12 Feb Authorisation for waste characterisation

On 24 January 2013, the Finance Committee approved Act No 57, in which the Ministry of Health requests DKK 3 million from unused funds in Section 19.51.03 for Danish Decommissioning to finance costs associated with the characterisation and conditioning of radioactive waste.

In other words,the accessionmeans that Danish Decommissioning will be allowed to use DKK 3 million of the allocated funds for characterisation and conditioning of the historical radioactive waste.

The characterisation consists of describing the waste in the details required before it can be transferred from Danish Decommissioning to a future repository. For some of the so-called historical waste, the information on the origin of the waste is available in an older paper archive and is often incomplete. The existing information needs to be transferred to the current electronic system. In addition, the waste items need to be characterised. This means that the activity of each item has to be measured and sampled where relevant and possible. The items will then be packed in containers suitable for landfill. On the basis of the measurements and calculations carried out, the waste is characterised.

The first part of the characterisation is planned and is due to be carried out in 2013.