HADES: A User Facility for High Activity Decommissioning Engineering Science

英国政府的民用核能政策有三个目标：开发核能以实现低碳、可靠和负担得起的发电；使具有历史意义的核燃料循环活动的遗产退役；以及安全处置放射性废物。在核工业战略的基础上，核部门交易为民用核部门设定了到2030年实现的愿景：*新建设项目成本降低30%*退役成本比目前估计节省20%*高达20亿GB的国内和国际合同胜诉哈迪斯高活性退役工程科学设施旨在通过投资一套设备，使放射性废物热处理的基础和应用研究能够在实现这些目标方面发挥关键作用。这种技术利用热量将放射性核素和化学有毒物质固定在一种被动安全的产品(玻璃、矿渣或陶瓷)中，适合临时储存和处置。这种方法提供的好处可能会改变游戏规则，包括彻底减少体积，消除废物的反应性和有机库存。在英国和美国，因在遗留核退役方案中成功实施热处理技术而节省的估计寿命周期成本分别为数十亿GB。对未来先进的核燃料再循环产生的放射性废物进行热处理，将减少未来核能发电的环境足迹，并降低相关的废物管理成本，方法是开发下一代高水平废物固定化材料，这些材料符合此类废物具有挑战性的特点，并实现更高的废物处理效率。在这些领域取得的技术发展将实现新的知识产权和高技能的人力资本，以增加英国在遗留和未来核退役市场的份额。哈迪斯设施是英国唯一的此类设施，它将通过创建独特的基础设施来实现这一影响，以在实验室规模处理大量放射性库存和真实放射性废物，开发波形配方、工艺封套和产品可处置性，以促进热处理技术，并使现有和未来的现场许可证公司能够及时实施。在这样做的过程中，我们将通过有效的培训和网络活动，培育出世界领先的实践社区，培养出高技能的用户研究人员。此外，哈迪斯设施内建立的独特能力将成为吸引和参与国际合作的灯塔，使我们能够汇集研究资源，应对放射性废物管理方面的跨国挑战，并将正在产生的研究的影响范围扩大到英国以外。

HM Government's civil nuclear energy policy has the threefold objectives of: exploiting nuclear power for low carbon, reliable and affordable electricity generation; decommissioning the legacy of historic nuclear fuel cycle activities; and safe disposal of radioactive wastes. Building on the Nuclear Industrial Strategy, the Nuclear Sector Deal set the vision for the civil nuclear sector, to deliver by 2030:* 30% cost reduction in cost of new build projects* Savings of 20% in cost of decommissioning compared with current estimates* Up to £2bn domestic and international contract winsThe HADES Facility for High Active Decommissioning Engineering Science aims to play a pivotal role in realisation of these objectives through investment of a suite of equipment to enable fundamental and applied research in thermal treatment of radioactive wastes. Such technology utilises the application of heat to immobilise radionuclides and chemotoxic species within a passively safe product (a glass, slag or ceramic) suitable for interim storage and disposal. The benefits afforded by this approach are potentially game changing and include radical volume reduction and elimination of waste reactivity and organic inventory. The estimated lifecycle cost savings arising from successful implementation of thermal treatment technology in legacy nuclear decommissioning programmes are £billions in each of the UK and USA. Thermal treatment of radioactive wastes from future advanced recycle of nuclear fuels will reduce the environmental footprint of future nuclear generation, and reduce the associated waste management cost, through development of next generation materials for high level waste immobilisation, which are compatible with the challenging characteristics of such wastes and achieve a greater efficiency of waste incorporation. The technological developments achieved in these domains will realise new intellectual property and highly skilled human capital to grow the UK share of the legacy and future nuclear decommissioning market. The HADES Facility, the only one of its kind in the UK, will enable this impact to be realised by creating unique infrastructure to handle large radioactive inventories and real radioactive wastes at the laboratory scale, to develop waveform formulation, process envelope, and product disposability to advance thermal treatment technology and enable timely implementation by current and future site licence companies. In so doing, we will nucleate grow a world leading community of practice, producing highly skilled user-researchers, through effective training and networking activities. Additionally, the unique capability established within the HADES Facility will be a beacon to attract and engage international collaboration, enabling us to pool research resources to address trans-national challenges in radioactive waste management and extending the reach of impact from the arising research beyond the UK.