Risk Assessment
Magnox Nuclear Power Stations Waste Storage Vaults
Client
BNFL Magnox Generation
Project
Risk assessment for Magnox debris vaults
Services Provided
See below
Execution Period
1991
Project Description
As part of the Site Licence conditions, BNFL Magnox Generation are required to provide comprehensive safety cases for all power station safety-related plant, including radioactive waste processing and storage facilities.
An assessment of the probabilities, radiological consequences, and risks, associated with potential fault conditions at Magnox debris vaults has been carried out by the Pöyry Energy business group as input to these safety cases.
Particular Services
The fault assessment described is site specific, in the sense that many of the assumptions and parameter values are based on the Magnox debris vaults at Bradwell, and generic in the sense that the approach used allows the results to be applied to vaults at other Magnox station sites in a reasonably straightforward way. The fault conditions considered are:
- a fire caused by spontaneous oxidation of uranium hydride
- a fire arising from an aircraft crash
- an explosion of hydrogen generated from Magnox corrosion
- a hypothetical seismic event which severely damages the vault.
For each fault condition, radiological consequences are calculated in the form of doses and corresponding risks to individual members of the public, and doses to individual on-site workers.
Most of the assessment is concerned with "dry" Magnox debris vaults, that is vaults in which the debris is stored in air, but estimates of radionuclide release probabilities are also provided for "wet" vaults, that is vaults in which the debris is stored underwater. |
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