UN 0602 – Nuclear Waste Management

2024 Version

 Dates:
   June 22 & 23, 2024
   July 6 & 7, 2024
   July 27 & 28, 2024
   August 10 & 11, 2024
   Exam: Saturday August 17, 2024
 Time: 9:00 a.m.
 Location:
Lecture Room 1-0
Durham College – Whitby Campus
1610 Champlain Avenue,  Whitby, ON, L1N 6A7
Durham College – Whitby Campus Map
This course will be taught over 4 non-consecutive weekends at Durham College, Whitby Campus. The final exam is currently scheduled separately for Saturday, August 17, after the final lecturing weekend.
All examinations (midterm if applicable; final exam) will be in person.
Live attendance is strongly encouraged and expected. Accommodations for absences or online attendance are made for serious reasons; if possible, please let us know in advance of any known absences.
 Instructor:

Deadlines

  • Deadline to Register – Wednesday June 19, 2024
  • Deadline to Drop – Friday June 28, 2024

05/28/2024: Registration for UN602 is open.

Course Description:

This course will examine the sources and management approaches to storage and disposal of various nuclear wastes with focus on spent fuel waste generated primarily from nuclear reactors, in particular CANDU reactor. Key components of waste management approaches include waste characterization, classification, processing, packaging, transportation, storage and final disposal of the waste in a suitable repository. The first part of the course will examine detailed approaches including regulatory framework to manage low-level and intermediate-level radioactive wastes, and wastes from Naturally Occurring Radioactive Materials. In the second half of the course, detailed considerations will be given to high-level radioactive spent nuclear fuel wastes. Presently, nuclear fuel waste management involves storage in water pools or dry storage containers at reactor sites. If the spent fuel is defined as waste, then permanent disposal at an appropriate deep geological site would be considered.

The possible permanent disposal scenarios developed internationally will be discussed, with a primary emphasis on those potentially applicable in Canada. For this last topic, the design and fabrication of waste containers and the processes that could potentially lead to their failure, the properties of engineered barriers within the geological site, the essential geological features of the chosen site, and the computational modelling approaches used in site performance assessment calculations will be described.  International experiences on regulatory and Community issues, resolutions, and examples of operating and planned nuclear waste storage and disposal facilities will be detailed.  The course will also present through examples tools to arrive at preferred management options for selected non-fuel waste effluents.

Course Administration

  • Prerequisite: Registration in the UNENE M.Eng. or UNENE Diploma Program

Course Outline: UN602 Course Outline 2024