Thermal treatment for radioactive waste minimisation

Matti Nieminen (1) , Markus Olin (1) , Jaana Laatikainen-Luntama (1) , Stephen Wickham , Slimane Doudou , Adam Fuller , Jenny Kent , Maxime Fournier (2) , Sean Clarke , Charlie Scales , Neil Hyatt (3) , Sam Walling (3) , Laura Gardner (3) , Stephane Catherin (4) , Benjamin Frasca (4)

1 VTT - VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland
2 DPME - Département de recherche sur les Procédés et Matériaux pour les Environnements complexes
3 University of Sheffield [Sheffield]
4 ANDRA - Agence Nationale pour la Gestion des Déchets Radioactifs

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.

Domaines: Physique Nucléaire Expérimentale [nucl-ex]

Matti Nieminen, Markus Olin, Jaana Laatikainen-Luntama, Stephen Wickham, Slimane Doudou, et al.. Thermal treatment for radioactive waste minimisation. EPJ N - Nuclear Sciences & Technologies, 2020, 6, pp.25. ⟨10.1051/epjn/2019040⟩. ⟨cea-03237503⟩