Managing Higher Activity Radioactive Waste: Package Assurance

Waste packagers will need to prove that waste packages sent to a GDF satisfy the relevant disposal requirements and safety cases. The GDF operator will manage this through defining the Waste Acceptance Criteria (WAC) and also judging the acceptability of individual waste packages against these criteria.

The period between packaging waste and accepting packages into a GDF may span several decades. Package Assurance therefore aims to maintain confidence that manufactured waste packages eventually can be judged compliant against the WAC, based on the records associated with the packages. NWS also maintains a programme of audits to support maintaining confidence.

Risks related to accepting waste packages for future geological disposal include loss of waste package information, evolution of waste packages and changes to the generic Disposal System Safety Case which may result in changes to the WAC.

Package Assurance requires positive collaboration between the waste packager and NWS.

Package records are important for Package Assurance as they will represent the basis for judging acceptability. The NDA Waste Package Records Programme manages risks to disposability relating to information being lost, inaccessible or becoming invalid. A range of information and documents are required to form waste package records. This can be grouped into three categories as shown below:

Underpinning and justification

These records demonstrate that application of the waste packaging process would result in waste packages and records that are consistent with NWS requirements.

Management and control system

These records define the process controls under which packages should be manufactured to ensure they are consistent with WAC.

Demonstration of compliance

These records demonstrate that each individual waste package has been manufactured in accordance with the defined controls.

For more details on the process and supporting documents, email info@nuclearwasteservices.uk

See previous: Managing Higher Activity Radioactive Waste: Disposability Assessment