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OUR WORK

Liabilities Management at Pelindaba:

Decommissioning and  waste management activities are carried out at Pelindaba.  Waste has been produced in the past and is still being generated by those facilities that are currently still in operation. Decommissioning involves the dismantling and decontamination of disused plant and facilities.  Waste management on the other hand, includes all processes required for collecting, quantifying, packaging, compacting (where necessary), transporting, storing and finally disposing of the radioactive waste at a suitable site.

Click on activities for detail


Liability Management Programme 

NECSA's liability discharge programme is subdivided into :

Long term plan:  This plan extends over a period of approximately 30 years, which is required for the full decommissioning of disused plant, the waste management associated with these activities and the remediation of contamination on the Pelindaba site. The assumption is made that all radioactive waste will be removed from Pelindaba to appropriate disposal sites. All disused nuclear facilities will be decontaminated and utilised for non-nuclear purposes where possible. When the long term plan is completed it is possible that Pelindaba could still  be used in future for nuclear purposes.

Medium term plan:  This plan is a 5 year window on the long term plan and is used for detailed project planning and budgeting purposes.

Short term plan:  This plan is a detailed planning instrument used for the purposes of  controlling the execution of liabilities discharge work  during the current financial year.

Plans are subject to approval of DME (Department of Minerals and Energy) interim of strategic and framework being developed currently.

External Consultancy Service

NLM also provides an external consultancy service in radiation protection, decommissioning and waste management. More than 100 projects have been completed for external clients over the last 10 years. One of the larger projects recently completed is a study to determine clearance criteria for Koeberg for the disposal of very low-level volume-contaminated waste materials on a landfill site. Another project for Eskom involves an assessment of the radiological impact of their fossil fuel power stations.

External Waste Management Projects

NLM is currently involved in a site remediation project for Armscor in the Northern Cape at Jakkelsfontein and Alkantpan. This project involves the clean up of a site that was previously used for military testing purposes.

 International Involvement

Internationally NLM personnel are particularly involved in IAEA projects, especially for the African continent through their AFRA initiative. The recovery of Ra-226 sources within African countries and the development of a borehole disposal concept for their disposal are only two of the projects presently running.