Resíduos Radioativos

Objectives

•To introduce the students to the issue of the safe management of radioactive wastes (RW) resulting from the use of radiation sources in health, industry, education and research areas. •To provide the students with theoretical and practical knowledge about RW as well as to treatment technologies already in place or in development, to better protect the Environment and the Biosphere. •To familiarize the students with simulation tools currently used in the research of adequate solutions to dispose RW (repositories) •To allow the students to become acquainted with the national reality and the international experiences in RW, including the ethical and societal problems related to the management of RW (public acceptance) •To educate and train experts in the area of RW for: R&D&D, T&E, operational, development of communication tools with the Community, support the competent authorities to establish national RW management policies and strategies and be an equal partner in international fora.

Syllabus

•Identification of radioactive waste (RW) from health, industry, research, education, fuel cycle and NORM. Orphan sources. •RW definitions, sources and classifications. Radiotoxicity and heat generation. Actinide chemistry, migration/speciation. •Safe RW management. Wastes resulting from decommissioning of radiological/nuclear facilities. RW inventory. Clearance and exemption. •Radiological protection in the management of RW. Legislation and recommendations. Transports of RW. •Treatment technologies (membrane processes, electrical processes,etc.). Partition / Transmutation. •Predisposal and temporary storage, dry storage and disposal (final packaging). Confinement in repositories (geological disposal). •Geochemistry. Adsorption / desorption kinetics in geomaterials. •Nuclear methods in the geochemical and mineralogical study of substrates (Mössbauer, AAN, etc). •Introduction to modelling (e.g.: COMSOL) •Societal and ethical aspects of RW management. Communication with the public.

Prerequisites

Basic knowledge in Engineering, Chemistry, Geology and Modelling (applied user), are an added value to better understand this UC.

Cross Competence Component

Critical and innovative thinking, namely in the strategy of approach and problem solving, critical thinking in the analysis of information and content related to UC RR, creativity in the innovative discussion of work themes and presentations, namely the use of new technologies including interactive software. Interpersonal skills such as understanding the information and ease and clarity in writing; Intrapersonal (orality, organization and teamwork, self-discipline, perseverance, self-motivation). Proactivity and initiative in the search for new working tools for better contributed to the deepening and innovation of knowledge in this UC. Information and media literacy: structuring and formatting of documents and presentations, information search and management. The assessment percentage associated with these skills should be around 20%.

Laboratorial Component

•Introduction to portable radiation detectors •Familiarization with their applications in the lab using different types of sources •Application to a case-study in the field (research of an orphan source in a structured and controlled scenario) •Resolution of theoretical problems related to sources categorization (orphan sources), management routes and transport of RW •Introduction to the Mossbauer spectrometry, INAA and XRD for characterization (e.g. iron forms, repositories lining and filling material) •Introduction to the application of the software COMSOL Multiphysics®5.0

Ethical Principles

All members of a group are responsible for the group’s work In any assessment, every student shall honestly disclose any help received and sources used. In an oral assessment, every student shall be able to present and answer questions about the entire assignment and solution