7.2.1 Functions and composition of teams in non-industrial departments
Administration department
The administration department provides the necessary administrative framework for the Operator organization (human resource, accounting, legal support …).
Public relations department
The public relations department manages the Visitors Center. It is functional throughout the life time of the repository, including the initial stages.
Site support services department
The Services department comprises the non-industrial site support functions of the site:
• General site maintenance, i.e. of non-industrial infrastructure (office buildings, roads, sewage…).
Based on the DBE-TEC experience with the Morsleben and Gorleben sites (see Ch.7 of the DBE- TEC Peer Review report [30]), a dayshift workforce of 5 technicians is assumed for this. One of them has the role of supervisor. For the materials/stock management (see §4.1 of DBE-TEC report [30]), one person is added to general site maintenance team.
• Site security, provided by two teams of security agents (or “guards”):
o permanent service (24 hours at 7 days per week); these are the guards that will man the Main
Gate, which will be permanently available, and the guards that will patrol the site.
o daytime augmentation; these are the guards that will augment site security during the
daytime shift, when there will be an increased presence of people on site (e.g. visitors, external providers, daytime shift personnel, …). This will enable to man also other access gates. Similarly to the situation at BELGOPROCESS, two guards will be assumed for each of the teams.
• ICT (information and communication technology); it is assumed that there is a coordinator, possibly
supported by an assistant, responsible for the coordinating the ICT services, hereby making use of external aid on an as-needed basis.
• Radiological laboratory; even though closely linked with the industrial activities during the disposal
campaigns, the Radiological Laboratory is also functional during the rest of the disposal facility life cycle from the moment that the first waste is received. Therefore, the Radiological laboratory is attributed to the “Services” department, even though it will be assumed to follow the number of shifts in the post-conditioning building during a disposal campaign.
• Fire brigade; no team of fire fighters is kept on stand-by, but there is one person charged with the
maintenance of the fire fighting equipment in a state of preparedness. This specifically trained person is normally also the captain of the brigade of fire fighter that will come into action in case of an emergency or a training exercise. The fire fighters are a group of people who have received specific training but normally perform other jobs on the site.
License Compliance department
The role of the License Compliance department is primarily to ensure that the work on site complies with the requirements stipulated in the granted license. The application for new licenses, the updating of existing licenses and the associated R&D are the responsibility of ONDRAF/NIRAS.
The License Compliance department exists of:
• Core team: charged with ensuring the site operational safety, nuclear safety including the safeguards
aspects (guardian of the waste inventory), environmental protection aspects and that the disposed waste is within the limits of the granted inventory. These people will prepare and manage the QA procedures and associated administration. It is supposed that the amount of work to be performed by this team will increase steadily during the initial construction phase of the facility, from quasi zero to a full time occupation.
• Main civil works follow-up team: charged with the follow-up of the daily work of the contractors
during the phases of construction (industrial surface buildings and repository section) or closure (backfilling and sealing of access gallery and shaft). However, since it is ONDRAF/NIRAS who has the design expertise, because it was responsible for the associated R&D and the licensing process, it is ONDRAF/NIRAS who will have the lead in this follow-up work. Nevertheless, a close cooperation with the Operator is a necessity. Therefore, it is assumed that in the phases of
construction or closure, the people of the Operator “main civil works follow-up team” are
integrated with the ONDRAF/NIRAS team performing the follow-up of the works. The integration with an ONDRAF/NIRAS team is also a form of training; some people will afterwards take on functions in the Core Team. In the construction or closure phases, there is no Director for the License Compliance department; the “residual” License Compliance tasks are temporarily transferred to another department.
• Land survey team: charged with mapping the exact as-built locations of surface structures as well as
underground structures and to follow any changes over time, and also to keep track of the exact locations of the disposed waste. As such, this team serves as the memory of the repository (see §4.1 and Annex II of [30]).
7.2.2 Functions and composition of teams in the Industrial Activities departments
This department comprises the executive activities in the industrial surface installations and the repository. The teams are defined according to the installation. Since the number of maintenance personnel is dependent on the number of shifts that are worked in each installation (see §7 of [30]), the maintenance personnel has been included in the team specific to the installation.
