Each Contracting Party shall take the appropriate steps to ensure that at all stages of radioactive waste management individuals, society and the environment are adequately protected against radiological and other hazards.
In so doing, each Contracting Party shall take the appropriate steps to:
(i) ensure that criticality and removal of residual heat generated during radioactive
waste management are adequately addressed;
(ii) ensure that the generation of radioactive waste is kept to the minimum practicable;
(iii) take into account interdependencies among the different steps in radioactive waste management;
(iv) provide for effective protection of individuals, society and the environment, by applying at the national level suitable protective methods as approved by the regulatory body, in the framework of its national legislation which has due regard to internationally endorsed criteria and standards;
(v) take into account the biological, chemical and other hazards that may be associated with radioactive waste management;
(vi) strive to avoid actions that impose reasonably predictable impacts on future generations greater than those permitted for the current generation;
(vii) aim to avoid imposing undue burdens on future generations.
11
General safety requirements
12 (i)
Safety of facilities
The only existing radioactive waste management facility in the Netherlands is the COVRA waste treatment and storage facility at Borsele. It consists of an operational waste treatment and waste storage facility for low- and intermediate-level radioactive waste and a treatment and storage facility for HLW and SF (HABOG). On the premises of COVRA a building was also constructed for the storage of NORM waste, in cases where the regulatory exemption limits are exceeded. Another building is present for the storage of depleted uranium oxide from the Urenco enrichment plant in Almelo. The LILW facility is equipped with volume-reducing installations including a 1500 ton super compactor, an incinerator for liquid organic waste and an incinerator for animal carcasses. The LILW facility has now been in operation for more than 18 years. The whole waste management facility got a major regulatory overhaul in the framework of a revision of the licence for the construction and operation of the HABOG.
Under the operating licence of COVRA there is a condition to evaluate every five years the actual safety level, the operational experience and the developments in general regarding the safety of the whole COVRA facility, including the HABOG facility. All
procedural, operational and administrative aspects are evaluated. The first evaluation has been completed at the end of 2009 and the recommendations were implemented by July 2011.
For the intermediate- and high-level waste present in the Waste Storage Facility at the research location Petten, several options for conditioning, repacking and transport to COVRA are under investigation. The waste has to be handled in a dedicated hot cell facility before it can be transferred to the COVRA. It is intended that all the waste has to be transferred from Petten to COVRA before 2020.
12 (ii)
Past practices
1,765 drums (January 2011) with historical waste are still stored at the NRG Waste Storage Facility at Petten. This waste, resulting from four decades of nuclear research at that location, exists of high active waste containing fuel material residues and some highly active waste not including fuel material (fission and activation products). The waste is stored in metal drums placed inside concrete-lined pipes.
In the course of a two-year campaign between 1999 and 2001 the waste was inspected and levels of activity were determined. The inspection revealed evidence of corrosion in drums containing highly active mixed waste, due to the presence of PVC. Prior to the inspection campaign, the potential implications of packaging highly active waste together with PVC were unknown. This practice now no longer occurs.
ARTICLE 12. EXISTING FACILITIES AND PAST PRACTICES
Each Contracting Party shall in due course take the appropriate steps to review:
(i) the safety of any radioactive waste management facility existing at the time the
Convention enters into force for that Contracting Party and to ensure that, if necessary, all reasonably practicable improvements are made to upgrade the safety of such a facility;
(ii) the results of past practices in order to determine whether any intervention is needed for reasons of radiation protection bearing in mind that the reduction in detriment resulting from the reduction in dose should be sufficient to justify the harm and the costs, including the social costs, of the intervention.
It is intended that those drums containing PVC, about 300 in total, will be sorted, repacked, and prepared for storage at COVRA using a dedicated hot cell facility at the Petten site. All other containers will also be treated, repacked and shipped to COVRA. It is intended that all historical waste from the Waste Storage Facility at Petten will have been removed before 2020.
The owner of this historical waste, the ECN, will have to pay for all management costs, including the commissioning, operation and decommissioning of the necessary hot cell facility at the Petten site, where the waste will be conditioned and repacked before transportation to COVRA. Operational costs for storage will be paid annually and the costs for the passive storage period as well as for final disposal will be paid in 2015.