McKinley Consulting:

Overview & Capabilities 2018

Ian & Susie

McKinley Consulting, SwitzerlandCSD Engineers, Switzerland

McKinley Consulting The company

Established a decade ago with special focus on extending support provided by Nagra for 2 decades

Work run via MCM International for 5 years: this is now closed

The team

Core team with decades of experience

Range of technical backgrounds, but all experienced in technical English documentation / QA / communication & confidence-building

Readカタカナ, ひらがな – can work directly from / translate / review Japanese documentation

Partner organisations

Work with other small consultancies / large companies / research organisations to allow effective implementation of any size of project

More on http://www.mckinleyconsulting.ch/

Introduction: Ian McKinley Working in radioactive waste disposal since 1975

Very wide laboratory / field / URL / analogue experience

Extensive involvement in UK & Swiss geological disposal programmes

Special links to Japan (blue ongoing at present)

Joint RN migration project in Grimsel (PNC)

Attached to PNC for H3 preparation

Reviews of ENTRY, QUALITY, H12, 1st / 2nd TRU reports

Director ISP: Established Grimsel phase 6 and ITC

NUMO ITAC member / secretary; TAC co-chair

Support of JAEA H17, H22, SF1; NUMO 2015R

Support of repository concept, analogues, knowledge management,...

Support of Fukushima clean-up / 1F decommissioning

Introduction: Susie Hardie Working in environmental radiochemistry since 2003

Research included natural attenuation of OM on heavy metal contaminated land, use of carbon isotopes to study carbon cycling in peatlands

Support of Cyprus NA project

Special links to Japan:

In-house support of JAEA Fukushima F-TRACE team research QA

DPP reports

Two international radiocaesium workshops

SUERC bilateral

In-house support of NUMO safety case report

Safety case translation & review, documentation QA

Other Technical projects Support of international SF workshop SF concept catalogue Bituminised nitrate Managing problem TRU Disposal concept for corium “Seeing is believing”

Introduction: Linda McKinley Working in radioactive waste disposal since 1984 (Nagra)

Continuous involvement in Swiss & Japanese geological disposal programmes

Special expertise in technical documentation / communication

Editor of well-known text-book, contributed book chapter on communication in the nuclear field, supported production of other books

ITC - training on communication

Special links to Japan (Nagra & McKinley Consulting)

Reviews of ENTRY, QUALITY, H12, 1st & 2nd TRU reports, NUMO 2010, NUMO SC R

Documentation of workshops, communication projects

Supporting J attachments to Nagra

Operational hazards

Introduction: the core team Julie West, David McKie, Helen Grogan, Fiona Neall, Paul Smith, Louise Sinclair

Wide experience in radwaste: specialists with generalist overviews

Wide training experience in ITC, universities,...

Extensive involvement in Japanese geological disposal programmes

Reviews of ENTRY, QUALITY, H12, 1st & 2nd TRU reports

Organisation of, participation in & documentation of international workshops

Support of 1F response / recovery & natural hazard assessment

Support in very wide range of technical areas Safety case development & review

Site selection & characterisation

Repository concepts development

Natural analogues

Microbiology

URL programmes

Communication,...

Team capabilities

Radwaste technical areas: Decommissioning / waste conditioning

Remediation / decontamination / waste storage

Repository concepts (conventional, novel) / holistic waste management

Siting / site characterisation / geosynthesis

Safety case development / review (operational, post-closure)

Requirements / Knowledge / Quality Management

Lab / URL / Natural analogue R&D

Communication (technical, non-technical)

Related technical areas: Next generation reactors / advanced fuel cycles

Natural hazard assessment (nuclear, non-nuclear)

Environmental radiochemistry / geochemistry

CCS / toxic waste disposal

The Team in Japan

Overview Traditionally very close links between geological disposal programmes in

Switzerland and Japan

Similar boundary conditions – especially for HLW / TRU

Particularly close collaboration between Nagra and Obayashi & PNC/JNC/JAEA (since late 1980s)

Extensive programme of J staff attachments to Switzerland and, occasionally, Swiss staff to Japan

Collaboration in major experiments (especially at the Grimsel Test Site) and Swiss support of all major Japanese safety assessments

Extension of collaboration over the last 20 years: RWMC, JNFL, JNES, CRIEPI, NUMO, NSRA, Quintessa/QJ Science, MRI...

Involvement of the team Lead role in many Japanese projects

Input to / review of all major geological disposal projects (repository concept development, performance assessments, laboratory infrastructure, field studies, URL programmes, natural analogues...)

Special role in development of Knowledge Management, training & communication projects

Particular experience in organising / facilitating / recording workshops (domestic & international)

Work closely with Japanese teams to facilitate knowledge transfer

Immediate response to 1F Review of relevant international experience on similar accidents for NUMO:

presentation to Japanese audiences

Support of JAEA on developing concepts for first tests of off-site decontamination technology / QA / English documentation

Re-assessment of tsunami risks

Assessment of seismic risks to NPPs / nuclear sites

http://c-navi.jaea.go.jp/en/

Support of JAEA DPP Help with planning and QA of remediation work (based on Japanese language

documentation)

Synthesis of original Japanese documentation of Decontamination Demonstration Projects / extension with update on MoE regional remediation

Development of remediation guidelines based on experience gained

Support of production of Cleanup Navi

Support of JAEA F-TRACE

Transfer of knowledge based on 4 decades of radiocaesium experience in the UK (incl. establishing SUERC bilateral)

Peer-review and technical PR

Support in-house (visiting research fellow)

Running of international workshops

Long-term assessment of Transport of RAdioactive Contaminants in the Environment of Fukushima