Direction
One particular task of the director of the Industrial Activities department is the logistical management of the nuclear waste flow, from reception on site over post-conditioning to disposal. The planning coordinator assists the director in this task. He draws up the planning of the disposal campaign in order to make it meet its performance objectives.
Post-Conditioning Installation for vitrified HLW
The main operational objective of this Post-Conditioning installation is to produce Supercontainers at the required rate. For the present cost analysis, a target of 2 Supercontainers per day has been taken.
The BELGATOM 2007 report [3] specifies (p.55) that, the direct manpower (for 2 shifts) would be 23 persons. These are assisted by 12 persons (for 2 shifts) for radiological safety, maintenance, and other
support. The team is further complemented by 15 people (for 2 shifts) for management and administrative framework. This brings the required number of people per shift to: (23 + 12 + 15)/2 = 25. We shall assume these people to have the following functions (per shift):
• 1 shift supervisor
• 1 QA supervisor
• 1 waste bookkeeper
• 1 administrative assistant
• 5 maintenance technicians of which 1 foreman (in line with §7 of DBE-TEC report [30]) • 2 radiological protection supervisors
• 14 operators
Pre-Cast Hall for Supercontainer concrete components
The main operational objective of the Pre-Cast Hall is to produce the concrete components for the Supercontainers at the required rate.
The BELGATOM 2007 report [3] specifies (p.58) that the Pre-Cast Hall can be run by 12 people on a single shift basis, of which 8 are direct manpower. Further, the report specifies that there are 4 indirect support people. We shall assume these to be the supervisor, the QA responsible, one administrative assistant and one maintenance technician (full time equivalent). These people are assumed to work 1 (daytime) shift. Thus, to resume, there are the following functions (per shift):
• 1 shift supervisor
• 1 QA supervisor
• 1 administrative assistant
• 1 maintenance technician
• 8 operators
Post-Conditioning Installation for cat. B waste
The main operational objective of this Post-Conditioning installation is to produce Monoliths at the required rate. For the present cost analysis, a target of 2 Monoliths per day has been taken
The BELGATOM 2007 report [3] specifies (p.36) that, per shift, there are 12+2 operators and 2 radioprotection supervisors. Next to these, there are functions for management, QA, administration and maintenance. The numbers are not specified in the BELGATOM report, but we shall assume 1 person per shift for management, 1 for QA and 2 persons per shift for administration, including waste bookkeeping. On top of this, we shall assume 5 maintenance technicians for the installation. This makes a total of 25 people. These people work on a 3 shifts basis. Thus, to resume, there are the following functions (per shift):
• 1 shift supervisor
• 1 QA supervisor
• 1 waste bookkeeper
• 1 administrative assistant
• 5 maintenance technicians of which 1 foreman (in line with §7 of [30]) • 2 radiological protection supervisors
• 14 operators
Underground operations support
The underground activities that need to be performed in parallel are of diverse nature (disposal, backfilling, sealing, maintenance) and, moreover, the boundary conditions for operation will change regularly, e.g. when another waste flux needs to be disposed in a separate disposal galleries. Therefore, a direct coordination of
the planning of underground activities is important. This task is entrusted to a specific function; the
underground shift coordinator translates the planning of the direction into concrete instructions for the
people working in the underground during his shift. Automatically, the underground waste bookkeeping is also done by the underground shift supervisor. The verification that the waste has effectively been disposed in the right location and the status of this location is verified by the land survey team (in the License Compliance department).
Since all personnel working in the underground will enter and leave via the same access way (the Personnel Shaft), 1 common radiological protection supervisor has been foreseen.
On the other hand, the QA tasks and associated administration of the teams doing disposal, backfilling and sealing will be taken care of by these teams themselves, since they will be working on different locations in the repository.
The maintenance of the underground infrastructure (underground waste transportation trolleys and hose carts, compressed air ducts, concrete pumps and mixers, trolleys for conventional loads, ventilation ducts/hoses, lighting, and even minor problems with gallery linings), is performed by the following team of people (on a per-shift basis):
• 1 shift supervisor
• 3 maintenance technicians (note that DBE-TEC [30] specifies 1 electrician, 1 mechanic and 3 miners, but in our situation with a stiff lining of concrete wedge blocks, only 1 miner this seems more appropriate)
Disposal
Each Supercontainer or Monolith is transported into the repository on an air-cushion transport vehicle, which is operated by a pilot and a co-pilot. The co-pilot also acts as the QA supervisor. In parallel, 2 operators prepare the section of the disposal gallery where the following Supercontainer or Monolith will be emplaced, by locally removing equipment that should not be left behind after backfilling (e.g. lighting, ventilation hoses, compressed air ducts,…and cleanup).
