Record keeping

During its processing, radioactive waste is converted from an ‘as generated’ state to a processed waste form and placed in a container to form a final waste package for storage and disposal. A principal condition for accept­ance of waste packages for disposal is full compliance with the disposal site WAC, in other words, to demonstrate that chemical, radiochemical, biologi­cal, mechanical and other parameters of the waste form are in accordance with the required values. The waste parameters can change during handling and processing, and to ensure compliance of a waste package with a WAC, a system for generating and maintaining records should be established in order to save and track all relevant information. It is worth registering not only the waste parameters but also the technological parameters of the processing facilities. A record-keeping system should define the data, which should be collected and stored at each step of the waste life cycle and for each waste stream. A reliable selection system should be imple­mented not only to avoid collecting too much information, but, also to assure the long-term availability of all significant and potentially needed data. Record-keeping systems for the pre-disposal period of the waste life cycle should ideally be coordinated and interconnected with the record­keeping system for the disposal facility. However, a reasonable data reduc­tion approach should be applied for transfer of the information. More detailed information for the identification of requirements and establish­ment of record-keeping systems can be found in Ref. [9].