Kozloduy nuclear power plant. (Credit: Jean Paul Bemer / IAEA)
Spanish Iberdrola Ingeniería, and Belgoprocess, a Belgian company that offers integrated nuclear waste management and decommissioning services, have successfully completed final testing on their plasma technology-based radioactive waste treatment plant, an initiative that could revolutionize the nuclear energy industry.
Belgoprocess carried out these tests over a two-day period at the Europlasma Inertam facilities in Morcenx, in the south of France. The second test was attended by representatives from relevant industry enterprises interested in developing projects using this technology.
Following these tests, Iberdrola Ingeniería will now move the plant to its final destination, the Kozloduy nuclear plant in Bulgaria, 200 kilometers (approx. 125 miles) from the capital Sofia, where it is to be permanently installed.
The aim of the Kozloduy project is to create a radioactive waste treatment plant based on plasma technology, which significantly reduces the volume of this type of waste by subjecting it to temperatures of up to 5,000 degrees centigrade.
The application of such high temperatures produces a liquid waste which, when cooled, vitrifies into a solid form whose volume is reduced by as much as 80 times. This is then packed into containers and encased in concrete.
The Kozloduy plant opens up new opportunities in the nuclear energy sector, since it allows for significant reductions in the amounts of low and intermediate level nuclear waste generated during the operation of nuclear power plants.
The consortium formed by Iberdrola Ingeniería and Belgoprocess is developing the project since 2009, when it was awarded a contract by Kozloguy nuclear power plant to supply a facility for the treatment and conditioning of solid radioactive waste with high volume reduction factor.
The contract is valued at €30 million (approx. $40 million) and is co-financed by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the Bulgarian Government. The consortium won the contract following an international tendering process organized by the EBRD.
