Conditioning and producing of waste packages

It includes the mechanical size reduction, decontamination, compaction, incineration or other thermal treatment, embedding in waste matrices and packing.

Waste products result from conditioning, which including their packaging, form a unit which without further interventions into its integrity can be handled and transferred for the further waste disposal steps of transport, interim storage and emplacement into a geological deep repository.

Combustible and fusible radioactive waste is collected in drums, documented and conditioned, e.g. in the ZWILAG plasma system, where a resistant glass product is produced.

The following requirements from the Swiss federal nuclear safety inspectorate (ENSI) must be considered for the conditioning:

• Radioactive waste should be conditioned as rapidly as possible. The accumulation of unconditioned waste for periodic conditioning campaigns is permitted.
• Conditioned waste packages must be suitable for transport, interim storage and geological deep repository.
• Every waste package must be labelled and provided with documentation which covers the production, composition and characteristics of the waste package. The documentation must be retained and provided to the organisation which carries out the further waste management steps.
• For the production of a conditioned waste package, an application for a type- or single-approval must be submitted to the regulatory body ENSI which provides the authorisation.
• All documents required for assessment must be included with the application, which in particular contain details regarding the conditioning process, the waste package and its components, quality assurance and the documentation.

The waste packages must be assigned to waste package types, with regard to specifying physical and chemical properties, handling procedures to be used as well as the documentation to be prepared. Waste package types and the production of corresponding waste packages require approval from ENSI. The approval process also explicitly includes the provision of evidence that the waste package to be produced are compatible with geological deep repository.

This means that even at the producing stage, it can be ensured that the waste package can be placed in geological deep repository – i.e. in an enclosed system in underground geology, providing permanent protection of humans and the environment with passive barriers.