Overview of the Hungarian Low- and Intermediate-Level Radioactive Waste (L/ILW) Repository Project in Bátaapáti: implications to site selection and conceptual design of a near-surface disposal facility for L/ILW for the Philippines
M.A. Aurelio1
IAEA Fellow
and
Member, Technical Working Group, Subcommittee on Radioactive Waste Management2
2 Chair: Philippine Nuclear Research Institute, Department of Science and Technology
Members: Department Environment and Natural Resources
1Mines and Geosciences Bureau
Environment Management Bureau
Department of Energy
National Power Corporation
Abstract
Hungary is currently constructing a 1,600 meter-long inclined paired-tunnel in Bátaapáti village, located some 150 km SE of Budapest. Presently, the undertaking is performed as an exploratory exercise for scientific research, but the tunnel system, when completed, is expected to be utilized as a disposal faciltiy for low- and intermediate-level (L/ILW) radioactive waste. Focused efforts to institute a screening process for the selection of this site commenced in 1993. Not without delays that were variably caused by both technical and non-technical difficulties, actual tunnel construction started only in early 2005, after significant efforts were exerted to obtain political, financial and social support.
Pre- and during-construction activities are performed by a multi-institution team employing a multi-disciplinary research program that includes experiments and exercises in geology, geophysics, geotechnics, and mining and civil engineering. Geotechnical, mining and civil engineering teams focus their work in tunnel excavation and construction, while hydrodynamic and other geophysical experiments are performed within and around the repository to assess the overall integrity of the host rock formation.
Primarily driven by its institutional commitment to international regulations, the Philippines, thru a technical cooperation project with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), has embarked on a project to select a site for, and conceptualize the design of a near-surface repository for L/ILW. With other options being considered, the Hungarian experience may serve as a guiding example in the site selection and design conceptualization process. The Philippines has barely started, and if plans proceed at the Hungarian pace – already considered accelerated by some standards, construction of the Philippine radwaste repository could be started by 2017, a date perhaps too late to contemplate. And while the scientific and technical challenges promise to be foreboding, the country will need all the support it can get from its political and financial leaders. |