inventory based on the characteristics and data presented in the previous chapters. Due to the lack of quantified and verifiable data this assessment is uncertain.
5.1 Fuel
No assessment of packaged fuel has been made in this reports since that is the subject matter of other reports within the project. Instead, the results from Chapter 4 is reproduced here.
The amount of waste and its nuclide inventory is presented in Table 5-1.
As discussed in Section 4.3 this estimate is a conservative overestimate.
Table 5-1
Assessment of nuclide inventory in stored spent fuel.
Nuclide Activity stored JEEP2 fuel (5.4 tonnes*) Activity stored HBWR fuel (10.9 tonnes*)
Sr-90 1.01E+16 3.62E+16
* Note that this is a conservative overestimate since older spent fuel has a significantly lower burn-up than newer spent fuel.
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As long as the reactors continue operations comparable to that of the past, the inventory assessment will increase annually according to Table 5-2 below.
Table 5-2
Annual nuclide inventory addition from spent fuel.
Nuclide Annually generated nuclide inventory JEEP2
5.2 Other stored wastes
Since no package database has been received for this waste stream, it is assumed that the waste, excluding solidified uranium from URA, is evenly distributed on the packages according to their mass distribution. This simplification is made since the density varies between the materials.
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However, since it may also reasonably be assumed that the depleted uranium is in a more bulky form, its bulk density may be similar to that of the natural and enriched uranium. For these reasons, it is assumed that shielding from industry/medical is packaged in 50 small containers, while the waste from manufacturing is in 450 small containers.
The data is presented in Table 5-3 below. It is not known if, and if so, how, the smaller containers will be packaged at disposal. For these reasons the number of drum equivalents is not given here.
Table 5-3
Package specific activity for other stored waste.
Shielding from industry/medical
Solidified U from URA
From waste manufacturing Package type Small containers Drums Small containers
Number of packages 50 21 450
Number of drum eq. N/A 21 N/A
Activity per package (Bq/package)
U-234 1.7E+07 6.9E+08 1.4E+08
U-235 1.3E+06 3.3E+07 6.0E+06
U-238 1.0E+08 6.9E+08 7.2E+07
Th-232 0.0E+00 0.0E+00 5.0E+05
5.3 Operational waste
Operational wastes consists of waste forms generated during normal operation of Norwegian waste generating facilities and operations.
5.3.1 IFE waste
Due to the lack of data regarding nuclide contents on a package specific level, a coarse method to estimate such an inventory has been made. This is mainly based on the total annual reported generation rates of HBWR and NMAT.
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From [D065] it is possible to estimate the fraction of activity that is present in ion exchange resin since both the annual produced volume as well as the HBWR annual nuclide inventory is known. By matching the specific activity to that reported for the decommissioning ion exchange resin, it can be concluded that approximately 90 % of the annual HBWR nuclide inventory may be assumed to be in this stream.
While circumstantial, examinations of transport documentation on a non-statistical sample has indicated that concrete boxes from HBWR contain an activity inventory in the range of 50−100 GBq, Steel boxes one to a few GBq, and general waste drums 20−100 MBq.
The nuclides on which the above values are based (Cr-51, Co-58, Co-60, Nb-95, Cs-137, Ce-144) do not match those reported in the annual HBWR inventory. It is still possible to use these approximate values for the nuclides that are reported. H-3, however, is excluded in the
correlation due to its dominant activity level while at the same time not being reported in the transport data.
If the higher end of the above ranges are combined with the annual inventory from HBWR in table 4-1, it can be concluded that if ~10 % of the nuclide inventory is assumed to contaminate wastes in concrete boxes, ~1 % in steel boxes, ~0.25 % in drums, respectively, the result is an activity concentration in the correct range for all waste streams.
The above leads to a general assessment that the annual activity inventory from HBWR is distributed approximately according to table 5-4 below.
Table 5-4
Assumptions for the assessment of HBWR waste.
Waste stream Fraction of annual generated
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Since no waste stream specific data have been gathered regarding
NMAT-waste, the same specific activity per waste stream is assumed for similar waste packages (unshielded drums, concrete boxes and steel boxes) from NMAT. In addition, however, the NMAT-specific inventory from Table 4-1 is assumed to be added to the concrete boxes.
Table 5-5
Assumptions for the assessment of NMAT waste.
Waste stream Method to
determine activity
Concrete boxes Specific activity as HBWR concrete boxes + NMAT-specific activity
0,5 1
Steel boxes Specific activity as HBWR steel boxes
0,5 2
Drums Specific activity as
HBWR drums 18/3
(pre-/post-treatment) 18/3 (pre-/post-treatment)
The above assessment leaves approximately 5 drum equivalents of NMAT waste as well as approximately 15 drum equivalents of other IFE waste in order to reach the full 80 drum equivalents produced per year by IFE. For these waste drums, the remaining annual IFE generated activity is assumed to be evenly distributed. It should be noted that many such drums are likely to contain only specific sealed sources, perhaps even of only a single nuclide. Due to the lack of data all remaining activity is, however,
assumed to be evenly distributed.
