Life Cycle Costing in Radioactive Waste Packaging: Reducing Costs Whilst Accelerating Clean-Up

The original strategy for managing intermediate level waste (ILW) in the UK involvedretrieving, sorting and encapsulation in cement based grout within thin walled stainless steel containers. These would then be transferred to a purpose-built shielded ILW store on site, where they would be stored until transport within heavily shielded Type B transport containers to the planned geological disposal facility.In recognition of the high up-front costs of such a strategy, which requires remote facilities for the encapsulation and storage coupled with the long programme duration for the design, construction and commissioning of these facilities, then in recent years organisations responsible for managing legacy facilities within the UK have sought innovative solutions to accelerate clean-up and hazard reduction and offer a lower overall life cycle cost.Recent innovative packaging solutions have looked to a new family of packaging designs known as robust shielded containers (RSCs). These are self shielded containers manufactured from materials such as ductile cast iron. These containers offer the potential to package wastes for storage, transport and disposal; mimicking the multipurpose container MPC systems used for spent fuel management. Such a strategy removes the need to encapsulate the wastes and for highly engineered remote handled shielded stores. This offers the opportunity to accelerate hazard reduction and site clean-up by reducing programmes of work and costs.Underpinning the cost benefits of such a strategy using Life Cycle Cost (LCC) assessment can assist in strategic planning and decision making. These decision making processes are often guided by legislative requirements which look to ensure that risks from nuclear operations are As Low As Reasonably Practicable (ALARP), and as such the balance of cost and affordability must be considered against safety and security. In this respect RSCs are play a critical role in alleviating public concerns over safety issues during interim storage and transport.The paper presents a balanced view of the application of LCC assessment process, utilising a number of waste ILW packaging LCC scenarios, covering waste management including public transportation. The paper is intended to promote discussion and consideration of the benefits of undertaking a holistic assessment of the investment decision as part of an overall waste management strategy.