bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Performance and Safety Assessment of the Co-Location of the Near Surface Radioactive Waste Disposal Facilities and Borehole Disposal Concept in the Philippines
Authors: Palattao Maria Visitacion , Vargas Edmundo , Reyes Rolando , Nohay Carl , Singayan Alfonso , Aurelio Mario , Gedeon Matej , Luna Roy Anthony C. , Mallants Dirk 
Published: February 2014

The Philippine Nuclear Research Institute (PNRI) in collaboration with the interagency technical committee on radioactive waste has been undertaking a national project to find a final solution to the country’s low to intermediate level radioactive waste. The strategy adopted was to co-locate 2 disposal concepts that will address the types of radioactive waste generated from the use of radioactive materials. This strategy is expected to compensate for the small volumes of waste generated in the Philippines as compared to countries with big nuclear energy programs. It will also take advantage of the benefits of a shared infrastructure and R&D work that accompany such project.
The preferred site selected from previous site selection and investigations is underlain by highly fractured “andesitic volcaniclastics” mantled by residual clayey soil which act as the aquifer or water bearing layer. Results of investigation show that the groundwater in the area is relatively dilute and acidic. Springs at the lower elevations of the footprint also indicate acidic waters. The relatively acidic water is attributed to the formation of sulfuric acid by the oxidation of the pyrite in the andesite.
A preliminary post closure safety assessment was carried out using the GMS MODFLOW and HYDRUS softwares purchased through the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) technical assistance. Results from MODFLOW modeling show that the radionuclide transport follows the natural gradient from the top of the hill down to the natural discharge zones. The vault dispersion model shows a circular direction from the vaults towards the faults and eventually to the creeks. The contaminant transport from borehole shows at least one confined plume from the borehole towards the creek designated as Repo1 and eventually follows downstream. The influx of surface water and rainfall to the disposal vault was modeled using the HYDRUS software. The pressure head and water content at the base of the foundation layer and the bottom of the concrete is where a significant reduction in water content can be observed. It is also noted that water content and pressure remain constant after one year.
Gas Migration in Low- and Intermediate-Level Waste (LILW) Disposal Facility in Korea
Authors: Ha Jae-Chul , Lee Jeong-Hwan , Jung Haeryong , Kim Juyub , Kim Juyoul 
Published: February 2014

The first low- and intermediate-level waste (LILW) disposal facility is under construction in saturated granite in Korea. The safety assessment report (SAR) identified that different gases, such as hydrogen, carbon dioxide, and methane are generated at the disposal facility due to the corrosion of metal wastes and steel drum, and microbial degradation of organic matters. Reinforced concrete plays a role as an engineered barrier at the disposal facility, so its properties with regard to gas migration were evaluated in laboratory-scale experiments. Then modeling of gas migration was carried out to evaluate gas pressure build-up in the disposal facility.
The gas entry pressure and relative gas permeability of the concrete was determined to be 0.97±0.15 bar, and the relative gas permeability decreased exponentially with increasing water content.
The results of the modeling showed that most of hydrogen gas was dissolved in groundwater and did not significantly influence pressure build-up inside the disposal facility based on the reference case of gas generation.
Jose Cabrera Dismantling and Decommissioning Project
Authors: Ondaro Manuel 
Published: February 2014

