On Periodic Radiation Monitoring of Radioactive Waste Disposal Facilities

The article considers the problems associated with the post-closure evaluation of engineered safety barriers at RWDF and their condition and the need for a periodic radiation monitoring of RWDF. Limited in its scope to nearsurface radioactive waste disposal facilities (NSDF) only, the study addresses the following tasks: (1) it presents the main regulatory requirements and trends supporting further development of the regulatory framework with respect to integrity control and evaluation of NSDF engineered safety barriers and their condition; (2) it analyzes national experience in monitoring the integrity of engineered safety barriers at radioactive waste storage facilities (RWSF); (3) it describes a methodology for the ground-based laser survey of the daytime surface at NSDFs developed to monitor the changes on the surface of the covering screen over long-term periods; (4) it discusses the proposals regarding the presentation of monitoring findings as part of the NSDF digital information model (DIM). It summarizes the achieved results, in particular: the procedure for “periodic post-closure radiation monitoring of RWDF” should be specified in the regulatory framework taking into account the monitored early warning indicators, the monitoring procedures and schedule; a Methodology has been developed to monitor the deformations of the cover barrier; the level of data digitalization on the state of RWDF EBS has been analyzed to support information modeling.