposability of thermally treated waste products. This paper will communicate the strategic aims of the ongoing project and highlight some key findings and results achieved to date.
The EC THERAMIN project aimed to identify which wastes could benefit from thermal treatment, which treatment technologies are under development in participating countries, and how these could be combined to deliver a wide range of benefits. Thermal pre-treatment or immobilisation processes result in significant volume reduction, waste passivation and destruction of organic materials, which reduces risks during waste storage and supports development of safety cases for geological disposal. This paper presents the key conclusions from the project. The potential for thermal treatment of European radioactive waste streams was evaluated and a “Value Assessment” framework was developed to assist in decision making, taking into account all stages of the waste management lifecycle. An overview is given of the strategy followed in performing demonstration trials and subsequent waste product characterisation for a range of waste groups. Case studies for select demonstrator-waste group combinations provide information about these processes in greater depth, including details about the treatment technique, resulting waste product and its characterisation, and disposability implications. Finally, the key conclusions from the project are summarised.
Work Package 2 of the THERAMIN project provides a framework to support decision making on the potential use of thermal technologies to treat various radioactive wastes. To do this, a methodology based on multi-attribute decision analysis has been devised to identify the benefits of applying thermal treatment techniques to a range of radioactive waste streams. The value assessment methodology used in THERAMIN follows an attribute-based approach with the potential benefits of the treatment technology assessed against different criteria, considering performance over the whole waste management lifecycle, from pre-treatment through to final disposal. The attribute groups considered are: operational safety, environmental impact, impact on disposability/long term safety, implementation, timescale, technical readiness, and cost impact. To guide the decision maker, each attribute in split into data categories (sub-criteria) and a summary of topics to be considered under each attribute is provided. The assessment attributes have been compiled by drawing on knowledge from across the THERAMIN partner organisations to make them as comprehensive as possible. Consideration is given to the whole of the waste lifecycle and to different European regulatory contexts.
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