Treatment of contaminated metals for clearance and recycling - 000086

For an efficient decommissioning project, a well-defined waste management process is a critical path to be properly managed. Clearance and recycling of materials is recommended to be an integrated part of this process. In order to mitigate the different risks, a set of activities such as a characterisation based categorisation, proper quantification per category and waste route is recommended to be implemented. By analysing the waste and materials considered/classified as contaminated or potentially contaminated it becomes obvious that the management of the metals is a key parameter in nuclear decommissioning. The analyses performed by the EDF companies shows that in the range of 70% of the contaminated material from BWR/PWR plants in decommissioning consists of metal. Because of their low level of contamination, a high percentage of these metals can be subject to recycling in its original status or after certain treatment. Metal treatment in decommissioning may be performed for different reasons. The three most common are: -) treatment and clearance of metals for recycling to the public domain, -) treatment of metals to reduce the physical dimensions and/or the disposal volume, and -) treatment of metals to change the radiological properties. The success of an optimized management of metal wastes relies mostly on the acceptance by the public of the recycling of 'nuclear metals'. Such an acceptance will be based on a trustful and open demonstration of safe processes. (authors)