The Jose Cabrera Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) was the first commercial power reactor (Westinghouse 1 loop PWR 510 MWth, 160 MWe) commissioned in Spain and provided the base for future development and training. The reactor construction started in 1963 and it was officially on-line by 1969. The NPP operated from 1969 until 2006 when it became the first reactor to be shut down after completing its operational period. The containment is reinforced concrete with a stainless steel head. In 2010 responsibility for D&D was transferred to Enresa to achieve IAEA level 3 (a green field site available for unrestricted re-uses) by 2017.
Of the total of more than 104,000 tons of materials that will be generated during dismantling, it is estimated that only ∼ 4,000 tons will be radioactive waste, some of which, 40 t are considered as intermediate level long-lived wastes and the rest (3,960 t) will be categorized as VLLW & ILLW.
The Project is divided into five phases:
Phase 0 - Removal of fuel and preliminary work.
Phase 1 - Preparatory Activities for D&D. complete.
Phase 2 - Dismantling of Major Components.
Phase 3 - Removal of Auxiliary Installations, Decontamination and Demolition.
Phase 4 - Environmental Restoration.
Phase 2, is currently ongoing (50% completed).
To manage the diverse aspects of decommissioning operations, Enresa uses an internally developed computerized project management tool. The tool, based on knowledge gathered from other Enresa projects, can process operations management, maintenance operations, materials, waste, storage areas, procedures, work permits, operator dose management and records. Enresa considers that communication is important for both internal and external stakeholder relations and can be used to inform, to neutralize negative opinions & attitudes, to remove false expectations and for training.
Enresa has created a new multi-purpose area (exhibition/visitor centre) and encourages visits from the public, local schools, local and national politicians and technical groups.
Greenfield is the final end state objective. The total cost of this project, including a 20% contingency as estimated in 2003 is 135 M€. This figure does not include the management of the plant spent fuel, which has constituted an independent project that has been completed in 2009 (35 M€).
Enresa, with 15 staff on site are managing a team of ∼ 250 workers, 40 of whom belong to the previous operator. The spent fuel is On-Site prior to the final destination in the future Spain Centralized Spent Fuel Installation.
Preliminary Safety Evaluation of an Aircraft Impact on a Near-Surface Radioactive Waste Repository
Authors: Lo Frano R. , Forasassi G. , Pugliese G. 
Published: February 2014

The aircraft impact accident has become very significant in the design of a nuclear facilities, particularly, after the tragic September 2001 event, that raised the public concern about the potential damaging effects that the impact of a large civilian airplane could bring in safety relevant structures.
The aim of this study is therefore to preliminarily evaluate the global response and the structural effects induced by the impact of a military or commercial airplane (actually considered as a “beyond design basis” event) into a near surface radioactive waste (RWs) disposal facility.
The safety evaluation was carried out according to the International safety and design guidelines and in agreement with the stress tests requirements for the security track.
To achieve the purpose, a lay out and a scheme of a possible near surface repository, like for example those of the El Cabril one, were taken into account.
In order to preliminarily perform a reliable analysis of such a large-scale structure and to determine the structural effects induced by such a types of impulsive loads, a realistic, but still operable, numerical model with suitable materials characteristics was implemented by means of FEM codes. In the carried out structural analyses, the RWs repository was considered a “robust” target, due to its thicker walls and main constitutive materials (steel and reinforced concrete). In addition to adequately represent the dynamic response of repository under crashing, relevant physical phenomena (i.e. penetration, spalling, etc.) were simulated and analysed.
The preliminary assessment of the effects induced by the dynamic/impulsive loads allowed generally to verify the residual strength capability of the repository considered.
The obtained preliminary results highlighted a remarkable potential to withstand the impact of military/large commercial aircrafts, even in presence of ongoing concrete progressive failure (some penetration and spalling of the concrete wall) of the impacted area.
An Overview of the Draft of ‘Nuclear Materials and Radioactive Waste Management Act’
Authors: Lin Huan , Lan Tai-Wei , Chang Min-Tsang , Cheng Wuu-Kune 
Published: February 2014

