[en] In most German interim storage facilities, hundreds of waste packages are waiting for re-conditioning and qualification to comply with the waste acceptance criteria (WAC) for the Konrad repository. Especially the waste classification as well as some characteristics and the description of the material composition in its current state do not comply with the Konrad requirements since the conditioning of these waste packages took place up to 40 years ago. The German name for these waste packages is 'Altgebinde', hereafter referred to as 'legacy waste packages'. The present article will provide an overview of the measures for the qualification of these legacy waste packages to fulfill the Konrad requirements. The following measures, when necessary, are carried out for the qualification of legacy waste packages: - Collection and evaluation of all documents related to the primary conditioning process, e. g. the used equipment, documented waste and packaging properties, conditioning and radiology, if available (hereafter 'old documents'). - Preparation of a conceptual report and a process control quality plan based on existing data, with appropriate measures to qualify the waste packages. Assessment and approval of the process control quality plan by the competent authority. - Characterization of the waste and packaging properties by visual inspection or tomography, recording or updating of dose rate, contamination and mass, verification of product stability, for example by gas analysis of the interior atmosphere of the container. - Characterization of the nuclide inventory by gammas scans, sample taking to analyze nuclides which can not be measured by means of in-situ gamma spectrometry, and for material declaration. - Qualification or post-conditioning of the legacy waste packages if necessary, e. g. by drying the waste packages and packaging them in containers approved for disposal. - Compilation of all results of the above mentioned tests and steps to create a waste package documentation, including the calculations for the nuclide inventory and the description of the material composition of the waste packages. - Receiving approval by the competent authority after evaluation of the final documentation. The aim behind this structured approach is to prevent additional, unnecessary measures and treatment of the waste. Consequently, the additional characterization is preferably carried out on the basis of the available documents. (authors)

[en] With its 40 years of nuclear experience, GNS, the world leading supplier of casks for spent fuel, ILW and HLW, also offers services for conditioning and management of all types of radioactive waste, especially for the German NPP. Since 1985, GNS treats and packages ILW and LLW from the operations and phase-out of German NPP in its Duisburg plant. To enable its permanent safe final disposal, solid wastes are compacted and dried before being shipped to an interim storage facility or - later - the Konrad repository. The total premises cover 20.000 m² (215.000 sq ft), of which 9000 m² (97.000 sq ft) is controlled area. The Duisburg Plant has three large industrial warehouses (each 25 m x 136 m or 82 ft x 446 ft) with a total capacity of 10.200 m² or 110.000 sqft. For the treatment of open contaminated waste, six enclosures were built. These enclosures have a special ventilation system including a specific filtration plant. In one enclosure a high compaction plant was used, in another enclosures a drying facility for drums was in operation. During peak periods, more than 900 tonne of waste were treated annually. One enclosure was mainly used for maintenance, restoration and extension of mobile facilities, which were normally used for campaigns in NPP. Due to the decreasing amount of operational waste during the nuclear phase out in Germany, GNS has decided to close the Duisburg Plant. In the first half-year of 2017, the last waste packages were treated but around 80 20'-containers are still located on site. The D and D started in January 2017. The presentation will show the first experience of decommission processes of the first three enclosures. The following steps including the techniques used will be explained in detail: - Dismantling and removal of the high compaction facility; - Dismantling and removal of the drying facility; - Cleaning and wipe tests of the empty enclosures; - Removal of the stainless steel plates of the floor; - Investigations of the lower floor parts for contamination; - Removal of contaminated underground drainpipes; - Decontamination of the concrete floor; - Dismantling of the ventilation system in three enclosures; - Dismantling of the steel constructions. An important aim during the dismantling is to reduce the amount of nuclear waste and maximize the fraction material for free release. Next to the first three enclosures, in one of the enclosure IV - VI, a 150 tons scrap shear had been installed before the construction of the enclosure building. The scrap shear has to be dismantled and handled by heavy duty lifting equipment. Only afterwards is it possible to start the decommissioning of the last three enclosures. Our goal is to transfer this very large controlled area and the whole plant to the site owner, the Duisburg Port company, after 2 years and 5 months and doing so in a way so that the industrial warehouses can be used again for all possible types of industries. (authors)

[en] Zion Nuclear Power Station (ZNPS) is a dual-unit Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR) nuclear power plant located on the Lake Michigan shoreline, in the city of Zion, Illinois approximately 64 km (40 miles) north of Chicago, Illinois and 67 km (42 miles) south of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Each PWR is of the Westinghouse design and had a generation capacity of 1040 MW. Exelon Corporation operated both reactors with the first unit starting production of power in 1973 and the second unit coming on line in 1974. The operation of both reactors ceased in 1996/1997. In 2010 the Nuclear Regulatory Commission approved the transfer of Exelon Corporation's license to ZionSolutions, the Long Term Stewardship subsidiary of EnergySolutions responsible for the decommissioning of ZNPS. In October 2010, ZionSolutions awarded Siempelkamp Nuclear Services, Inc. (SNS) the contract to plan, segment, remove, and package both reactor vessels and their respective internals. This presentation discusses the tools employed by SNS to remove and segment the Reactor Vessel Internals (RVI) and Reactor Vessels (RV) and conveys the recent progress. SNS's mechanical segmentation tooling includes the C-HORCE (Circumferential Hydraulically Operated Cutting Equipment), BMT (Bolt Milling Tool), FaST (Former Attachment Severing Tool) and the VRS (Volume Reduction Station). Thermal segmentation of the reactor vessels will be accomplished using an Oxygen- Propane cutting system. The tools for internals segmentation were designed by SNS using their experience from other successful reactor and large component decommissioning and demolition (D and D) projects in the US. All of the designs allow for the mechanical segmentation of the internals remotely in the water-filled reactor cavities. The C-HORCE is designed to saw seven circumferential cuts through the Core Barrel and Thermal Shield walls with individual thicknesses up to 100 mm (4 inches). The BMT is designed to remove the bolts that fasten the Baffle Plates to the Baffle Former Plates. The FaST is designed to remove the Baffle Former Plates from the Core Barrel. The VRS further volume reduces segmented components using multiple configurations of the 38i and horizontal reciprocating saws. After the successful removal and volume reduction of the Internals, the RV will be segmented using a 'First in the US' thermal cutting process through a co-operative effort with Siempelkamp NIS Ingenieurgesellschaft mbH using their experience at the Stade NPP and Karlsruhe in Germany. SNS mobilized in the fall of 2011 to commence execution of the project in order to complete the RVI segmentation, removal and packaging activities for the first unit (Unit 2) by end of the 2012/beginning 2013 and then mobilize to the second unit, Unit 1. Parallel to the completion of the segmentation of the reactor vessel internals at Unit 1, SNS will segment the Unit 2 pressure vessel and at completion move to Unit 1. (authors)

[en] Summary report on these 5 - out of 11 - Sections of the Annual Conference on Nuclear Technology held in Hamburg on May 27-29, 2008: - Reactor Physics and Methods of Calculation - Thermodynamics and Fluid Dynamics - Safety of Nuclear Installations - Methods, Analysis, Results - Front End and Back End of the Fuel Cycle, Radioactive Waste, Storage - Fusion Technology. Other Sections will be covered in reports in further issues of atw. (orig.)