The advanced plastics processing system (APPS) represents a new approach to plastics waste minimization in nuclear power plant waste treatment and in other areas where radioactive waste arises. Some customers currently sort plastics waste in sorting boxes, place it into compactable drums and then compact or supercompact it. Because compacted plastic has a deformation memory, “spring back” results after compaction, making it difficult to achieve optimal waste reduction. A Westinghouse APPS installation is based on proven techniques that are currently used in the plastics industry worldwide. Westinghouse innovates to enhance them for the nuclear application. Maximum waste reduction is achieved without changing the chemical composition of the plastics.

Background All metal filter modules (AMFM), developed by Dominion Engineering, Inc. (DEI) and offered by Westinghouse, were originally intended to collect large quantities of activated corrosion products liberated during ultrasonic fuel cleaning activities. While still in use for those applications, AMFMs are also now being installed as a cost-effective alternative to plastic filters for general filtration and vacuuming applications in the spent fuel pool and reactor cavity.

The AMFM-B500 filtration system, developed by Dominion Engineering, Inc. (DEI) and offered by Westinghouse, makes use of all metal filter modules (AMFM) for a variety of vacuuming and filtration activities in the spent fuel pool and reactor cavity

Background For more than 35 years, Westinghouse has cut reactor vessel internals. For some plants, this was done in the frame of reactor pressure vessel internals (RPVIs) replacement as part of life-cycle extension programs. In some other cases, Westinghouse cut internals in plants under decommissioning. The underwater mechanical cutting technique has been used in all boiling water reactors (BWRs) since 1999.

If radioactive liquid or solid waste needs to be converted into a product suitable for final storage, cementation is one of the methods commonly used. Cement is readily available and inexpensive for use in solidifying liquid or wet solid waste, and also for encapsulating solid waste generated during operation of a power plant as decontamination and decommissioning waste and legacy waste. Using cement for immobilizing radioactive waste offers a wide range of possibilities for optimizing the properties of the final end product. Recipes for the end product can be tailor-made to suit particular waste streams – from the highest possible compression strength to the maximum amount of waste at a certain level strength – combined with low leachability.

Removal of particles from liquid waste is one of the most important steps in liquid radioactive waste treatment to get rid of particle-bound activity and protect downstream processes. The Westinghouse chamber filtration system consists of a chamber filtration unit, a feed tank with pump, a permeate tank with pump, a filtration additive tank with pump and a reject system with a Westinghouse-design docking station for the drums. Chamber filtration can tolerate various solid concentrations and build up its own filter layer; therefore, it is particularly well suited for sludge and other similar fluid mixtures. Filter additives can be used, if necessary and no filter cartridge waste is created.

Microbiologically facilitated corrosion in closed cooling systems has become more of a concern due to the nature of pitting corrosion cells protected by slimes and cemented crusts. While biocides may effectively control the overall bacterial counts, the protected environments provide a setting for localized corrosive and electrochemical attack.

The chemical decontamination process was developed for commercial use in the late 1970s and early 1980s and has been used by Westinghouse for more than 30 years.

Westinghouse offers innovative solutions to meet customer’s decontamination and effluent waste treatment needs. Westinghouse addressed these needs by developing a variety of chemical decontamination processes and delivery systems. Westinghouse has four different, off-the-shelf, field ready systems that target a specific size system to ensure an efficient and effective decontamination.

Background Nuclear facilities that are no longer operating due to economic factors, licensing issues, end-of-life components or other reasons are candidates for decommissioning and dismantling (D&D), followed by site restoration.

Nuclear facilities that are no longer operating due to economic factors, licensing issues, end-of-life components or other reasons are candidates for decommissioning and dismantling (D&D), followed by site restoration.

Westinghouse decontamination and segmentation boxes are used to segment and decontaminate equipment, parts and other material that arise during operation and decommissioning of nuclear power plants or other nuclear facilities. The boxes are designed and developed to meet our customers’ specific needs regarding the capacity, plant layout, functional requirements, logistics, dose rate of material and degree of automation by focusing on as-low-as-reasonably-achievable principles.

Drums that use a waste package with an elevated dose rate need to be capped automatically to avoid a dose rate exposure of workers. A Westinghouse-design drum capping system provides fully-automatic drum lid storage and fully-automatic capping of waste drums. The system can be installed in buildings, as part of a larger facility, and also in mobile systems.

Radioactive waste shall be without free liquid for storage or disposal to avoid chemical reactions and corrosion. A drum dryer removes moisture from solid waste, such as sludges. The drum dryer was especially developed for the conditioning of waste contained in drums, but also other special containers.

