Left:
Existing approaches can’t easily separate some of the higher activity components, which thus means that the whole batch must be disposed of as waste
The initial focus is on material that is too radioactive to
be recycled immediately, but not radioactive enough to be disposed of as radioactive waste. There are substantial volumes of such material in play, making such an endeavour a significant contributor to nuclear waste reduction. “Worldwide in operation at the moment, there are 437 reactors and around 70 reactors in construction in China and elsewhere. So you have market of roughly 500 reactors today in operation. When we look at Europe there are 167 in operation and most of them are from the seventies and eighties, so about 30 years and more old. From those 167 there are 40 of them that will pretty soon, over the next 10 years, come to a dismantling phase. Furthermore, in Europe you have 70 reactors at the moment that are already in decommissioning. That could be that actual dismantling has just started, but that gives an indication of the European market.” Given these figures, there are roughly 100 reactors in
Europe that are either being decommissioned or are set to enter a decommissioning phase soon. “Making a calculation roughly you can suggest about 500 tonnes of steel in each
reactor that normally would be considered as waste, as a disposal issue with no future use. You can multiply now by hundred for Europe or multiply by 500 when looking at worldwide figures. We are looking at how can we improve this to benefit the circular economy by putting more metals into a second life,” explains Mulier.
Melting metals for recycling Given existing approaches can’t easily separate some of the higher activity components, which thus means that the whole batch must be disposed of as waste, the SCK CEN/ CRM research is focusing on how to coalesce radioactive materials in such a way that they can extract them from molten metal reasonably efficiently. “We aim to investigate first what the various nuclides
are doing once the radioactive metal has been melted. What’s their behaviour, are they staying in the middle, going to the surface or are they sinking maybe to the bottom?” says Mulier, adding: “Once you understand the behaviour in relation to the various parameters like temperature, pressure and so on, then we would like to direct those radionuclides in a certain way.”
Above: SCK CEN/CRM research is focusing on how to coalesce radioactive materials in such a way that they can extract them from molten metal reasonably efficiently
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