Basically this coursework is mainly focussed on the key risks involved in the transportation activity at the back end operations of the nuclear power plants. Managing and transporting the spent nuclear fuel/ radioactive wastes are very critical as they pose a lot of challenges towards health and safety risks/ hazards for the personnel and the surrounding environment as a whole.
UK has a very stringent regulatory framework in place for the management and transportation of spent fuel. Under UK legislations, radioactive wastes coming out of nuclear power stations are classified into three categories:
1) Low Level Waste (LLW)
2) Intermediate Level Waste (ILW)
3) Spent fuel
As spent fuel is highly radioactive, the main focus is on managing and transporting the spent nuclear fuel to the repository or the reprocessing site.
Risk:
Risk is the probability or chance of happening something or an event which cause threat or damage to the objectives of the project and cause an obstruction in the success of the project (Kerzner, 2009).
Risk Management:
According to APMBoK (5th Ed), "Project Risk Management is a structured process that allows individual risk events and overall project risk to be understood and managed proactively, optimising project success by minimising threats and maximising opportunities".
Key legislative requirements for the transportation of spent fuel:
There are numerous national and international requirements which have been implemented in the UK legislation for the safe transportation of spent fuel and depend on the type of transport package and the level of radioactivity contained.
1) International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) TS-R-1 Regulations for the Safe Transport of Radioactive Materials 1996 Edition (Revised) or 1996 Edition (As Amended 2005).
2) International Maritime Organisation (IMO) International Maritime Dangerous Goods (IMDG) Code (Amdt 32-04).
3) United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) European Agreement concerning the International Carriage of Dangerous Goods by Road (ADR) 2007 Edition.
4) The Carriage of Dangerous Goods and Use of Transportable Pressure Equipment Regulations 2009 (CDG09), SI 2009 No. 1348.
5) For British registered ships and all other ships whilst in UK territorial waters, The Merchant Shipping (Dangerous Goods and Marine Pollutants) Regulations 1997, SI 1997 No 2367; Merchant Shipping Notice No MSN 1791(M), The Carriage of Dangerous Goods and Marine Pollutants in Packaged Form Amendment 32-04 to the International Maritime Dangerous Goods (IMDG) Code.
Apart from the above legislations, regulation of the safety of radioactive material transport by road, rail and sea in Great Britain is carried out by Department for Transport (DfT), Health and Safety Executive (HSE), the Office of Rail Regulation (ORR), Office for Civil Nuclear Security (OCNS), the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) and the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority.
The above legislation and regulations are subjected to a process of periodic review and revision.
Key risks in the storage and transportation of spent fuel:
1) Storage of spent fuel prior to transportation:
This involves the risk in handling the spent fuel and storing them at nuclear sites for a longer period to reduce the radioactive content. These spent fuel are preferably stored under the pool of water or dry cask for an appropriate period. If the containers are not well designed, it would result in discharge of harmful radiation and pose hazardous effects on the operating personnel. If the spent fuel is not stored for the stipulated period, it would still contain higher radioactive content that would affect the logistics personnel and the external environment (local community) while transporting the spent fuel.
2) Packaging of spent fuel:
After the cooling of spent fuel, Packaging is a critical task as failure in the design of the containers or non-adherence to Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) standards would invariably result in the discharge of radioactive waste posing a hazardous risk for the operating personnel and the surrounding environment.
3) Transportation of spent fuel to the repository/ reprocessing site:
Lack of safe transportation of spent fuel through the Carriage of Dangerous Goods and Use of Transportable Pressure Equipment Regulations 2009 (CDG 2009) would result in a risk due to the leak/ discharge of radioactive material and also lack of proactive approach towards accident and fire attack would adversely affect the operating personnel and the surrounding environment.
Justification for decisions concerning the appropriate management of the following risks:
Storage of spent fuel prior to transportation:
Under UK legislations, dry-cask storage of spent nuclear fuel is preferred over pool storage as the former one provides more longevity for the storage with less likelihood of radioactive emission and replacing the old casks with the new ones would improve the storage task which undoubtedly favours hassle-free transportation. In nutshell, there are no technical hassles for the safe storage of spent fuel as long as there is enough support from the operating personnel and adherence to legislations for control and constant maintenance of the task.
Packaging and transportation of spent fuel to repository/ reprocessing site:
Spent fuel from the nuclear power stations are transported in shielded transport flasks which are designed to reduce the radioactive dosage level under normal transport conditions and also during accidents or fire attack and the flasks are essentially required to be designed to meet the stringent standards defined by the IAEA Transport Regulations and UK Transport legislation. Secondly, UK has decades of experience of transporting spent fuel and never experienced the case of radioactive release during the transportation. Also under UK legislations, transportation by road and rail is considered as a low-radiological risk activity with adherence to safety, health and environmental awareness.
Proposal for the monitoring of ongoing risk management for the transportation of spent nuclear fuel:
There are basically two proposals which would directly or indirectly affect the transportation of spent nuclear fuel.
1) Implementation of Generation III nuclear reactor/ European Pressurised Reactor (EPR) in the UK (which is already being implemented in Finland and France) would consume very less amount of fuel and also the spent fuel coming out of it need not be reprocessed. This would substantially reduce the risk hazard involved in transporting the spent fuel twice i.e., from nuclear sites to consolidated interim storage/ reprocessing site and in turn, to the final repository.
2) Geological Disposal Facility (GDF):
This principle would isolate the radioactive waste/ spent fuel deep inside a rock formation and prevents any radioactive substance reaching the surface environment. GDF is actively being implemented in Finland, Sweden and USA. This would reduce the transportation hazard (better achievable after the implementation of EPR) and would be a permanent solution for the transportation task in reducing the number of trips from nuclear sites to the repository.
The pictorial representation and the flow chart are shown on the Poster.
