• Criticality: We produce short- and long-term criticality safety assessments and criticality compliance assurance documentation for waste packages. We have undertaken extensive work to address issues of post-closure criticality safety in waste repositories.
• Wigner Energy in Graphite Wastes: We have worked at the strategic level in reviewing the current state of knowledge, identifying options for managing graphite wastes and making recommendations for taking the area forward.

• Gas Formation throughout the Waste Life Cycle: We have assessed gas generation from packages at all stages in their history. Flammable, toxic and radioactive gases can be produced from wastes by radiolysis, corrosion and microbial degradation. This work helps waste producers optimise packaging, design package vents and assess the required ventilation rates in waste stores.

Our detailed services include:

• identification and review of strategic options;
• optimisation using computer-based tools;
• technical evaluations at the detailed level;
• selection of the preferred option (often termed the Best Practicable Environmental Option - BPEO);
• assessment of risks to decommissioning and waste management strategies and development of risk management strategies;
• assessment of the effects of regulation;
• economic assessments.

 

 

We offer strategic consultancy to waste producers, waste disposal organisations and regulatory agencies in identifying and optimising options for the whole waste management process concerned with waste treatment, packaging, storage, transport and disposal. We offer services in the areas of:

• the development of strategies for decommissioning and for managing radioactive wastes;
• understanding life cycle issues in radioactive waste management
• waste treatment and packaging;
• waste acceptance and inventory issues;
• radioactive waste disposal (see Disposal and Safety Assessments).

 

Serco Assurance has substantial experience in assessing the suitability of waste treatment and packaging options from the perspective of short and long-term storage and ultimate disposal. We have a good understanding of the criteria that are used to determine the acceptability of wastes for ultimate disposal. Our service is based on a detailed technical understanding of wastes, their properties and their evolution over long time periods.

Some specific areas of expertise include:

• Corrosion: We have a detailed understanding of the corrosion of a range of materials in different environments.

• Waste Encapsulation Materials: We have a detailed understanding of the behaviour of a range of encapsulation materials, particularly related to the long-term behaviour of cementitious materials.