Session: 05-06: LLW Treatment & Packaging Developments

Paper Number: 109917

109917 - Software-Based Radioactive Waste Management From Cradle to Grave 

One of the most important tasks of radioactive waste management is to ensure complete and consistent knowledge of radioactive waste quantities from the cradle to the grave. This can be achieved by use of appropriate software-based accounting systems.  For this reason (and to prevent scandals such as the Transnuklear scandal in Germany in the mid-1980s) the use of appropriate software solutions is often required by regulatory authorities. In Germany, for example, the Nuclear Waste Management Ordinance (AtEV) stipulates (see § 2 para. 2) that facilities handling radioactive waste must use an electronic accounting system to provide complete and consistent information on their radiological inventory and to provide regular reports on radiological inventories to the competent authorities. In this way, the various regulatory authorities are able to monitor the facilities that handle radioactive waste and materials. Furthermore, it is also in the disposal companies' own interest to have efficient electronic waste management systems in order to derive key performance indicators to optimise waste flows and thus costs.  

But what features should a powerful software-based radioactive waste management system offer? A radioactive waste and materials accounting system must enable an organisation to document all information from waste packages such as radiological measurements, hazardous material data and physical values such as masses, dimensions and processing states.  Other information includes results of treatments, predecessor-successor relationships and, most important, all data from movements of a waste package such as transports on the company premises, storage operations and transports by road. The features mentioned are only the absolute mandatory features of an accounting system which are usually extended by functions for planning tasks, process controlling and clearance.

It becomes obvious that a modern and powerful accounting system in the context of waste management should be a single highly integrated system for the various tasks of radioactive waste management in order to be able to seamlessly track the complete life cycle of a waste package from the cradle to the grave.

Last but not least, based on our many years of experience, it can be stated that each facility dealing with radioactive waste has its own specific challenges which must be taken into account. This results in the need for a highly integrated radioactive waste management system to be flexible to meet very individual requirements.

TÜV Rheinland Industrie Service GmbH has developed the accounting system ReVK for the management of radioactive wastes materials. ReVK brings together 30 years of experience in the development of highly integrated, software-based radioactive waste management systems for nearly all organisations in the nuclear sector, such as federal collecting sites, nuclear power plants in operation and decommissioning, final disposal sites, radio-pharmaceutical manufacturers and more.

Presenting Author: Christian Gerst TÜV Rheinland Industrie Service GmbH

Presenting Author Biography: Since 2014: Project Manager Software Development for radioactive waste management solutions
2011 – 2014: Project Manager in a research project in the context of fault tolerant software
2008 – 2011: Software developer and software assessor in the nuclear field
2005 – 2008: Software Developer