Session: 10-01 R&D - Euratom-funded R&D Overviews

Paper Number: 110268

110268 - Digitalization and Digital Twins in Long Term Management of Radioactive Waste 

Digitalization (Digitalization and Artificial Intelligence) is the fastest emerging trend in engineering and natural science applications. As an example data-driven and physics-inspired machine learning methods have been developed and evaluated to accelerate numerical simulations; evaluating their usability for applications related to the nuclear waste management cycle is therfore of high relevance. Under the umbrella of the Euratom projects on European Joint Programme on Radioactive Waste Management (EURAD) and on Pre-disposal Management of Radioactive Waste (PREDIS), different initiatives have been established to facilitate evaluation and implementation of  digitalization technologies (and specifically digital twins mirroring their corresponding physical assets) for long-term radioactive waste management. Previous studies indicate that digitalization is an important tool, specifically linked to safety and performance analysis, to improve processes throughout the whole waste management cycle including pre-disposal activities like treatment, conditioning storage and aspects related to the operation and long-term performance of disposal systems. However, before implementation, several challenges related to different facets of digital twins and digitalisation need further research. At this stage, the specific potential and role of different aspects of digital transformation for different aspects of waste management is still somewhat vague. In this contribution, an overview will be given addressing selected research aspects based on activities that are ongoing in EURAD and PREDIS.

Presenting Author: Diederik Jacques Belgian Nuclear Research Centre (SCK CEN)

Presenting Author Biography: Diederik Jacques is Head of Unit Engineered and Geosystem Analysis at SCK CEN. He obtained his PhD in Agricultural and Applied Biological Sciences at the Catholique University of Leuven (Belgium). He worked as a post-doctoral researcher at SCK CEN in 2002 and became a group leader in 2011. His long-term experience covers such areas as flow and transport phenomena in porous media, coupled reactive transport modelling, parameter estimation, geostatistical characterization and pore-scale/continuum-scale model development. The most recent research is focused on soil-aquifer interactions, long-term evolution of cement-based materials, contaminant and colloid transport in porous media, and performance assessments of surface and deep radioactive waste disposal systems or NORM sites. A major achievement is the development of the coupled reactive transport code HPx for variable saturated porous media