The resulting distribution on IFE waste is presented in Table 5-6 below.
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Table 5-6
Package specific activity for IFE waste streams.
Waste stream HBWR
IXR
Activity per package (Bq/package)
H-3 3.7E+11 6.1E+10 9.1E+09 6.5E+08 6.1E+10 9.1E+09 6.5E+08 2.3E+10 4.4E+12
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5.3.2 Operational waste from external producers
As noted in Section 3.4 it is assessed that approximately 100 drums of external waste is generated in Norway each year. Due to the lack of data for specific waste packages in this stream, the full annual nuclide
inventory from external producers in Table 4-1 is assumed to be evenly distributed on these drums. It should, however, be noted that many such drums are likely to contain only specific sealed sources, perhaps even of only a single nuclide. Due to the lack of data all activity is, however, assumed to be evenly distributed. This data is presented in Table 5-7 below.
Table 5-7
Package specific activity for external waste streams.
Waste stream External waste in drums No. of packages/y 100
No. of drum equivalents/y 100
Activity per package(Bq/package)
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5.4 Decommissioning waste
5.4.1 HBWR decommissioning waste
Information on both the decommissioning nuclide inventory as well as the expected amount of packages have been given in Tables 3-7 and 4-2.
It is, however, noted that these two tables do not contain a mutual categorization. For this reason, the approach presented in Table 5-8 is used in determining the inventory per package.
Table 5-8
Approach to determine package specific HBWR decommissioning waste activity.
Primary systems Concrete box 418 836
Control rods
Bioshield Concrete waste Concrete box 476 952
Exp. circuit Experimental loops
This does leave some waste where the categories of the activity inventory (Table 3-7) and the packaging inventory (Table 4-2) cannot easily be connected. This amounts to 926 drum equivalent which are assumed to be distributed evenly on concrete boxes (230) as well as steel boxes (115) and are assumed to be contaminated similarly to the corresponding package types in the operational waste.
The above leads to an assessment as given in Table 5-9 below.
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Table 5-9
Nuclide inventory for HBWR decommissioning waste packages.
Activity per package (Bq/package)
H-3 0.0E+00 0.0E+00 0.0E+00 1.1E+04 0.0E+00 2.5E+11 6.1E+10 9.1E+09
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5.4.2 Jeep-II decommissioning waste
Distributing the activity from Table 4-3 on the waste in Table 3-8 gives a package specific inventory as presented in Table 5-10 below.
Table 5-10
Activity per package for JEEP-II decommissioning waste.
Activated metal
Activated concrete
Contaminated metal
Other wastes
Package type Concrete box Concrete box Steel box Steel box
No packages 20 365 16.25 8.75
No drum eq. 40 730 65 35
Activity per package (Bq/package)
Co-60 1.50E+11 1.64E+09 6.15E+08 1.14E+08
Eu-152 0.00E+00 4.11E+09 0.00E+00 0.00E+00
5.4.3 Fuel lab decommissioning waste
Using data in [D059] results in a package specific inventory as given in Table 5-11 below.
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Table 5-11
Activity per package for fuel lab decommissioning waste.
Package type Drum (A1) Drum (A2) Drum (A3) Drum (B) after
Activity per package (Bq/package)
Co-60 7.68E+08 3.84E+08 1.15E+08 3.84E+07 3.86E+06 2.30E+08 2.30E+08 3.84E+07
5.4.4 Radwaste building decommissioning waste
Using data in [D064] results in a package specific inventory as given in Table 5-12 below.
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Table 5-12
Activity per package for Radwaste building decommissioning waste (Bq/package).
Building/Room Package Ionebytteranlegg Steel box 30.25 121 1.70E+08 6.68E+08 0.00E+00
Forbrennings-anlegg N/A N/A 0 0.00E+00 0.00E+00 0.00E+00
Lab 107 Steel box 2.5 10 4.00E+05 4.00E+04 4.00E+05
Lab 106 N/A N/A 0 0.00E+00 0.00E+00 0.00E+00
Note: Some streams have several types of packages, but for simplicity it has been assumed that each stream is only packaged into one type as above.
5.5 Prognosis for future waste arisings 5.5.1 Fuel
In Figure 5-1, the amount of existing fuel together with the expected waste arising (125 kg/y) is presented. It should be noted that while highly unlikely, the prognosis uses this waste arising number for a time period of 100 years.
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Figure 5-1
Existing and prognosis for Norwegian nuclear fuel inventory.
5.5.2 Other waste
In Figure 5-2, a prognosis for non-fuel waste is given. It should be noted that the waste amount is relative to year 2013, i.e. waste disposed before 2013 is not included, but is discounted in the available volume at
Himdalen.
It is also of interest to note that if future decommissioning waste is taken into consideration, the current repository at Himdalen does not have enough free volume to dispose the full waste volume, not even at the present date. The deficiency increases each year as additional operational waste is generated.
0 5000 10000 15000 20000 25000 30000 35000
2014 2024 2034 2044 2054 2064 2074 2084 2094 2104 2114
Mass of fuel (kg)
Year