IAEA/WMDB/9 (2008) Guide-13
(A)
(F)
(B) (C) (D)
(E)
(G) (H)
Figure 7: Example Site Data Report – RWMF Site Cuba (Part 1) (please see Table 3)
IAEA/WMDB/9 (2008) Guide-15
(B) (G) (F)
Figure 8: Example Site Data Report – RWMF Site Cuba (Part 2)
(please see Table 3 for notes)
Table 3: Explanation of the Site Data Report in Figure 12 through Figure 15
Item in Figure 12
Description
(A) Inventory report table
Each Reporting Group is assigned a waste class matrix, which identifies one or more waste classes. The inventory report table is used to indicate the total volume of waste for each class of waste at each waste management site in the Reporting Group (if a site has multiple waste management facilities, the default situation is to report only the total volume in all facilities). See item (C) below
(B) name of waste class
(C) location (storage or disposal), facility (optional) and waste form (optional) CCs can decide to report waste inventories according to the following options:
(1) total waste at the site reported for each class of waste
(2) total waste in each facility at the site reported for each class of waste (3) total liquid and/or solid waste at the site for each class of waste (4) combinations of the above options
(D) processing status (Yes = waste is processed, No = waste is not processed)
In its current implementation, the processing status only indicates if the waste is “as generated”
(unprocessed) or if some treatment and/or conditioning has been performed.
(E) volume of waste in m3
(F) distribution of waste by origin
The purpose of this field is to indicate the amounts of waste that have relatively consistent characteristics versus those that may have more widely varying characteristics. This can be useful for estimating future requirements for managing wastes.
For example, many wastes from nuclear power plants (reactor operations waste) have relatively consistent characteristics. Therefore, knowledge of today’s wastes can be used to estimate the inventories (volumes, radionuclides, chemical properties, etc) of future wastes. On the other hand, there may be large uncertainties about the characteristics of decommissioning wastes, notably if different types of facilities are to be decommissioned (i.e., knowledge of today’s decommissioning wastes may not be a good indicator of the inventories of future decommissioning wastes).
Many Member States, even those with advanced data management systems, do not track wastes according to the origins indicated. Therefore, the percentages reported may be best estimates (the “Est”
column indicates these cases). The origin of some or all of the waste may not be known or assessed. The
“ND” column is used to indicate this situation.
(G) list of treatment methods at the site or list of conditioning methods at the site (see Figure 13); CCs choose methods from a pick list of methods
(H) implementation/usage status for the treatment or conditioning method
IAEA/WMDB/9 (2008) Guide-17
R&D = “Yes” indicates that the Member State has an active research and development programme for the method. The Member State can indicate that it has an R&D programme even though the method is currently in use (e.g., for improving the method).
Current = decrease, same, increase, suspended or intermittent: If the method is currently in use, the Member State indicates if there is a change in usage over the last five years. The values increase, same and decrease are relative indicators. The following Internet page illustrates how to select the value:
http://www-newmdb.iaea.org/showhelp.asp?Topic=7-3-2
Past practice = “Yes” if the Member State had used the method in the past but currently the method is no longer in use (excludes suspended or intermittent, implies no intention to reuse the method).
Item in
Figure 13
Description
(A) SRS inventory report table
Spent/disused sealed radioactive sources (SRS) were handled as a special case in the NEWMDB for two reasons:
(1) For some Member States, the only radioactive wastes requiring management are (a) wastes that can undergo delay/decay and be released as non-radioactive waste and (b) spent/disused SRS. Typically the volumes of spent/disused SRS are small but the hazard can be high (such as high activity Co-60 SRS or long-lived radium SRS). If these Member States were to report only volumes of waste (see Figure 12), the low volumes would not be indicative of the risk involved and the waste management efforts needed to deal with SRS.
(2) Accidents with spent/disused SRS account for a significant proportion of all radiation accidents.
Accidents occur because SRS fall out of regulatory or operational control, for example they get lost or abandoned, and they are discovered by persons who are unaware of the risks they pose. Therefore, some Member States felt that it was necessary to include lists of spent/disused SRS in the NEWMDB.
However, often there is confusion about the relationship between controlling SRS and the purpose of waste management databases, like the NEWMDB.
