Environmental impacts of decommissioning a nuclear power plant: A life cycle assessment of a Magnox site

IF 9.8 1区 社会学 Q1 ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES
Joel Kirk , Rachael Clayton , Anthony Banford , Laurence Stamford
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Abstract

With over 400 nuclear power reactors around the world, decommissioning will be an ongoing challenge for some decades. Countries which pioneered nuclear power, such as the UK, USA, Russia and France, are already amassing considerable experience of decommissioning end-of-life reactors. This is a complex undertaking with varied waste streams and has been simplified in previous life cycle assessments of nuclear power, with only one prior study focusing on the detail of decommissioning. The present study applies LCA to the entire decommissioning process of a UK Magnox power plant using Sphera LCA FE (formerly GaBi) with supporting data sourced from ecoinvent v3.9.1. The functional unit is ‘one decommissioned Magnox nuclear site’ and the system boundary is gate to grave, starting once the plant has been defueled and ending with a remediated site. The total climate change impact was found to be 212 kt CO2 eq., or 3.1 g CO2 eq./kWh. Across 19 environmental impacts, construction of disposal facilities are key hotspots (35 % ILW disposal facility, 27 % LLW disposal facility), with waste packaging accounting for 30.8 % of the total impact. Sensitivity analysis considered enhanced recycling and waste rerouting, identifying a potential climate change impact reduction of 18.9 % (40 kt CO2 eq.) if concrete recycling rates were increased to 60 %. Steel recycling saw an overall emission reduction of 10.3 % (21.9 kt CO2 eq.) when the savings in producing virgin steel were credited to the system via system expansion. Further research is recommended into the environmental impacts (and optimisation) of treatment processes needed to decontaminate and reuse/recycle concrete and steel in order to realise the above gains. Furthermore, greater use of LCA in general within radioactive waste treatment and disposal could lead to substantial improvements in understanding and sustainability.
核电站退役的环境影响:马格诺克斯站点的生命周期评估
世界上有400多个核反应堆,退役将是未来几十年的一个持续挑战。核电的先驱国家,如英国、美国、俄罗斯和法国,已经积累了相当多的退役寿命结束的反应堆的经验。这是一项复杂的工作,有各种各样的废物流,在以前的核电生命周期评估中已经简化,只有一项先前的研究侧重于退役的细节。本研究将LCA应用于英国magnnox电厂的整个退役过程,使用Sphera LCA FE(以前称为GaBi),支持数据来自ecoinvent v3.9.1。该功能单元是“一个退役的Magnox核基地”,系统边界是大门到坟墓,从工厂已经脱燃料开始,结束于修复的场地。总气候变化影响为212 kt CO2当量,或3.1 g CO2当量/kWh。在19项环境影响中,处置设施的建设是重点热点(35%的废液处置设施,27%的废液处置设施),其中废物包装占总影响的30.8%。敏感性分析考虑了加强回收和废物改道,确定如果混凝土回收率提高到60%,潜在的气候变化影响将减少18.9% (40 kt CO2当量)。当生产原钢的节省通过系统扩展计入系统时,钢铁回收的总排放量减少了10.3% (21.9 kt CO2当量)。建议对净化和再利用/再循环混凝土和钢材所需的处理过程的环境影响(和优化)进行进一步研究,以实现上述收益。此外,在放射性废物的处理和处置中一般更多地使用生命周期分析可以大大提高了解和可持续性。
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来源期刊
CiteScore
12.60
自引率
10.10%
发文量
200
审稿时长
33 days
期刊介绍: Environmental Impact Assessment Review is an interdisciplinary journal that serves a global audience of practitioners, policymakers, and academics involved in assessing the environmental impact of policies, projects, processes, and products. The journal focuses on innovative theory and practice in environmental impact assessment (EIA). Papers are expected to present innovative ideas, be topical, and coherent. The journal emphasizes concepts, methods, techniques, approaches, and systems related to EIA theory and practice.
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