Transportation of Intermediate-level Radioactive Liquid Waste and Spent Fuel

This article includes two parts 1. The transportation of intermediate-level radioactive liquid waste • Introduction of the operation of nuclear facilities related to R & D in CIAE; The nuclear facilities which produce intermediate-level liquid waste in future are classified as 4 kinds: in-service nuclear facilities; being built nuclear facilities; planning nuclear facilities; decommissioning nuclear facilities. The volume of intermediatelevel radioactive liquid waste: About 23 m3 per year for normal operation; Maximum volume per year is not more than 35.5 m3 for the decommissioned phase of CIAE nuclear facilities. Radionuclides of intermediatelevel liquid waste mainly include fission products, activation products and corrosion products, etc. Range of concentration is 4.42 × 106 ~ 4 × 109 Bq/L, main nuclides are 137Cs, 60Co, 90Sr and some other little nuclides. • Original transportation system of radioactive liquid waste: Intermediate-level radioactive liquid waste which comes from heavy water reactor 101 (putting into operation in 1958) is transported to interim storage by tank trailer; Intermediate-level radioactive liquid waste in swimming pool reactor 49-2 (putting into operation in 1964) has not been transported outside since its operation and has been stored in the facilities. Intermediatelevel radioactive liquid waste in radioactive laboratory is transported by underground pipeline. Original transportation system of radioactive liquid waste is composed of about 1277 m long transportation pipeline, intermediate-level liquid waste transfer station and interim storage. There was not cement solidified waste facility before for processing intermediate-level radioactive liquid waste and all the intermediate-level radioactive liquid waste for R & D is put into interim storage. The pipeline of intermediate-level radioactive liquid waste in CIAE was put into operation in 1965 and shut down in 1994. • Planning transportation system of intermediate-level radioactive liquid waste consists of transportation system with tank (tank, collection workshop, storage of vehicle and decontamination workshop), interim storage and multi-function treatment workshop. The multi-function treatment workshop for treating intermediate-level radioactive liquid waste with cement solidified waste has been completed. The transportation system and interim storage for intermediate-level radioactive liquid waste from scientific research activities in future are in the feasibility phase. Transportation mode of intermediate-level radioactive waste is to select: tank transportation, or most using tank and a little using pipeline! The key point for the construction of this new system is how to select shipment container and vehicle correctly? The new transportation system of intermediate-level radioactive liquid waste will be completed at the beginning of 2007. 2. Transportation of spent fuel outside • Current storage of spent fuel: since swimming pool reactor 49-2 was put into operation, spent fuels have been always stored in the pool. Storage pool for heavy water reactor 101 is not enough: designed for 297 but 302 spent fuel assemblies have been stored until this year.