A comprehensive review on decontamination of irradiated graphite waste

Determination of nuclear graphite impurities by prompt gamma activation analysis to support decommissioning operations

“…Moreover, for those i-graphite stocks that have experienced just a very low activation during reactor operation, like in nuclear research reactors, these outcomes may be exploited to demonstrate the applicability of surface decontamination processes with the purpose to declassify most of the waste inventory. [20,30] This decontamination practice would result in the loosening of regulatory control on a material otherwise considered a radioactive waste. Hence, both management costs and environmental footprint would be reduced, since a smaller amount of material would have to be disposed as a radioactive waste.…”

Single-Phase Flow Model of a Screw Reactor for Decontamination of Radioactive Graphite Waste Using Surface Gasification

“…In particular, first-generation nuclear fission reactors using graphite components as reflectors, moderators, and fuel matrixes have produced large quantities of radioactive carbonaceous waste during the process of decommissioning nuclear facilities. The radioactive graphite waste produced has been stored temporarily at the decommissioning sites, waiting for development of a reliable and safe decontamination technology for final disposal [1][2][3][4][5]. The radioactivity of graphite waste originates from the active radionuclides produced from the nuclear fission reaction and the irradiation of impurities adsorbed on the pore surfaces of the pure graphite matrix [1, [6][7][8][9][10].…”

“…Surface gasification technique is receiving attention as a potential process for separating 14 C from the pretreated graphite waste once metallic radionuclides have been removed [5,[14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22]. As mentioned earlier, with the exception of a small amount of natural generated from neutron activation of nonradioactive nitrogen by covering gas adsorbed on the surface of the graphite.…”