Contaminated Metal Waste Processing Technologies Overview

Abstract

Canada currently faces a decommissioning challenge due to the current Radioactive Waste Management infrastructure nearing capacity and the planned increase in waste generated from New Nuclear, plant Refurbishment, Post-refurbishment operations and decommissioning activities. Leveraging international learnings, such as from the United Kingdom (UK), there are proven and emerging technologies that are well suited to optimize contaminated metallic wastes. Optimizing these wastes minimizes both disposal costs and the impact to the environment.

This paper summarizes an assessment of the technologies available within the market and how they can be deployed to process the contaminated metallic waste arising through operations, refurbishments, and decommissioning. Context is provided on the optimal approach a new facility and what aspects it would include. The technologies are separated into four categories: Characterization, Size Reduction, Decontamination and Conditioning. Characterization is the first step in which the waste’s radiological, chemical, and physical characteristics are determined and fed into the processing plan. As many of the components are large components, reduction of the waste into smaller, uniform shapes and sizes is desirable to maximize packaging efficiencies. Decontamination follows to remove corrosion products and fission products. Conditioning is the last step, which may further reduce the waste volume or convert the waste to a more stable form.