WORKSHOP ON A COMMON FRAMEWORK FOR THE SAFETY OF RADIOACTIVE WASTE MANAGEMENT DISPOSAL Wednesday, 4 July 2007 SESSION V

1. WORKSHOP ON A COMMON FRAMEWORK FOR THE SAFETY OF RADIOACTIVE WASTE MANAGEMENT DISPOSALWednesday,4 July 2007 SESSION V: DISPOSAL ISSUES

2. Summary of presentations • Management of NORM (Joshua Ellis -South Africa) • High level v/s low level waste (Kaye Hart – Australia) • Low activity waste (Karoly Berci – Hungary) • Management of low activity waste from mining and minerals processing facilities (John Selby - South Africa) • Management of special types of waste (Francois Besnus – France)

3. Management of NORM • Disposal of waste from the gold and uranium mining industry • Particular challenge: CAT III materials (> 1000 Bq/g) • Successes in management of tailings • Challenges: • Management of waste rock (< 0.5 Bq/g) • Long term institutional control • Interaction with stakeholders and their preparedness to agree to options for closeout / reprocessing

4. HLW vs. ILW (Australian perspective) • Current classification contains a quantitative delineation between HLW and ILW (2 kW/m3) • Problems arising for Australia if this does not appear in the new Safety Guide: • Operational and contractual difficulties to accept wastes from reprocessing back to Australia • Negative stakeholder reaction • Request to maintain consistency of the classification in this regard

5. Outcomes of the Cordoba Symposium 2004 • Issues identified at the Symposium: • The pressure to minimize disposal costs; • The different levels of regulation across Member States; • The inadequate knowledge of some national waste inventories; • The poor understanding of radiation doses associated with NORM; • The inadequate level of support available to countries with limitedresources; • The exploitation of countries with lower standards by unscrupulouscommercial interests; • The option of long term storage as an alternative to disposal.

6. Management of low activity waste from mining and minerals processing (SA) • Case study for the management of tails from the processing of mineral sands • Examination of options with regard to achieve compliance with regulations: • Blending these tails with lower level wastes • Burial of these tails beneath the other wastes • Questions: • Which regulatory criteria apply? • What is the best option?

7. Mangement of special waste types (France) • Overview of radioactive waste in France and strategy to manage these • Particular wastes: • Graphite waste from Gas-Graphite reactors • TE-Norm (ore processing, enhanced Ra-226) • Disused Sources • Requirements and options for their management in intermediate depth disposal facility • Long-term safety issues (e.g. performance of engineered barriers)

8. Key areas of interest • Challenges on management and storage of NORM waste at the mining and minerals processing facilities • Dilution • Institutional control of LLA rad waste • Suitability of long term management options of waste from the mining facilities • Large volumes involved • Levels of activity • Safety demonstration

9. Key areas of interest • Consideration of NORM / VLLW in the IAEA waste classification system • Regulatory environment • Lack of consistency between Agency Guidelines • Changing guidelines should take into account users… especially small countries with limited capacity or resources. • Outcomes and open issues identified by the Cordoba Symposium