Lecture 11 - Radioactive Waste
Lecture reading: Please, select after interest from the bibliography below.
Handouts 2022
Links to videos that we (tried to) view in the lecture
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- Nuclear reactor
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1U6Nzcv9Vws Links to an external site. - CLAB in Oskarshamn
https://youtu.be/OBZFZ6w_N2Q Links to an external site. - Deep repository, Onkolo in Olkiluoto in Finland (not viewed in lecture) – HLW depository in operation (the world’s only)
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoy_WJ3mE50 Links to an external site.
Animation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y965Ddx9s-4 Links to an external site.(showing the technology)
- Cigeo in France, planning of deposition in clay lense
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UiSrVLKZ-TA Links to an external site. - Forsmark in Sweden (longer version than that viewed in lecture)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRo68lIxd0I Links to an external site. - Yucca Mountain: The USA's Nuclear Dump (not viewed in lecture)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWu_SOF_qvc Links to an external site. - Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) Experience
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2mtwvY5Wv0 Links to an external site.
N.B. Be aware of position of the producers of the videos. View critically!
Question regarding “heavy water”
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I did not answer this question in the lecture. The reactors that uses heavy water are heavy water reactors (HWRs) and pressurized heavy-water reactor (PHWR). The reactors in Sweden are of BWR (boiling water reactor) and PWR (pressurised water reactor); neither uses heavy water (actually, the closed one in Ågesta in suburban Stockolm did and the planned one in Marviken as well). It is mainly Canada and India that uses heavy water reactors, along with Romania and South Korea, with a few reactors also in other countries. (An overview, although possibly not fully correct is given at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_commercial_nuclear_reactors
Links to an external site.)
Question regarding “radioactivity in tailings”
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I did not have time to answer this question fully. Please, see the table below from Radiochemistry and Nuclear Chemistry (3d Ed. by Choppin, Liljenzin och Rydberg. There is a compilation of disposal methods by Peter Waggitt from 1994, that you can access on :
https://www.awe.gov.au/system/files/resources/7baf0bdd-a928-4d58-a0a7-1e7e5647ca3c/files/tm48.pdf
Links to an external site.
Old, but still gives some type of picture. Today, remediation of uranium mine sites is also ongoing.
Question regarding uranium mining in Sweden
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I did not have time to answer this question fully. Today, it is not permitted to mine for uranium in Sweden. In the late 1960s (at the same time the nuclear power plant in Marviken was planned (with the capacity to produce plutonium)) there was mining in Ranstad, Billingen close to Skövde in Vätergötland where about 200 ton of uranium was mined. From 1953 until 1960 another 50 ton were extracted at Kvarntorp, outside Örebro in Närke.
Here is a link to where uranium deposits are found in Sweden: https://www.sgu.se/en/physical-planning/energy/uranium/ Links to an external site.
Sources are normally shales.
In Finnslätten in Västerås nuclear fuel is produced from enriched uranium dioxide.
SVT film from the uranium mining in Kvarntorp
Mining for Uranium in Kvarntorp, Sweden. Voice in Swedish. SVT. The film was originally broadcast in December 1957 in the program ’Sådan är atomen – räddar liv, ger kraft åt miljoner’. (Eng., freely translated: ’Such is the atom - saves lives, gives power to millions".) Reporter is Bengt Feldreich.
Bibliography
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- http://www.world-nuclear.org Links to an external site.
- http://www.oecd-nea.org Links to an external site.
- http://www.skb.se Links to an external site.
- www.stralsakerhetsmyndigheten.se Links to an external site.
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radioactive_waste Links to an external site.
- www.ieer.org Links to an external site.
- http://www.ensreg.eu/safe-management-spent-fuel-and-radioactive-waste/categorisation-radioactive-waste Links to an external site.
- http://www-ns.iaea.org Links to an external site.
- https://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/basic-ref/students/what-is-nuclear-energy.html Links to an external site.
- www.andra.fr Links to an external site.
- www.posiva.fi Links to an external site.
- www.nei.org Links to an external site.
- Links to an external site.www.iaea.org Links to an external site.
- https Links to an external site.://www.numo.or.jp/en Links to an external site./ Links to an external site.
- http:// Links to an external site.www.world-nuclear.org/information-library/nuclear-fuel-cycle/fuel-recycling/processing-of-used-nuclear-fuel.aspx Links to an external site.
- https:// Links to an external site.www.youtube.com/user/SKBplay Links to an external site.
- https:// Links to an external site.international.andra.fr/solutions-long-lived-waste/cigeo Links to an external site.
- https
Links to an external site.://
Links to an external site.www.jaea.go.jp/english/04/ntokai/backend/backend_01_04.html
Links to an external site.
https Links to an external site.:// Links to an external site.www.iaea.org/publications/14739/status-and-trends-in-spent-fuel-and-radioactive-waste-management Links to an external site.