The tracking and accounting of individual SRS before they reach waste management facilities is important to ensure that they do not fall out of regulatory or operational control. However, once they reach waste management facilities, there is no strict need to track all SRS individually. For example, some Member States’ waste management facilities accept hospital, university, industrial and/or research facility wastes that contain SRS as a component of waste packages. A 210L drum may contain items such as paper, cloth, and glass contaminated with radionuclides and it may also contain a number of small activity, low hazard SRS. Typically, a package is tracked in a waste management facility, not the individual items in the package. While a package’s characteristics may be entered into a database (such as the amount of Cs-137 in the package), the Cs-137 may derive from one or more SRS in the package as well as from other items.
The result is that some waste management facilities may not maintain a complete listing of individual SRS they possess. This is especially true for wastes managed over many years when SRS tracking was not the issue it is today. For many large waste management organizations, “waste is waste” and only
(C) number of SRS and their activity
Based on manufacturing data for SRS, Member States were asked to identify SRS according to activity ranges. Item (C) in Figure 13 illustrates that there are three activity ranges for radionuclides with half lives less than or equal to 30 years. Figure 14 illustrates that there are two ranges for SRS with half lives greater than 30 years. In the IAEA’s previous waste management database, Member States were asked to list individual SRS, which can be an enormous burden to do. The NEWMDB allows the input of groups of SRS, where the number of SRS in the group and their total activity is entered. PLEASE NOTE: grouping is according to the activity of individual SRS, it is not according to the total activity of SRS in the group. In the example in Figure 13, the average activity of SRS in a group (the total activity reported for the group divided by number of SRS in a group) must be within the range of activities for the group. The following is the Internet address to an Acrobat PDF file that provides examples of how Member States can group SRS in their NEWMDB submissions:
http://www-newmdb.iaea.org/help/examples.pdf
The activity of SRS or groups of SRS is reported in GBq.
(D) conditioning status
This field indicates whether or not SRS are in an “as generated” state or they have been conditioned. If SRS are grouped, the following combinations are valid:
cond = No, uncond = Yes (all SRS unconditioned) cond = Yes, uncond = No (all SRS conditioned)
cond = Yes, uncond = Yes (mix of unconditioned and conditioned SRS)
(E) Member States have the option of categorizing sources according to the scheme in the Agency technical document IAEA-TECDOC-1344 (July 2003), "Categorization of Radioactive Sources"[8]. A value 0 indicates that the IAEA categorization scheme is not specified. Other pick list values indicate the relevant category in the cited technical document.
(F) total activity
the value in this field is calculated by an NEWMDB algorithm. It is the total activity reported for all radionuclides listed on the same line of the report. The activity is reported in GBq.
(G) decay date
Due to radioactive decay, the activity of SRS decline over time. This is particularly significant for SRS with half lives less than or equal to 30 years, especially for radionuclides like Co-60 (about 5 years). As such, it is common practice to report the activity of SRS as of a particular reference date to allow anyone to calculate the activity of the SRS at any future date relative to the reference date. The decay date field means that the activity cited for the identified SRS or group of SRS is the activity as of the cited date.
If the decay date is an estimate, the word “estimate” appears in the report.
In the General Information part of the NEWMDB, CCs identify who regulates radioactive waste, the regulations/laws that are relevant to radioactive waste management, significant milestones in radioactive waste management in their countries, and radioactive waste management policies. The following describes the various reports that are created based on information entered by CCs. Note: None of the data fields are “required” – CCs decide what information will (or can) be provided. For example, a Member State may not have a regulator, it may not have any relevant laws, etc.
Figure 16 provides an example of a “Regulators report”. Additional details can be accessed via the following Internet page:
http://www-newmdb.iaea.org/showhelp.asp?Topic=6-6-2
Figure 17 provides an example of a Regulations/Laws report. Additional details can be accessed via the following Internet page:
http://www-newmdb.iaea.org/showhelp.asp?Topic=6-6-4
IAEA/WMDB/9 (2008) Guide-19
Figure 19 provides an example of a “Policies” report. Additional details can be accessed via the following Internet page:
http://www-newmdb.iaea.org/showhelp.asp?Topic=6-6-9