Decommissioning waste

As decommissioning waste are generally waste referred to in the decommissioning incurred a technical device or demolition. Mostly, however, this term is used in nuclear technology, specifically in connection with the dismantling of nuclear power plants . In this case, this normally means the radioactive waste generated during these activities , which ultimately has to be brought to a repository . In a broader sense, however, this also includes waste that, due to its low activity content, can be reused or disposed of in a conventional manner, for example building rubble . The spent fuel elements that are removed from the reactor before the start of the demolition work are not counted as decommissioning waste .

For the final repository planning, the power plant operators carried out studies on the amount of waste generated during decommissioning. Two reference concepts ( pressurized water reactor with an electrical output of 1200 MW , boiling water reactor with an output of 800 MW) were considered as models . The control area of the reference pressurized water reactor has a total mass of around 156,000 t. The building structures that make up most of this mass can be demolished conventionally. Only around 600 t of residues from cleaning (decontamination) of the surfaces have to be disposed of. The metallic system components and fixtures are mostly melted down and recycled. About 3000 t have to be disposed of as radioactive waste. In addition, there are 500 t of radioactive waste from the decommissioning operation.

Overall, only about 2 to 3% of the total mass of a nuclear power plant has to be brought into a repository as radioactive waste.

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• D. Mertin, W. Hortmann: Decommissioning Concept for the Nuclear Power Plants of the German EVU (atw, November 2001)
• N. Eickelpasch et al .: The decommissioning of nuclear facilities in practice (atw, May 1999)