Solid waste management decomposition — seven components from sorting through geological disposal
System
Radio Chemistry Laboratory for a UK Nuclear Dockyard — continuing decomposition of the {{entity:Solid Radioactive Waste Management System}} {{hex:42A53A5D}}. Five of twelve subsystems are now decomposed: Hot Cell Facility, Active Effluent Treatment Plant, Ventilation and Containment, Radiation Protection, and now Solid Waste Management. The system holds 129 requirements across 6 documents.
Decomposition
The {{entity:Solid Radioactive Waste Management System}} was selected for this session because it carries the highest regulatory risk of the remaining undecomposed subsystems — failure to manage waste correctly shuts down the entire facility under EA permitting conditions.
Seven components were identified, reflecting the real organisational and regulatory boundaries in UK nuclear solid waste management:
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{{entity:Waste Sorting and Segregation Facility}} {{hex:44853259}} — shielded sorting area where incoming waste is categorised into VLLW, LLW (compactable/non-compactable), and ILW streams. Throughput sized for 50 items/day during refitting campaigns.
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{{entity:Non-Destructive Assay System}} {{hex:54E53058}} — segmented gamma scanner, HPGe spectrometer, and passive neutron coincidence counter. Provides the quantitative radionuclide inventories required for LLWR Conditions for Acceptance and RWM Letter of Compliance.
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{{entity:LLW Compaction and Packaging System}} {{hex:DFD51019}} — 1500-tonne hydraulic supercompactor producing pucks from 200-litre drums, stacked into half-height ISO containers for transport to LLWR at Drigg.
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{{entity:ILW Conditioning and Encapsulation Plant}} {{hex:50853A59}} — cement encapsulation of ILW into 500-litre stainless steel drums using OPC/BFS grout, meeting GDF waste acceptance criteria.
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{{entity:Interim Radioactive Waste Store}} {{hex:DE851259}} — shielded, ventilated store for 30 years of facility waste arisings. Separate areas for LLW awaiting LLWR collection and ILW awaiting GDF.
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{{entity:Waste Tracking and Records System}} {{hex:40A57B59}} — electronic cradle-to-grave tracking with 150-year record retention. Interfaces with LIMS and the national UK Radioactive Waste Inventory.
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{{entity:Spent Sealed Source Management System}} {{hex:40A53B59}} — inventory, wipe testing, and disposal routing for 30-50 sealed calibration and check sources under IRR17 and HASS Regulations.
flowchart TB
WS["Waste Sorting and Segregation Facility"]
NDA["Non-Destructive Assay System"]
LLW["LLW Compaction and Packaging"]
ILW["ILW Conditioning and Encapsulation"]
STORE["Interim Radioactive Waste Store"]
TRACK["Waste Tracking and Records System"]
SS["Spent Sealed Source Management"]
WS -->|waste items for assay| NDA
WS -->|sorted compactable LLW| LLW
WS -->|sorted ILW items| ILW
NDA -->|assay results and inventories| TRACK
LLW -->|packaged LLW in HHISO| STORE
ILW -->|conditioned ILW drums| STORE
TRACK -->|package location tracking| STORE
The architecture decision separates physical processing (sorting, compaction, conditioning, storage) from information management (NDA, tracking, sealed sources). The {{entity:Waste Tracking and Records System}} is centralised rather than distributed because the 150-year record retention mandate demands a single authoritative data source — distributing records across processing components would create synchronisation challenges over that timescale.
Analysis
Cross-domain search for {{entity:ILW Conditioning and Encapsulation Plant}} analogs found 93.75% Jaccard similarity with “structural inspection” and “Clinical Network Firewall” — high trait overlap driven by shared {{trait:Synthetic}}, {{trait:Intentionally Designed}}, {{trait:System-integrated}}, {{trait:System-Essential}}, {{trait:Rule-governed}}, {{trait:Regulated}}, and {{trait:Institutionally Defined}} traits. These are all heavily regulated, safety-critical, process-oriented systems. The similarity with nuclear reactor protection system components (RTD Temperature Measurement Channel, Containment Hydrogen Monitor at 87.5%) is more engineering-relevant — both involve certified measurement systems feeding safety decisions in nuclear facilities.
Lint reported 2 high findings and 2 low, all pre-existing from earlier subsystem decompositions: ontological mismatches on Modbus TCP and Evaporation Unit classification. No new findings from this session’s work.
Requirements
Nine subsystem requirements created ({{sub:SUB-REQS-041}} through {{sub:SUB-REQS-049}}), all traced to {{sys:SYS-REQS-009}} (waste characterisation). Key requirements include NDA measurement uncertainty below 20% at 2-sigma ({{sub:SUB-REQS-042}}), ILW grout compressive strength of 4 MPa with maximum 30% waste loading ({{sub:SUB-REQS-044}}), and 150-year record retention for waste package data ({{sub:SUB-REQS-046}}).
Five interface requirements ({{ifc:IFC-DEFS-022}} through {{ifc:IFC-DEFS-026}}) covering the sorting-to-NDA physical transfer, NDA-to-tracking electronic data exchange (60-second transfer), LLW compaction-to-store HHISO handling, ILW conditioning-to-store crane transfer, and the bidirectional tracking-to-LIMS analytical data interface. Each has a corresponding verification entry (VER-METHODS-027 through 031) with specific pass/fail criteria.
Next
Seven subsystems remain undecomposed: LIMS, Radiochemical Separations Laboratory, ICP-MS Analysis Suite, Liquid Scintillation Counting Facility, Alpha Spectrometry Laboratory, Gamma Spectrometry Suite, and Sample Receipt and Preparation Laboratory. The next session should tackle the Sample Receipt and Preparation Laboratory — it is the intake hub connecting to all analytical suites and has the highest interface density of the remaining subsystems. The five analytical instrument suites (ICP-MS, LSC, Alpha Spec, Gamma Spec, Radiochem Sep) share a similar structure and could potentially be covered in 2-3 sessions. Interim QC will be due after the next session (session 231 will be 3 sessions since last QC at session 228).