2009 Report to Government on National Research and

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TBuRD system in its current form. It states that “His<strong>to</strong>rically, the short-term benefits gained from carrying risks associated with the technical underpinning of projects led <strong>to</strong> significant cost implications and delays <strong>to</strong> projects and programmes. Today, we believe the technical baselines and identification of R&D requirements will help the SLCs <strong>to</strong> focus on overall programme delivery and not just short-term activities”. This document is being revised <strong>to</strong> reflect the creation of the NDA’s Radioactive Waste Management Direc<strong>to</strong>rate (para. 3.17) and provide an updated description of NDA’s non-site R&D. 3.9 The NDA role is primarily one of strategic and contract management, helping <strong>to</strong> avoid duplication of similar work over its seven SLCs. The NDA Research Board on Nuclear Decommissioning and Waste Clean Up (NDARB) is an advisory body which provides high-level oversight, and has members from government departments, regula<strong>to</strong>rs and Research Councils. It also has two independent members including one from HSE’s Nuclear Safety Research Review Group (previously a sub-committee of the Nuclear Safety Advisory Committee (NuSAC), which has been disbanded). The primary objective of NDARB, which meets every four months (see NDARB Terms of Reference 2 ), is <strong>to</strong>: “promote a common understanding and collaboration between relevant bodies across the UK about respective R&D needs, risks and opportunities required <strong>to</strong> enable the delivery of the NDA mission. Where appropriate these activities will be linked <strong>to</strong> long term skills and capability requirements.”. 3.10 At the operational level, the Nuclear Waste Research Forum (NWRF) was set up <strong>to</strong> share information and create networks between SLCs. It reports <strong>to</strong> NDARB. NWRF includes representatives from NDA, its SLCs, RWMD, AWE and the regula<strong>to</strong>rs (NII, EA, SEPA and the Department for Transport (DfT)), the Ministry of Defence (MoD) and British Energy. It meets every three months. A number of NWRF sub-groups have been established <strong>to</strong> look at generic <strong>to</strong>pics common across SLCs and other waste producers. These <strong>to</strong>pics include waste packaging, wet wastes, sludges and heels characterisation, remote size reduction and dismantling, categorisation and re-categorisation of wastes, decontamination, high temperature processes, orphan wastes, and contaminated land and site end states. A new sub-group on interim s<strong>to</strong>rage held its first meeting in June <strong>2009</strong>. 3.11 From feedback CoRWM has received at meetings with regula<strong>to</strong>rs and the SLCs involved, the NWRF is perceived <strong>to</strong> be generally working effectively. NWRF is recognised as a good meeting point <strong>to</strong> share ideas and identify areas of common interest. Progress has been made where it is possible <strong>to</strong> find simple pragmatic solutions <strong>to</strong> short-term operational problems, and <strong>to</strong> put in hand R&D which addresses specific problem areas and delivers solutions. However, CoRWM understands that there have been some difficulties caused by lack of technical personnel <strong>to</strong> do the work or by limited access <strong>to</strong> funding for longer-term R&D because of competition with short-term operational claims (CoRWM docs. 2386, 2519, 2464). 2 http://www.nda.gov.uk/ CoRWM Document 2543, Oc<strong>to</strong>ber <strong>2009</strong> Page 28 of 151
Figure 1. Structure of UK R&D provision for management of higher activity wastes CoRWM Document 2543, Oc<strong>to</strong>ber <strong>2009</strong> Page 29 of 151 Acronym Legend AWE A<strong>to</strong>mic Weapons Establishment BBSRC - Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council BE - British Energy BGS - British Geological Survey DRP - Direct Research Portfolio EA - Environment Agency EC - European Commission EPSRC - Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council ESRC - Economic and Social Research Council GDRF - Geological Disposal Research Forum HSE - Health and Safety Executive LoA - Letter of Arrangement group MoD - Ministry of Defence NDA - Nuclear Decommissioning Authority NERC - Natural Environment Research Council NNL - National Nuclear Labora<strong>to</strong>ry NWAT - Environment Agency’s Nuclear Waste Assessment Team NWRF - Nuclear Waste Research Forum RCEP - Research Council Energy Programme RCUK - Research Councils UK RWMD - Radioactive Waste Management Direc<strong>to</strong>rate SAC - RCEP’s Scientific Advisory Committee SEPA - Scottish Environment Protection Agency SISB - Science and Innovation Strategy Board SLCs - Site Licensing Companies STFC - Science and Technology Facilities Council TSB - Technology Strategy Board
Page 1 and 2: Committee on Radioactive Waste Mana
Page 3 and 4: Finland ...........................
