Development of a Waste Management Plan (WMP) for a High Temperature Gas Cooled (HTGC) XE-100 Reactor

Abstract

Canada’s Small Modular Reactor (SMR) Action Plan enables the development and deployment of multiple SMRs for a variety of applications nationally. In order for Canada to become a leader in SMR technologies, a number of prerequisites need to be fulfilled as part of SMR development activities, including the regulatory licencing to construct SMRs. One licence requirement is that the licencee have a Waste Management Plan (WMP) for Low and Intermediate Waste (L&ILW) as well as High Level fuel waste.

To support the licence requirement, Kinectrics has recently developed a preliminary WMP for a High Temperature Gas Cooled Reactor (HTGR) SMR, as part of a preliminary safety analysis report (PSAR) in support of the SMR licence to construct. The WMP was limited to L&ILW. Previously, Kinectrics’ experience has been limited to wastes produced by a CANDU reactor. The development of this WMP for a HTGR SMR is the first time Kinectrics investigated the wastes produced by a different reactor design. A further complication was that this SMR design was not complete and the respective SMR design had not been deployed yet. Kinectrics was able to use the available design information and draw upon the waste production experience from CANDU as well as available information from other reactors to develop this first of a kind WMP.