AMG Advanced Metallurgical Group N.V., (AMG) through its nuclear engineering business unit, Furnaces Nuclear Applications Grenoble (FNAG), Grenoble, France, announces a joint development project with Empresa Nacional de Residuos Radiactivos, S.A. (ENRESA) and Centro de Investigaciones Energéticas, Medioambientales y Tecnològicas (CIEMAT), Spain, to develop technologies enabling safe final disposal of nuclear contaminated (irradiated) graphite.
This project will focus on the decontamination of radioactive material and, in parallel, processing such material into AMG's Impermeable Graphite Matrix (IGM). Successful application of the IGM technology could result in a significant volume reduction of radioactive material by converting the material into solid, non-porous blocks for direct disposal. This three-year research and development project will also study the industrial and economic feasibility of using IGM technology for the safe disposal of irradiated graphite.
Current nuclear waste storage technologies based on metal containers suffer from corrosion, which may result in the release of radio nuclides into the environment. Through its experience in High Temperature Reactor (HTR) nuclear technology, AMG has produced IGM samples with a porous free matrix and an extremely high corrosion resistance. Based upon these initial tests, the IGM technology may have the ability to process irradiated graphite material into solid, porous free blocks from which radioactive 14C (Carbon-14) and 36Cl (Clorine-36) material cannot escape.
Upon meeting certain milestones, this project could develop AMG's IGM technology to be used to dispose of the irradiated graphite nuclear waste arising from the dismantling of the reactor core from Spain's Vandellós 1 reactor. AMG will invest approximately $1.2 million in this project over the next three years.
Safe disposal of more than 200,000 tonnes of irradiated graphite nuclear waste is becoming a more significant issue as over 100 graphite moderated nuclear reactors, primarily in the Europe and North America, are being shutdown or nearing the end of their useful lives. In these reactors graphite was used as a moderator and reflector of neutrons and in other applications in the reactor cores, such as fuel elements. The safe storage of these radioactive graphite elements is a material issue in the decommissioning of these reactors.