The “Nuclear Materials and Radioactive Waste Management Act” (NMRWMA) in Taiwan has been in use since 2002. To promote further administrative efficiency and improve regulatory capacity, an amendment of the act has been initiated by the Atomic Energy Council (AEC). It is now being reviewed by outside experts and related communities so as to include the best understanding of risk management factors.
For the future decommissioning challenges of nuclear facilities, the act is also being amended to comply with the regulatory requirements of the decommissioning mandates. Currently the Taiwan government is conducting government reorganization, and AEC will be reformed but will remain as an independent regulatory body. AEC will then be capable of improving the regulatory capacity for facilitating licensing and inspection, ensuring operational safety, environmental protection and public involvement, and giving a more flexible administrative discretion, such as expending the margin of penalty.
The amendment is also required to provide a formal legal basis for the Nuclear Backend Fund, and to mandate the waste producers to take responsibility for any final debt repayment. In addition, this amendment promotes measures to prevent accidents or emergencies concerning radioactive materials and facilities and procedures to reduce the impact and effect of any unexpected events. Furthermore, this amendment intends to implement the concept of information transparency and public participation so as to meet the public needs. Finally, radioactive waste final disposal tasks have to be completed by waste producers under the supervision of the AEC.
Progress With Nuclear Energy Agency Task Group on Nuclear Site Restoration
Authors: Berton Marie-Anne , Cruickshank Julian , Ollivier-Dehaye Catherine , Monken-Fernandes Horst , Orr Peter 
Published: February 2014

The Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) Co-operative Programme for the Exchange of Scientific and Technical Information Concerning Nuclear Installation Decommissioning Projects (CPD) is a joint undertaking of a limited number of organisations, mainly from NEA member countries. The objective of the CPD is to acquire and share information from operational experience in decommissioning nuclear installations that is useful for future projects. The information exchange includes biannual meetings of the Technical Advisory Group (TAG) and supporting projects on topics. The TAG has decided to form a Task Group to review nuclear site restoration starting in March 2012 that involves nuclear operators, experts and regulators. The group is supported by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that is leading similar work on legacy sites.
Within NEA Counties, several nuclear sites are being restored for beneficial reuse. Restoration is normally considered the last activity in a sequence of decommissioning steps but increasingly the value of long-term planning and parallel remediation is being recognised. It is essential that regulators know that liabilities are well understood (well characterised) and there is adequate financial provision to carry on the remediation works. Operators are also learning that early intervention is needed to ensure prevention and minimisation of leaks and spills of radioactive and non-radioactive contaminants in order to reduce groundwater and soil contamination, thus reducing overall liabilities and ensuring protection of the environment. Early intervention needs to be guided by good practices that include adequate site characterisation, reliable conceptual models and defined goals. Currently most nuclear site restoration work takes place at the legacy nuclear sites. This work has emphasised the need for better clarity in terms of the regulatory expectations for site restoration. At other nuclear sites the drivers are less evident and there is a risk that land quality issues are overlooked.
The aim of the Task Group is to share information on experiences, approaches and techniques for land quality management at selected nuclear sites to ensure risks to workers and the environment, costs and disruption to decommissioning programmes are minimised. The project will also highlight the successes and lessons to learn from experience of remediation that will be helpful to operational situations on nuclear sites. The paper will report on progress with analysis of national and site level questionnaires and early consideration of case studies. The questionnaires will provide a snapshot of the current status, issues and best practice with site restoration and the case studies will provide in depth illustrations of practice with nuclear site or remediation projects.
DASAO: Software Tool for the Management of Safeguards, Waste and Decommissioning
Authors: Noynaert Luc , Verwaest Isi , Libon Henri , Cuchet Jean-Marie 
Published: February 2014

