Management of metallic radioactive materials from nuclear installations decommissioning

Abstract

Basic characterization of the waste management process during decommissioning of nuclear installations is described in the presented paper. Conditional and unconditional releasing of radioactive materials into the environment (ENV) is described in detail. By conditional release, significant volumes of steel can be released and valuable space in repository can be saved as well as costs for processing of metals as radioactive waste. Metal melting as a prospective decontamination technique of radioactive scrap metal is described in detail. Metal melting provides high decontamination factors for several radionuclides. Using metal melting, significant amounts of steel can be decontaminated and released into the ENV for recycling and reuse. However, the dark side of this technology are high investment costs and high operational costs. The next chapter deals with the disposal of materials classified as radioactive wastes. In this chapter types of disposal facilities are briefly described.In the last part of this paper three scenarios related to conditional releasing of steel are described. Basic descriptions of each scenario and results for the most significant radionuclide are given.Index Terms-nuclear installation decommissioning, material release, metal melting, decontamination