Assistance to Radon, dealing with radwaste in Moscow Region, supply contract - Lot 2 X-ray scanning facility for characterisation of incoming waste in different drums

Sergiev Posad Department (SPD) is one of two departments of the Moscow Scientific and Industrial Corporation “RADON” (MosNPO RADON). MosNPO RADON has been established to serve disposal (reception, transportation, sorting treatment and long-term storage) of “other” radioactive waste (“radwaste”) produced by industrial, medical, scientific and other institutional producers, other than nuclear power plants and nuclear-propelled ships and submarines, in the city of Moscow and in other 9 regions in the central European part of Russia. SPD itself is located 72 k from Moscow, close to Sergiev Posad town.

The incoming waste is transported to SPD in various containers. It has been mostly put in 50l drums, less frequently in 100l and 200l drums (used also for the waste output).
The waste is generally classified as combustible, compactable, conditionable and unsorted. The way of subsequent treatment depends on the type of waste.

Before the radwaste can be appropriately treated and stored, it therefore needs to be checked (characterised) in the transport containers from both the physical-chemical point of view (e.g. by X-rays system for liquid presence and by metal detectors) and the radiological point of view (e.g. dose rate measurement using various types of ionizing radiation detectors).

Waste sorting procedures being used by waste producers normally avoid inclusion of pieces of different nature in a waste container. Nevertheless, as this cannot be guaranteed and may pose some risks to waste processing, MosPO Radon needed to verify this before the waste was processed.
This verification was supposed to take place at the waste reception point on the Sergiev Posad site using an X-ray system for characterisation of the waste composition (an X-ray imaging device) to identify liquids, metal, glass, ceramics, construction waste and other heterogeneous material and to verify producers’ declarations.

As no adequate characterization system was available at SPD, the EC AIDCO agreed to finance procurement and supply of the necessary equipment. Technical Specification to support the EC tender procedure were prepared by Belgatom and IRE experts in the frame of the TACIS project R4.02/03 (see the Project Summary on 99677 Contract) after visiting the SPD and discussing with the facility operators.

This 145724 contract has been related also to other two supply contracts 76787 on hydraulic group of the SPD supercompactor and 141378 on Equipment for radiological characterisation of incoming and processed waste in different containers.

The objective of the 145724 contract has been procurement, delivery, installation, commissioning, and after-sale services of an X-Ray imaging system to determine composition of the waste according to the basic classification and reveal heterogeneous material of a different nature unsuitable for a specific treatment. The system was to be similar to the security check systems at airports for the luggage examination. The system specifications were as follows:

• Operator-controlled system with an operator checking the system display on objects identified in the waste container
• The system including a conveyor to transport the incoming waste packages. The conveyor load capacity was supposed to be 700 kg.
• Ability of the system to identify:
• metallic parts of 1 cm size
• one-litre bottles filled with liquid in a much denser matrix
• Ability of the system to take into account different matrices materials (or densities) for correcting the gamma ray attenuation in the matrix
• The system clearance dimensions 1 m x 1 m.
• The different densities in the waste package to be indicated by different colors on a display.
• The system to be equipped with a database to store images of each waste package

A part of the contract has also been delivery of the related documentation (operation and maintenance manuals, service logbooks etc.) in English and Russian, and personnel training (at least 2-day on-site training). The after-sales services were supposed to include: 1-year warranty including provision of spare parts, 2-year free hotline service and a capability of intervention at SPD within 72 hours if needed.

This contract was concluded with the Canberra NV/SA, Belgium. The contract value was €309 785,-.
The contract was signed on 03.12.2007 and the implementation started on 04.12.2007. According to the original contract, the equipment had to be delivered within 8 months, but by the Contract Addendum 2 signed on 29.5.2009, the time limits for delivery was extended to 20 months.

The equipment delivery and installation was completed and equipment was accepted. The Provisional Acceptance Certificate was signed by the supplier, the Beneficiary and the responsible EC official in mid 2010 following the acceptance testing but is not dated.

The warranty period was completed without incident and the Final Acceptance Certificate was issued on 26 December 2012.