Safety requirements for the design of large containers for decommissioning waste

About 50% of the total volume of conditioned radioactive waste from nuclear power generation will finally result from the decommissioning of nuclear power plants (NPPs). Higher activated metallic waste from the core region of the reactors would, according to the International Transport Regulations (IAEA), require a type B container. This would, however, bring a significant increase in the costs of the management of such waste. A considerably cheaper solution of this problem can be achieved by separating the protection requirements for type B packaging (i.e. mechanical integrity and tightness). By using industrial packaging (IP) designed for a higher mechanical integrity, it is possible to cope with higher IAEA protection goals for the safe transport of dismantling waste without strictly following the extremely high and also expensive tightness requirements for type B packaging. This is because the radioactivity is bound in the metallic lattice of such activated decommissioning waste. The above mentioned strong IP for decommissioning waste can also be used for other highly activated waste from the core region (e.g. fuel element boxes, control rods or other activated equipment) during the operation of the NPPs.