Project description
Digitising the management of nuclear waste
The decontamination and decommissioning of nuclear infrastructures still rely on an independent operator’s process and on manually entering notes of nuclear waste management steps in a database. In addition to these variables, the information systems used do not provide analyses of past information within the same system, much less allowing sharing of data among operators. The MICADO project is setting up a standardisation of the process that will allow full traceability of waste material and database sharing, based on EU experts involved in the project. The full digitisation of the process will introduce procedures that reduce costs, ensure better safety procedures and protect staff from exposure.
Objective
The goal of the MICADO project is to propose a cost-effective solution for non-destructing characterization of nuclear waste, implementing a digitization process that could become a referenced standard facilitating and harmonizing the methodology used for the in-field Waste Management and Dismantling & Decommissioning operations.
The D&D process of nuclear infrastructures demands methods for a full traceability of waste material to improve quality management and operational safety. Precise procedures provide twofold benefits: the optimization of costs, associated with D&D, and the minimization of the dose exposure to operators and personnel.
The absence of a consistent and straightforward solution to characterize all types of materials, along with the lack of an integrated solution for digitizing the enormous amount of data produced, is a critical issue. Now the systems rely on the operator’s ability to maintain high operational skills and quality assurance with precision measurements that unfortunately today very often are associating high uncertainties not allowing therefore a real optimization of the waste.
The utilization of several un-automatized instruments implies taking many notes and inserting them into specific ad-hoc format and on a database manually, without the possibility to combine data including previously available legacy data’s if present.
The RCMS Digi-Waste solution proposed in the MICADO project will result in a proven modular solution offering an opportunity to proactively develop a unified and standardized Waste NDA Characterization Procedure and Method that could become an international reference allowing all Nuclear Operators - Research Laboratories & Safety Authorities to facilitate their exchanges.
The MICADO project involves some key EU players with major knowledge in nuclear waste having all in common the interest to converge in technologies, methods and implementing a full digitization process applied to nuclear waste management.
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IA - Innovation actionCoordinator
55049 Viareggio
Italy
The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.