Decommissioning of nuclear facilities is a complex process involving operations such as detailed surveys, decontamination and dismantling of equipment’s, demolition of buildings and management of resulting waste and nuclear materials if any. This process takes place in a well-developed legal framework and is controlled and followed-up by stakeholders like the Safety Authority, the Radwaste management Agency and the Safeguards Organism.
In the framework of its nuclear waste and decommissioning program and more specifically the decommissioning of the BR3 reactor, SCK•CEN has developed different software tools to secure the waste and material traceability, to support the sound management of the decommissioning project and to facilitate the control and the follow-up by the stakeholders. In the case of Belgium, it concerns the Federal Agency for Nuclear Control, the National Agency for radioactive waste management and fissile material and EURATOM and IAEA.
In 2005, BELGONUCLEAIRE decided to shutdown her Dessel MOX fuel fabrication plant and the production stopped in 2006. According to the final decommissioning plan (“PDF”) approved by NIRAS, the decommissioning works should start in 2008 at the earliest. In 2006, the management of BELGONUCLEAIRE identified the need for an integrated database and decided to entrust SCK•CEN with its development, because SCK•CEN relies on previous experience in comparable applications namely already approved by authorities such as NIRAS, FANC and EURATOM.
The main objectives of this integrated software tool are:
• simplified and updated safeguards
• waste & material traceability
• computerized documentation
• support to project management
• periodic & final reporting to waste and safety authorities.
The software called DASAO (Database for Safeguards, Waste and Decommissioning) was successfully commissioned in 2008 and extensively used from 2009 to the satisfaction of BELGONUCLEAIRE and the stakeholders.
SCK•CEN is now implementing a simplified release of the software for the management of the decommissioning of the THETIS reactor. Its decommissioning will start in March 2013 and will be completed by the end of 2014.
Feasibility Study on Phytoremediation Techniques for Soil Contaminated by the Fukushima Dai-Ichi Nuclear Power Plant Accident
Authors: Ishimori Yuu , Sakoda Akihiro , Yamada Mina , Makino Yuko , Yamada Satoshi , Fujiyama Hideyasu 
Published: February 2014

Tottori University and the Japan Atomic Energy Agency carried out jointly the feasibility study on phytoremediation techniques, which apply to soil contaminated by the TEPCO’s Fukushima Dai-ichi NPP accident. This paper illustrates the results from experimental investigations. Experimental investigations include both water-culture tests and field tests.
Several plants, mainly halophytes that can specifically absorb more Na than K, and others like sunflower demonstrated for other domestic large-scale tests, were water-cultured and examined for screening. Easily cultivated and harvested plants without harmful effects on subsequent cultivation were also considered. New Zealand spinach was selected as a candidate for demonstrations in fields.
The field tests were carried out at two sites of different agricultural types in Minami-soma, Fukushima prefecture. Concentration of 137Cs in soil is about 4.5 Bq/g-dry as the average of 10 cm depth. The aims of the field tests are to confirm absorption ability and environmental adaptation of the test plants and to document the cost and performance of projects. In conclusion, the absorption of 137Cs activity per unit area (Bq/m2) by New Zealand spinach could be approximately 0.5%.
To achieve an effective result in removal of 137Cs from soil in around a decade, it is required to find the plant which has ten or more times higher absorption capacity than New Zealand spinach. From the consistency of both results in water-culture and field tests, the water-culture test can be valid for screening. In addition, applicable sites will be limited to fields which are too steep or too narrow to use mechanical diggers, and which are free from any restrictions to enter.
Enhanced Phytoextraction of Cadmium and Zinc Using Rapeseed
Authors: Ghani M. , Slycken S. V. , Meers E. , Tack F. M. G. , Naz F. , Ali S. 
Published: February 2014

In a green house pot experiment, the effects of three amendments, sulphur (S), ammonium sulphate ((NH4)2SO4) and ethylenediaminetetracetic acid (EDTA) were tested for phytoextraction of Cd and Zn by rapeseed (Brassica napus L.). Elemental sulphur was applied as 20.00, 60.00, and 120.00 mg.kg−1 soil. EDTA was tested at a dose of 585.00 mg.kg−1 soil, and (NH4)2SO4) at a rate of 0.23 mg.kg−1 soil. All treatments received a base fertilization (Hogland) before sowing. Plants were harvested after 51 days of growth and shoot dry matter and soil samples were analysed for metal contents.
All amendments caused a significant increase in Cd and Zn contents in plant shoots of all treatments than control treatment. Further, EDTA was most effective for extraction metals concentrations in shoot biomass but the plants showed significant signs of toxicity and yield were severely depressed. The addition of sulfur favorably influenced plant biomass production. The fertilized ammonium sulfate treatment resulted in the highest phytoextraction of Cd and Zn and the amounts of these metals accumulated in plant shoot exceeded by a factor of 4 and 3 respectively. Finally, Brassica napus could be used for soil remediation keeping its other uses which will make the contaminated site income generating source for the farmers.
Social Scientist on Board in Long-Term Management of High Level and/or Long-Lived Radioactive Waste in Belgium
Authors: Parotte C. 
Published: February 2014

