Radioactive waste management
Radioactive waste is the result of daily maintenance activities, repairs, scheduled or unscheduled shutdowns of the plant and is managed completely separately from conventional waste. The radioactive waste generated as a result of these activities are:
- solids (plastic, cellulose, glass, wood, purification filters, filters from ventilation systems, etc.);
- organic liquids (oil, solvent, scintillating liquid);
- flammable solid-liquid mixtures.
Their collection and sorting is carried out by qualified personnel, according to rules and criteria specified by procedures. The sorting activity applies to all types of radioactive waste.
For each type of radioactive waste (solids, organic liquids and flammable solid-liquid mixtures) different criteria are followed:
- source of origin (services building, reactor building)
- type of material (plastic, cellulose, metal, wood, oil, solvents, etc.)
- the content of radionuclides (short, medium or long life)
- contact dose rate (weakly active, medium active).
After sorting, the radioactive waste is stored in special stainless steel containers.
Organic liquid radioactive waste is kept in the services building, to be solidified to eliminate potential flammability hazards.
Some solid waste is compacted with a hydraulic press to reduce the volume.
The storage of solid or solidified radioactive waste is ensured for the entire period of operation of the plant under optimal security and preservation conditions. The final storage of these wastes will be realized only after conditioning in solid, safe matrices, which will guarantee that at least 300 years will not have a negative impact on the environment.
CNE Cernavoda’s used fuel management policy is as follows:
- wet storage in the spent fuel pool of the reactor for a period of at least 6 years;
- dry storage in the intermediate dry storage for burnt fuel for a period of 50 years.
The dry storage is located on the Cernavoda NPP site, at approx. 700 m distance from Unit 1, the transport being carried out on an internal road that allows maintaining an integrated physical protection system.
The warehouse will be built in stages, eventually including 27 storage modules with a capacity of 12,000 bundles/module, which will ensure the storage for 50 years of the burned fuel resulting from the operation of units 1 and 2 of CNE Cernavoda throughout their lifetime. Until now, 13 modules have been completed.