1F decommissioning / waste

JAEA project to assess scenarios and implementation options for 1F

Initial work to develop inventories of waste for units 1-4

Extended to examine impact of different site end states and decommissioning approaches / technology on worker doses, costs, waste volume, …

1F waste management concepts

Development of robust disposal concepts for:

Corium & corium contaminated material

Reactor pressure vessels

Heterogeneous a-contaminated material

Large volume wastes with lower activity levels

Progress in Nuclear Energy paper with ANL

Other wastes integrated into concept

Cavern disposal of casks containing corium

Other support of JAEA SF feasibility study:

SF concept catalogue

SF concept comparison

Sorption database for uplift & erosion

1st progress report review

International workshop organisation and implementation

URL projects:

Organisation & support of international review workshop

Project optimisation and communication to stakeholders (CoolRepH26)

Development of microbiology scenarios and incorporation into PA

Management of TRU (esp. bituminised nitrate waste)

Linguistic support for English language publications

Support of NUMO

Continuous support via ITAC / TAC and related projects –Concept Catalogue, Siting Factors, RMS,...

Multi-year involvement in scenario storyboard development

General documentation support & current input to SC report (1st international workshop, communication tool, translation / review of the 2015 summary report, E polishing of FEP lists,...)

Long-term ITM / Topaz project on seismic and tectonic risks

TRU workshop / concept catalogue

Support of other organisations

Support in the past often ran via subcontracts from Obayashi and Quintessa (now QJ Science)

Extensive history of projects for RWMC, including concept, plan and implementation of long-running IPHAP (International Philippines Hyperalkaline Analogue Project)

Until recent JNES reorganisation, range of projects, especially associated with TRU waste

Support of JNFL L1 project

Small projects for NSRA, MRI, Shimizu

Project for SSIL – communication platform for safety cases

Ongoing discussions with NDF, TEPCO….

Special topics

Coastal repositories Long history of studies associated with RN behaviour in

coastal marine environments

Review / assessment of old EC PAGIS sub-sea studies (high safety margins)

ISP study carried out for TEPCO in 2000

Team experience gained from repository projects in Sweden & Finland (L/ILW) and ongoing (SKB, Posiva) and past (Nirex) repository siting studies

Initial assessment of sub-sea accessed from land ongoing

Holistic waste management

Starting point:

Centralise common decommissioning activities: increasingly relevant in view of concerns about restarting older plants

Integrate management of all Japanese radioactive wastes

Very controversial, but encouraged as a basis for discussion

1F Contaminated water

Assessment of options for reducing groundwater inflows to units 1-3

Identification of concerns for contaminated water (e.g. high alpha hot particles)

Support of management options for decontaminated (but still high tritium) water, based on an international perspective of HTO in the coastal marine environment (e.g. UK) and an evaluation of alternatives to direct sea release

Concept Technology Construction risks* QA Business

risks

Vulnerabilities Effectiveness Cost /

uncertainty

Decommissionin

g

Ice Wall

(>1000

holes)

Novel,

requires

development

for this

application

• Dose to drillers

• Contamination of rig

• Interception of power

cables

• Interception of oil line /

fire

• Failure of hole /

damage to rig from

hitting reinforced

concrete

Only check on

fluxes while full

scale

implementation

underway

Failure to meet

performance

goals

Time over-run

Cost-over-run

Abandonment

due to

accident(s)

Degradation of

materials (long-

term

performance

unknown

Extended loss

of power

Unknown – but

unlikely to

reduce extra

inflow >90%

Very high /

very high

Risk of RN release

when wall thaws

Grout Wall

(≈ 50-100

holes)

Standard, no

special

development

needed

• Dose to drillers

• Contamination of rig

• Interception of power

cables

• Interception of oil line /

fire

• Failure of hole /

damage to rig from

hitting reinforced

concrete

Only check on

fluxes while full

scale

implementation

underway

Failure to meet

performance

goals

Abandonment

due to

accident(s)

Degradation

due to fault

movement

Uncertain – but

unlikely to

reduce extra

inflow >80%

Medium /

low

…no special

concerns

TB Cutoff Standard,

most should

be available

but may

require

robotics in

high dose

areas

• Dose to workers, if

robots not used

• Possible radiation

release if new

penetrations of RB/TB

required

Stepwise

based on

measured

water balance

Failure to block

RB/TB

connections

and grout TB

basements

Abandonment

due to

accident(s)

New leaks from

RBs due to

earthquake

Could provide

complete

solution if

significant

inflow only to

TBs

Medium /

medium

Extra waste from

grouted TB

basements

*drilling risks on this site will be very high and depend on accuracy of site maps. In any case, risk will increase with the number of

holes and decrease with flexibility in terms of siting and orientation (so potentially much lower for grout wall compared to ice wall)

Comparison of 1F water control options

Integrated database management tool including technical QA (based on NUMO DT development)

Use of KM tools to capture / transfer / preserve tacit knowledge

Model inter-comparison (verification) / testing (validation) using an analogue test case (UK)

Use of visualisation techniques to communicate model output to stakeholders

English documentation of key progress to date / inaugural workshop for international review feedback

Improvement of coastal marine / brackish environment assessment

Testing of sediment coring techniques (fresh & marine systems)

Assessment of performance / improvement of temporary waste stores

Development of long-term remediation technology for most highly contaminated sites (e.g. phyto- / myco-remediation)

Support ideas for 1F off-site

Teaching & training

Long history of training Japanese staff, especially through ITC

Support concept of Okayama Uni “DiRaM” training centre: course development / lecturing. Linked to planned new Ningyo-toge centre / mentoring – PhD research

Visiting professor at Nagoya & Okayama Universities

Discussion of training support with JAEA, NUMO & Kyoto Uni

The End

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