INTEGRATED APPROACH TO RECYCLING AND CLEARANCE

Waste management strategy based on recycling and clearance already applied to SEAFP-2 Plant Models is implemented in the following way: - For each activated component (or part of a component), the most appropriate management strategy is recommended, indicating the adequate cooling time, taken to be less than 100 years, required for the compliance with the limits. In some cases, two management options are suggested for the same material either allowing recycling or clearance, depending on different cooling times. - Clearance includes two possible paths: disposal as non-active waste, NAW, as for SEAFP-2, and recycling outside the nuclear industry or non-active recyclable material, NARM. For the former option, SEAFP-2 clearance levels are adopted, which are given in an IAEA interim document. For the latter option, different clearance levels defined in recent E.C.Recommendations are adopted. - An additional analysis concerns the possibility to attain conditions for clearance as non-active waste for the in-vessel V-4Cr-4Ti structures of PM-1. In this alloy most of the long-term activity arises from the impurities. It is shown that such conditions could be reached by: a) reduction of the impurities concentration in the alloy to extremely low levels, also below the actual detection limit, and b) reprocessing of the irradiated material to eliminate noxious nuclides deriving from the components of the alloy. The appendix contains a comparison of long-term risks, namely intrusion and degradation of containment, in fusion and fission waste.