6.Authorisation by the regulator to move to production

7.QA – process control, raw waste, waste product, waste packages

8.Individual waste package data sheet – national database.

QA of processes tends to centre around the quality of the products entering the process, e.g., cement grout properties, or process parameters, e.g., temperature of the melter during vitrification (phase formation in the glass), etc.

QA of the raw waste concerns mainly the nuclide and material inventories.

QA of the waste product tends to focus on the disposal-relevant properties of the waste, e.g., leaching (loss of activity on immersion in an aqueous solution), compressive strength (quality of the cement), etc.

QA of the waste package concerns absence of free water, hardening, surface contamination, dose rate, -scans, etc.

Individual waste package data include details of radionuclide content, dose rates, material composition, etc. This information is used to assess the acceptability of a waste package for disposal, i.e., does it meet the repository or storage facility acceptance criteria?

2.6. Volumes of waste

The volume of radioactive waste produced by the nuclear industry is very small compared to other wastes generated. In the OECD countries, some 300 million tonnes of toxic wastes are produced each year as compared to 81,000 cubic metres of conditioned radioactive wastes. In countries with nuclear power, radioactive wastes comprise less than 1 per cent of total industrial toxic wastes.

For the civilian radioactive wastes arising in the UK, for example, 90 per cent of the volume is LLW, containing 1 per cent of the total radioactivity, 7 per cent is ILW with 4 per cent of the total radioactivity and 3 per cent is HLW, containing 95 per cent of the radioactivity. A representation of these volumes is shown in Fig. 2.15. This can be considered to be representative of the waste arisings from countries which use nuclear power.

Worldwide, the IAEA has recently published, on its NEWMDB website (wwwnewmdb.iaea.org), data summarised from submissions made by countries representing

Fig. 2.15. Relative volumes of waste produced per annum in a typical nuclear fuel cycle.