In Belgium, the long-term management of radioactive waste is under the exclusive competence of the Belgian Agency for Radioactive Waste and Enriched Fissile Materials (knew as ONDRAF/NIRAS). Unlike low-level waste, no institutional policy has yet been formally approved for the long-term management of high level and/or long-lived radioactive waste (knew as B&C waste). In this context, ONDRAF/NIRAS considers the public and stakeholders’ participation as an essential factor in the formulation of an effective and legitimate policy. This is why it has decided to integrate them in different ways during the elaboration of the Waste Plan (ONDRAF/NIRAS-document containing guidelines to make a principled policy decision about nuclear waste management). To do so, social scientists have been regularly mobilized either as external evaluators, follow-up committee members, or participatory observants. Hence, the Waste Plan is only the first step in a long decision-making process.
For a PhD student under contract with ONDRAF/NIRAS, this mandate consists of thinking out a way to construct an inter-organizational innovative communication system that would be participative, transparent and embedded in a long-term perspective, thus integrating all the further legal steps to take throughout the decision-making process. In this regard, two paradoxical constraints must be taken into account: on the one hand, my own influence on the legal decision-making process should remain limited, because of a series of constraints, lock-ins and previous decisions which have to be respected; on the other hand, ONDRAF/NIRAS expects the research conclusions to be policy relevant and useful.
In this paper, the purpose is twofold. Firstly, the issues raised by this policy mandate is an opportunity to question the performative dimensions of the social scientist in the decision-making process and, more specifically, to have a reflexive view on our position as PhD Student. Secondly, assuming the role of “embarked” social scientist, numerous of answers will discuss to face the different dilemmas of the researcher “in action”. Those reflections follow on, among others, those from previous papers discussed in Quimper in April 2013 [1] and in Leuven in June 2013 [2].
High Levels of Physical Activity and Cardiorespiratory Fitness are Associated With Good Self-Rated Health in Adolescents
Authors: Kantomaa Marko T. , Tammelin Tuija , Ebeling Hanna , Stamatakis Emmanuel , Taanila Anja 
Published: February 2014

Background:Adolescent self-rated health is a strong predictor of future illness. In this study we investigated whether physical activity and cardiorespiratory fitness are associated with self-rated health among adolescents aged 16 years.Methods:The study sample comprised 7,063 adolescents from the Northern Finland Birth Cohort 1986 (NFBC 1986) who responded to a postal questionnaire in 2001 to 2002. Self-rated health was measured by a single-item question, while physical activity was evaluated by a set of questions concerning the intensity and volume of physical activity outside school hours. Cardiorespiratory fitness was measured with a submaximal cycle ergometer test. Odds ratios (OR) and their 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) for good self-rated health were obtained from multinomial logistic regression.Results:High levels of physical activity (boys: OR 5.50, 95% CI 3.16 to 9.58; girls: OR 4.25, 95% CI 2.37 to 7.61) and cardiorespiratory fitness (boys: OR 1.85, 95% CI 1.05 to 3.24; girls: OR 2.62, 95% CI 1.47 to 4.66) were associated with very good self-rated health in adolescents.Conclusions:High levels of physical activity and cardiorespiratory fitness are positively associated with adolescents’ self-rated health. Public health promotion activities that foster physical activity and cardiorespiratory fitness may benefit young people’s overall health and well-being.