Clean-up and Dismantling of Nuclear Facilities

The success of clean-up and dismantling projects in end-of-life nuclear facilities is a crucial issue for the nuclear industry, both from a nuclear safety and an economic perspective, which are vital conditions for gaining credibility in the eyes of the public. These projects must overcome several obstacles: i) on a strategic level, they require long-term planning and rigorous management of the risks and priorities, ii) on an operational level, they require a great deal of upstream preparation in terms of inventories, investigations, maps, feasibility studies and data management, iii) on an organisational level, synergy must be created between the professions, operation, project management and R and D. Clean-up and dismantling projects are characterised by a broad range of situations: a reactor, a fuel cycle plant and a damaged nuclear facility are not dismantled in the same way. This monograph provides insight into the techniques used to characterise facilities, carry out clean-up and dismantling operations, and manage the waste resulting from these operations. It also gives several examples of clean-up and dismantling sites led by the CEA, which already boasts a number of successful projects to date, either as project owner for the clean-up and dismantling of its own facilities, or as R and D operator in support of industry players. Content: 1 - Introduction - Clean-up and dismantling: a major challenge for a sustainable nuclear power industry; 2 - Assessment of the radiological, physical and chemical state of the facility to be cleaned up or dismantled - Characterisation techniques: From site history to radiological survey, Neutron activation and dose rate calculations for clean-up and dismantling operations, Nuclear measurements for clean-up and dismantling, Physical and chemical measurements for clean-up and dismantling, Geostatistics applied to clean-up and dismantling, Characterisation of dismantling waste; 3 - Operations in hostile environments: Robots in hostile environments, 3D simulation applied to clean-up and dismantling operations, Laser cutting, an emerging technology for remote-controlled dismantling projects, Containment of clean-up and dismantling sites; 4 - Treatment and decontamination of structures, soils and effluents: Treatment of contaminated solid surfaces, Decontamination of aqueous effluents; 5 - Treatment of clean-up and dismantling waste: Organic waste, Graphite waste, Waste containing magnesium, Special waste - mercury waste, High level sludge or powdery waste, Tritiated waste; 6 - Operating experience in clean-up and dismantling: Operating experience from the Marcoule UP1 fuel processing plant, Dismantling experience from sodium-cooled fast reactors, Dismantling of the Siloe reactor in Grenoble - setting an example; 7 - Dismantling: the special case of severe accidents, Differences between a scheduled dismantling project and unplanned post-accident dismantling, Operating experience from post-accident activities to secure and to dismantle nuclear sites; 8 - Conclusion - Assessment and future prospects for clean-up and dismantling techniques, Glossary-Index.