Identifying the content of waste packages is an essential part of waste management activities to document the waste package parameters necessary to meet the storage or disposal requirements. Westinghouse provides a customizable drum radiation monitoring system for the non-destructive analysis of waste drums. We can provide a smooth integration of this system into a larger processing system.

Dry cask storage in/on an Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installation (ISFSI) is the preferred solution for used nuclear fuel until a permanent geologic repository is established by, or for, the US Government. Westinghouse, through our acquisition of CB&I Stone and Webster, has extensive experience in design, analysis, licensing, and construction of an ISFSI. We also have the experience and expertise required to evaluate dry storage options along with design and construction of ISFSI expansions.

Westinghouse, through its subsidiary PaR Nuclear, Inc., has designed fuel-handling equipment that minimizes the potential for human performance (HuP) errors. It is designed to improve the physical layout of bridge and trolley structures, reduce operator stress-induced errors and provide clear sight lines to fuel.

PaR Nuclear has the experience to offer two levels of service to support installation of new fuel-handling equipment and outage-critical cranes and equipment upgrades.

PaR Nuclear, a subsidiary of Westinghouse Electric Company LLC, provides all types and sizes of cranes for use in nuclear power plants, with particular expertise and experience in outagecritical cranes. An outage-critical crane, a polar crane or reactor building crane, is one whose performance has the potential to impact refueling outage duration. As nuclear plants progressively reduce refueling outage durations, crane performance increasingly affects critical-path outage time.

The new FuelMaster® boiling water reactor (BWR) mast, designed by PaR Nuclear, Inc., a subsidiary of Westinghouse, is a freefloating, free-swinging, telescoping mast developed as a replacement mast on existing BWR refueling and fuel-handling platforms. Made of 304 stainless steel tubing, the mast is a square, tubular design with one stationary section and three moving sections. PaR Nuclear designed this mast with the following objectives in mind: simplicity, ease of maintenance, interchangeability of components, and suitable clearances to prevent binding and crud traps.

Westinghouse has designed, fabricated and installed a full-system decontamination modular system at an operating nuclear power plant and performed a 105,000-gallon, in-situ chemical decontamination of the pressurized water reactor, steam generators and plant cooling systems.

Westinghouse uses treatment and conditioning processes to convert a wide variety of radioactive waste materials into forms that are suitable for their subsequent management— including transportation, storage and final disposal. The use of specially formulated grouts provides the means to immobilize radioactive material that is in various forms of filter cartridges, super-compacted pellets or in other forms of non-compactable radioactive waste.

Westinghouse has provided quality products and services to the nuclear industry for more than a decade. Using this experience, and incorporating unique concepts, it has developed a high-flow backwashable filtration system that can process at high flow rates and at filter sizes to the sub-micron range. These systems provide a cost-effective way to meet diverse filtration demands.

The Westinghouse Hot Resin Supercompaction (HRSC) process is applied for volume reduction of organic bead and/or powder resin. It was developed more than 20 years ago to address the specific waste characteristics of one nuclear power plant. The presence of both powder and bead resins was considered in developing the process to address the needs of both pressurized and boiling water reactors. The most critical issue for a successful process configuration is the duroplastic behavior of resins, in particular of the bead resins. This behavior prevents the resins from building a homogenous, solid block and, in the worst case, bursting the metal surface of the pellet, known as the spring-back effect. Various laboratory and full-scale trials had to be performed to adjust the process parameters to address this issue.

Drying processes are used for volume reduction of liquid radioactive waste. The final product of this process is a solid waste product. The Westinghouse in-drum dryer dries liquid, non-combustible waste such as evaporator concentrates. During the drying process the solid content in the drum increases and precipitates while the liquid is evaporated and condensed subsequently. By falling below a certain drum filling level, liquid waste is automatically re-dosed. The drying process is complete once a certain condensate flow is no longer reached. The result is a quality dry product that can withstand long-term storage without chemical or biochemical reactions occurring over the subsequent storage period.

Nuclear utilities have a need to decontaminate hot spots and small systems/components at a reasonable price. Westinghouse is addressing this need by developing a variety of chemical decontamination processes and delivery systems. In addition to Westinghouse’s standard system decontamination and full-system decontamination, its lineup of decontamination equipment/services now includes:

Chemical decontamination is routinely performed to remove activated corrosion products from boiling water reactor (BWR) plant piping while simultaneously reducing plant dose rates. This process was developed for commercial use in the early 1980s, and has since been successfully applied by Westinghouse to more than 300 BWR system decontaminations.