The study by [BABCOCK 2005; p.56 & p.59] specifies that the air-cushion transportation system is capable of achieving a rate of 2 Monoliths per day with a 2-shift underground operation. The same study specifies that a rate of 2 Supercontainers per day can be achieved with a 2-shift underground operation.
Backfilling of disposal galleries
In the present repository design there are still quite a number of uncertainties regarding backfilling of disposal galleries. Both the backfilling with a custom-made grout as well as the backfilling with dry granular materials (sand, cement, bentonite and mixtures therefore) have been tested on surface mockups in the made grout, which has been tested within the ESDRED project.
For the present cost evaluation, it has been assumed that backfilling is achieved by grout injection. This is currently the preferred option because of its straightforward chemical compatibility with the Supercontainer disposal concept.
Backfilling is assumed to be performed per disposal gallery section of 12 Monoliths or 8 Supercontainers. The volume to be injected corresponds with the annular void between the disposal package and the gallery wall and the flat space between one disposal package and the casing behind which the grout is injected. For disposal gallery backfill operations, the repository will be accessed via the Personnel Shaft.
The required personnel to perform the backfilling of one disposal gallery section is estimated to be 42 people distributed over 2 shifts. The estimation of the required workforce is based on the analysis given in §7.6.1.
This analysis has been made for the case of backfilling around Supercontainers, because some experience already exists from the ESDRED tests. At a disposal rate of 2 Supercontainers per day, the backfilling of one gallery section (containing 8 Supercontainers), should be performed every 4 days. This means that the workforce, expressed in full time equivalents per shift agrees with 42/(4 x 2) = 5.25 6 people (rounded up). Because of the lack of any more detailed study, the simplifying assumption is made that this result is also applicable for the case of backfilling around Monoliths.
Sealing of disposal galleries
In the present repository design it is assumed that each disposal gallery will be sealed by an axial component of several meters of swelling material (bentonite), supported by a concrete plug. The seal is installed after the gallery has received all of its foreseen number of disposal packages and is backfilled.
For disposal gallery sealing operations, the repository will be accessed via the Personnel Shaft.
The time and effort required to install one seal is estimated to be 6 people during 3 months on a 1-shift basis. This is based on the analysis in §7.6.2. At a disposal rate of 2 Supercontainers per day, and with about 200 Supercontainers per disposal gallery, a disposal gallery seal is required to be installed about twice a year. This is 6 months of continuous work per year. This means that the workforce, expressed in full time equivalents per shift agrees with 6/2 = 3 people.
The simplifying assumption is made that this result is also applicable for the case of sealing a disposal gallery with Monoliths.
Sealing and backfilling of access galleries and shafts
The sealing and backfilling of access galleries and shafts is performed by a team of 3 people per shift working on a 3 shifts per day basis (not weekends). One of these is the shift supervisor, who also acts as the QA supervisor. This is based on the analysis in §7.6.2.
This means that the team who performed the sealing of disposal galleries can continue to work in the closure phase of a repository section, but now on a 3 shift basis.
Shafts
Based on §7 of the DBE-TEC report [30], it is assumed that the hoist of the Personnel Shaft will run on automatic mode outside of the daytime shift. Hence, the following functions and number of people are assumed:
• maintenance of the shafts (only daytime shift):
o 1 supervisor
o 2 maintenance electricians (also trained as hoist operator)
o 2 maintenance mechanics (the hoist of the Waste Shaft will on average be older than the one of the Personnel Shaft and thus require more maintenance).
• operation of the Personnel Shaft (only daytime shift): 1 hoist operator
• operation of the Waste Shaft (per shift): 1 hoist operator (also trained as maintenance electrician) Mine rescue team
A specific function is foreseen for the maintenance of underground rescue equipment (see Annex II in the DBE-TEC report [30]). Similarly to the captain of the fire brigade on the surface, this person can function as the head of the mine rescue team, composed of people who normally perform another job on the site.