Transporting radioactive materials to a geological disposal facility: an integrated approach

Abstract

The Radioactive Waste Management Directorate (RWMD) of the UK’s Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) has responsibility for planning and implementing a Geological Disposal Facility (GDF) in the UK. The responsibility for demonstrating and providing a safe transport operation will be shared between a number of organisations acting as consignors, carriers and the consignee (the GDF operator). The radioactive waste transport system is national in scope. Its main objective is to deliver packaged waste to a facility for disposal in a manner that is safe, secure, planned, timely, cost effective, flexible, environmentally sound and robust against future changes. To fully appreciate the implications for ensuring transport safety a better understanding of the range of options for a GDF transport system is required. One extreme, the current planning assumption in the UK is that each waste producer (consignor) is individually responsible for organising their own transport to a GDF. The other extreme is where a single organisation is responsible for the provision of the transport system (an integrated transport service). Intermediate options will exist where the actual implementation could be anywhere on the scale between the two extremes. A fundamental issue for a GDF transport system for the delivery of Intermediate Level Waste (ILW), High Level Waste (HLW) and spent fuel is the timescale between initial waste packing and final sentencing to the repository. ILW, HLW and spent fuel will need to be managed until a GDF is available and delivery is confirmed. The timescales could be over 65 years given current assumptions. This paper reviews the feasibility of an integrated transport service for the delivery of ILW, HLW and spent fuel to a GDF. It defines the key elements of the integrated transport service, highlighting the advantages and disadvantages. Finally, it sets out the key considerations to be addressed during packing of wastes which will not be transported for up to 65 years.

Keywords:

• Transporting
• Radioactive
• Materials
• Geological
• Disposal
• Facility
• Integrated

Acknowledgements

I wish to thank various people for their contribution to this paper, John Harvey of RWMD, for his technical support on this project, Marc Flynn and Hannah Kozich of LLWR Ltd for sharing their experiences on the LLWR Integrated Transport Service, and all the team members from the workshop for their useful and constructive feedback.

Notes

i The NDA manages the UK’s civil nuclear legacy and is responsible for developing UK wide LLW strategy and plans, the long-term management arrangements for the UK’s higher radioactive wastes, and 19 former UKAEA and BNFL sites.

ii LLWR Ltd manages the operations of both the site licence company and the UK’s national Low Level Waste Repository.

iii INS is a wholly owned subsidiary of the NDA and is the NDA appointed strategic authority for transport, providing solutions to specialist nuclear transport challenges, from package design and analysis, licensing, to transport operations.

iv DRS is a wholly owned subsidiary of the NDA and the UK’s nuclear rail freight operator delivering safe, secure and reliable rail freight assured services.