Page 5 and 6: Geosphere Characterisation ........
Page 7 and 8: EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 1. CoRWM’s remi
Page 9 and 10: odies would need to</strong
Page 11 and 12: disseminate and assimilate its resu
Page 13 and 14: 1.3 CoRWM’s Work Programme for 20
Page 15 and 16: 1.11 The R&D requirements for the l
Page 17 and 18: 2. ESTABLISHING R&D REQUIREMENTS Wh
Page 19 and 20: adioactive waste management facilit
Page 21 and 22: should mitigate the risks of findin
Page 23 and 24: there is no unwarranted repetition
Page 25 and 26: safety case development, the overal
Page 27: Table 1. Approximate annual levels
Page 31 and 32: NDA R&D for Geological Disposal 3.1
Page 33 and 34: 3.27 The purpose of NNL can be summ
Page 35 and 36: identified the research required an
Page 37 and 38: submitted to RCEP
Page 39 and 40: Box 1. Research Council Funded Univ
Page 41 and 42: 3.62 BGS is conducting three projec
Page 43 and 44: 3.70 In the current FP7 programme (
Page 45 and 46: 3.77 RCEP noted that there was a la
Page 47 and 48: sectors: land disp
Page 49 and 50: eyond those that RWMD intends <stro
Page 51 and 52: Box 2. USDOE 2006 Workshop R&D Issu
Page 53 and 54: 3.111 Fundamental and applied resea
Page 55 and 56: France 3.122 There are six major gr
Page 57 and 58: and in concert with Forpro is desig
Page 59 and 60: • encourage the transfer and pres
Page 61 and 62: comparison to othe
Page 63 and 64: 4. R&D SKILLS TO SUPPORT THE MRWS P
Page 65 and 66: Figure 3. UK Nuclear Skills Map Sou
Page 67 and 68: ensure the availability of a skille
Page 69 and 70: which is longer than the competitio
Page 71 and 72: Box 4. Postgraduate University Prov
Page 73 and 74: 4.30 The NDA also operates a gradua
Page 75 and 76: for NDA to acquire
Page 77 and 78: Retention of Skills 4.48 It has bee
Page 79 and 80:
5. INFRASTRUCTURE REQUIRED FOR R&D
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purchase of equipment. In addition,
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5.23 The Pacific Northwest National
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5.35 The range of possible function
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5.40 Early in 2009
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6. SOME R&D ISSUES 6.1 R&D carried
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interactions, the impact of highly
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7. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
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7.11 CoRWM has found that responsib
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and Appendix A is only intended <st
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Current and Planned R&D for ILW A.5
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wasteform integrity at end of s<str
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Magnox Fuel A.20 Magnox fuel consis
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capability exists in the UK for doi
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purpose-built building. The former
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pending a decision on its long-term
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through all these. The nature of th
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Box 7. Radionuclide Speciation Many
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could mix with the bulk hydrogen ga
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than that for uranium-235. Likewise
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near-field of the part containing t
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• Long-term stability and perform
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few millimetres to
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environment, all with the character
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Number Title 2500 Interim S
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EPSRC, 2009. Grant
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Nuclear Decommissioning Authority,
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Skomurski FN, Ewing RC, Rohl AL, Ga
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Co-location Disposal of “high lev
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Geosphere Solid portion of the eart
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Packaging Placing waste int
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Stillage A metal frame used <strong
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BNGSL British Nuclear Group Sellafi
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FP Framework Programme (of the Euro
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MOX mixed oxide fuel (contains uran
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RS Royal Society RSC Royal Society
Page 151:
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Leadership in the
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2009 Report to Government on National Research and

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