Speaker
Description
In this study, it is given a proposal on storage and disposal of low-level radioactive waste in salt cavities of Anatolian region in Türkiye. First, in the study, general information about radiation and nuclear facilities and radioactive waste management in Türkiye are given. Until August 2018, Turkish Atomic Energy Authority (TAEK) was the regulatory body of Türkiye. After that time, the regulatory activities of TAEK have been transferred to the Nuclear Regulatory Authority (NDK). Thus, NDK has undertaken the regulatory activities concerning facilities (including nuclear power plants), devices, substances and activities related to nuclear energy and ionizing radiation as the regulatory authority of Türkiye. Türkiye does not operate any nuclear power reactors at now. But WWER-1200 type reactors are under construction in Mersin Province under the agreement signed with the Russian Federation in 2010. Nuclear fuel loading to this facility, which will be Turkey's first nuclear power reactor to generate electric energy, was announced on April 27, 2023, by President of Republic. Concurrently, the radioactive materials and radiation devices are used to many beneficial applications such as medicine, industry, energy production, agriculture, and research in Türkiye. The waste generated during the operations of nuclear power plants and from the use of radionuclides in medicine, industry and research is managed routinely and disposed of, usually, in near surface disposal facilities. As increasing numbers of nuclear and radiation facilities reach the end of their useful lives and are decommissioned, the need to make additional arrangements for the management and disposal of the associated waste is being recognized both in terms of creating extra disposal capacity and of developing new types of disposal facilities. In this scope, one of the possibilities for the disposal of radioactive waste products is its underground storage in space formed within deposits of rock salt. Second, this study contains information concerning the characteristics of rock salt, its occurrence in Anatolian region of Türkiye, and the underground space resulting from mining operations such as salt cavities in Çankırı, Kars, Yozgat, Nevşehir, Kırşehir and Erzurum cities. A proposal consideration is then given to the feasibility of using such space for low-level radioactive waste disposal in salt cavities.