Westinghouse has extensive global experience in the design, licensing, construction supervision and operational support of low- and intermediate-level radioactive waste management facilities. The types of facilities that process both low- and intermediate-level radioactive waste typically must meet two fundamental objectives: providing immediate and deferred protection for both people and the environment and allowing the site to eventually be used freely and without radiological limitations. Westinghouse design for the disposal process is based on a multiple-barriers system that accomplishes both objectives.

Westinghouse offers innovative solutions to meet customer’s decontamination and effluent waste treatment needs.

Supercompaction is a proven and effective technology for volume reduction of nearly all the different kinds of solid radioactive waste such as metals, electronic parts, small equipment, piping, plastics, insulation material, filters, dried resin, sludge and asphalt. Westinghouse mobile supercompactors have been in worldwide operation since 1985. The supercompactor allows reliable and proven volume reduction as a mobile solution. The supercompactor provides customers with cost- effective, flexible and independent campaign planning and optimum space management on their sites, for both equipment and waste volume.

Westinghouse, through its subsidiary PaR Nuclear, Inc., has developed a packaged solution to modernize obsolete and aging motion systems using Schneider Electric Altivar motor drive technology. This design has undergone extensive testing and is now available so that customer equipment operates reliably and predictably.

Protecting personnel, the public and the environment from radioactive materials requires an in‑depth knowledge of design, fabrication, examination and testing, as well as application of the most stringent quality assurance programs. This knowledge is best gained from experience.

Nuclear power plants that are no longer operating due to economic factors, licensing issues, end-of-life components or other reasons are candidates for decommissioning and dismantling (D&D), followed by site restoration.

PaR Nuclear, a subsidiary of Westinghouse Electric Company LLC, provides all types and sizes of cranes for use in nuclear power plants, with particular expertise and experience in outage-critical cranes. An outage-critical crane, a polar crane or reactor building crane, is one whose performance has the potential to impact refueling outage duration.

Typically, pressurized water reactor (PWR) reactor internals segmentation and packaging projects include a separation of the highly activated material (that is, baffle plates, core formers, core region of the core barrel, core support plate and in-core instrumentation thimbles) from the rest of the material (that is, core barrel remnants, core support assembly, thermal shield and upper internals).

Remediation planning is a critical event at the end of life for a nuclear plant. The International Atomic Energy Association (IAEA) “Integrated Approach to Planning the Remediation of Sites Undergoing Decommissioning, “(IAEA NW-T-3.3) report outlines a broad spectrum of considerations associated with this activity. Westinghouse has a range of remediation experience with plant sites, facilities and uranium mines and mills both privately and nationally owned.

Westinghouse is a market leader in providing services and technology to utility customers who are managing their independent spent fuel storage installation (ISFSI). ISFSI operations and canister-loading campaigns continue to be low margin for error for operating utilities and will remain as challenging for end of life plants. Westinghouse has a response to meet this challenge.

Compaction is a viable treatment technology for volume reduction of various waste streams, including activated metals, glasses, contaminated solids, plastics, small equipment and tools, filters, compactable trash, wood, pipes, sludge and asphalt. Westinghouse-design supercompactors have been in operation since 1982 in the United States and in other countries.

Westinghouse has developed a comprehensive program tailored to complement plant systems for decay heat removal during outages. The program has integrated engineering excellence with complete solutions to address specific issues.

Westinghouse Electric Company continues to lead the way in the treatment of uranium-bearing residues, using several large-scale global facilities with a diverse range of capabilities to process hundreds of residue types. As a fuel manufacturer, Westinghouse has the ability to recycle uranium and return it to the fuel cycle.

As the licensee and asset owner, Westinghouse Electric Company, LLC (WEC) has performed the role of designing, managing and completing the decommissioning of the test reactor, several reactor support buildings and impacted soil areas at the Waltz Mill Site (WMS).

Westinghouse has proven expertise in the field of active waste handling, transport and storage. We are committed to developing custom designs and equipment to address the unique and challenging needs of our customers. We have a wealth of experience in the area of high-level waste vitrification, filtration, decontamination, , shielding, packaging and handling. Equipment operation in these radioactive environments demands extreme reliability and ease of maintenance.

Treatment of radioactive waste into acceptable forms for storage or disposal is mandatory for waste producers. Waste from operating nuclear facilities and/or a decommissioning and decontamination (D&D) activity is produced in various forms (e.g., liquid, solid, gas) and thus requires different treatment to transfer it into acceptable waste forms.