Integrated Waste Plan for Chalk River Laboratories

Abstract

The core missions for Chalk River Laboratories (CRL) will involve a complex suite of activities for decades to come, many of these activities resulting in production of some amount of wastes. In order to support the business of the Nuclear Laboratories there is a requirement to responsibly manage the wastes arising from these activities. Capability to develop waste stream pathway scenarios and be able to make informed strategic decisions regarding the various options for waste processing, storage and long-term management (i.e. "enabling facilities") is necessary to discharge this responsibility in the most cost effective and sustainable manner. A holistic waste management plan integrated with the decommissioning, environmental remediation and operations programs is the desired result such that:

• Waste inputs and timings are identified;
• Timing of key decisions regarding enabling facilities is clearly identified;
• and A defensible decision-making framework for enabling facilities is established, thereby ensuring value for Canadians.

The quantities of wastes that require managing as part of the Nuclear Legacy Liabilities Program and AECL operations activities is in the range of 200,000 to 300,000 m³, with a yearly increase of several thousand m³. This volume can be classified into over thirty distinct waste streams having differing life cycle waste management pathways from generation to disposition. The time phasing of the waste management activities required for these wastes spans several decades and involves a complex array of processes and facilities. Several factors typical of wastes from the development of nuclear technology further complicate the situation. For example, there is considerable variation in the level of detail and format of waste records generated over several decades. Also, wastes were put into storage over several decades without knowledge or consideration of what the final disposition path will be.

Prior to proceeding with any major new-build project of waste management facilities, options assessment and feasibility studies are required to demonstrate a defensible justification of selected options. Recent experience with this "pre-project" process when applied to waste management is mixed. The reason for this is that the map of waste stream pathways from generation to disposition is not yet clear, and the time-phased inventories of wastes driving the business need for each facility have a high level of uncertainty. Recognizing there are gaps in this foundation information, pre-project options analysis has, at times, been difficult and of limited benefit.

Examples of difficult waste management decisions faced at CRL include:

• What waste processing infrastructure makes sense at CRL (e.g. radioactive waste incinerator, other thermal treatment options);
• Whether or not to build a Very Low Level Waste facility; and
• How to make best use of existing interim storage capability and how this impacts planning for additional future capabilities.

Other complex nuclear programs have had similar challenges worldwide and AECL is benefitting from experience and lessons learned at various decommissioning sites to improve Waste Management business planning for CRL. The process developed by the United Kingdom Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) for Integrated Waste Strategy is particularly relevant to the challenges faced with respect to planning for waste management infrastructure at CRL. This paper describes the application of the UK-NDA process at CRL and preliminary results obtained to date.