Terapia hormonal sustitutiva (THS)

Details of the plants used in the study have been taken from the IAEA publication “Nuclear Power Reactors in the World” [8]. Base data for a PWR, BWR, GCR and Magnox plant have been selected from either French, UK or Spanish definitive data and have then been extrapolated to other country’s plants by factoring for the MW output of the plant and adjusting the timescale of arisings to fit in with a 40 year plant lifetime and decommissioning timescales of 20 years after shutdown for Stage 2 dismantling and 30 years after shutdown for Stage 3 dismantling. The actual decommissioning strategy in each country will vary depending on national policy, however a standard set of assumptions relating to the decommissioning timescales have been adopted for the extrapolation exercise. The timescale on which the wastes arise and its relation to the adoption of recycling/reuse as a radioactive waste management technique during decommissioning is the subject of the strategy review which will be published as a final document under this contract.

Base data for PWRs in countries other than France, UK and Spain have used the French estimates of wastes scaled by the MWe output of the reactor. As noted previously the metallic waste arisings data are based on data reported in [4] and are thus broadly similar to the estimates of metallic wastes reported for other EC reactors in [4]. Estimates of the amounts of concrete wastes are also based on French data. Base data for BWRs have also been based the data of [4]. Concrete arisings from BWRs in other EC countries are based also based on French data. The base data for each plant type are summarised in Table 7.

Estimates of the quantities of waste from fuel cycle facilities within the EC have been included where data is readily available i.e. UK and Spain. Data for other EC facilities

are not included on the graphs as data on these facilities is more difficult to obtain than for power plants and scaling techniques may not accurately estimate the quantity of waste available. In addition the decommissioning timescales for these plants are not known at this time. In the absence of other information the UK figures for fuel cycle facilities can be used to give an indication of the likely quantities of waste from other similar facilities within the EC. The UK data is already included in the estimates for the UK and similarly the Spanish data include both waste quantities from power plants and that of the fuel cycle facilities (where applicable).

Nuclear fuel cycle facilities include plants processing the fuel outside of the reactor such as mining and milling, enrichment, fabrication, reprocessing and refabrication facilities. Activation of the metal does not occur and most of the waste can be readily decontaminated. This was particularly the case for the gaseous diffusion plant at BNFL Capenhurst (UK) where the majority of the metal was decontaminated and melted for free release. Table 6 includes all non power plant fuel nuclear facilities within the EC other than UK and Spain.

There are 4 other uranium enrichment plants in the EC, two in Germany (one centrifuge and one jet nozzle plant), a diffusion plant in France and a centrifuge plant in the Netherlands. Data for these plants is not available but an indication of the quantities can be obtained by examining the data for the Capenhurst plant. The Capenhurst plant generated 9,200 t of steel and 3,000 t of aluminium with about 1,300 t of other metallic material. This was for a plant with a capacity of 650 kSWU/year. The French diffusion plant has a capacity of 10,800 kSWU/year and could therefore generate a considerable amount of metallic material suitable for recycling. The three other plants are of similar sizes to the Capenhurst plant in terms of capacity. Timescales for the decommissioning of these plants are not known and hence the waste generated from them are not included on the figures.

There are 13 uranium ore processing plants within the EC. No data is available for the wastes that would be generated from these plants. Since plant components are not activated it would be expected that plant could be easily decontaminated and hence the material generated during decommissioning could be considered for free-release. Wastes arising from the decommissioning of Spanish ore processing plants are to be buried on site and are not included in the Spanish arisings data.

There are 11 fuel fabrication plants in the EC. In the UK plants exist at BNFL Springfields and at UKAEA Dounreay. Data from Springfields can be used in order to give an estimate of the likely masses of wastes to be produced. Waste from this facility is estimated to be 86.5% concrete and 8% metals (including steel, aluminium and copper). Decommissioning of the fuel fabrication plant at Springfields is expected to produce ~13,000 m3 of waste over the period 1995-2050. As for the enrichment plants the decommissioning timescales are not known at this time for other EC facilities and hence the contributions from these plants are not included in the figures. There are 6 reprocessing facilities in the EC other than those in the UK (i.e. THORP and the Magnox reprocessing plant). Decommissioning of the plant associated with

stainless steel, 435,400 t of other steel, 900 t of aluminium and 390 t of copper, no estimates of concrete are made for the plant in the UK waste inventory. Data for reprocessing facilities other than in the UK is not included in the figures as decommissioning timescales are not known at this time. As noted in Ref. 3 the contamination level of most salvageable metals from reprocessing plants could be high in most areas of the facilities and Ref. 3 estimates that only about 50 t of stainless steel and 400 t of steel equipment and piping would have low enough contamination levels to be worth recovering from each reprocessing plant.

Estimates of Quantities of Waste Arising from the